Glo, 9Mobile gain most subscribers as MTN records first-time loss

Globacom and 9Mobile have emerged as the biggest gainers of subscriber market share in the month of September according to the latest figures from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The data released in November showed that Globacom gained the most share controlling 26.48 percent in September from the 26.06 percent recorded in August, representing a marginal gain of 0.42 percent. 9Mobile also grew its share from 6.09 percent to 6.21 percent a gain of 0.7.

Both telcos hauled in a combined 1,672,071 mobile subscribers with Globacom contributing gaining the most (1,320,461) compared to 9Mobile at 351,610.

MTN which took the most market share in August at 40.90 suffered a drop to settle at 40.34 percent in September. The largest telco in Nigeria had grown its mobile subscriber base by 2,733,349 in August making it the only telco that gained as many subscribers. The South African telco however lost 448,831 mobile subscribers in September 2020, the first since September 2019.

Airtel brought in 483,851 mobile subscribers to retain its spot as the second-largest telco in Nigeria capturing 26.97 percent of the market, a very slight gain from the 26.97 percent it recorded in August.

The growth will particularly mean more to 9Mobile although its position as the fourth largest telco remains unchanged. The 351,610 subscribers it gained in September is the largest it has seen since March 2020 when it stopped bleeding subscribers and got back on the growth track. The telco has now recorded three months of consecutive growth from July to September for the first time since it lost track in March 2019.

Globacom is likely to celebrate as well given that this is the first time in 2020 that the subscriber growth exceeded the one million market since October 2019 when it recorded 1,044,322 subscribers.

For 9Mobile the newfound growth could be attributed to a series of changes in strategy championed by its barely one-year leadership. For example, the company launched the Morelife Complete Package, a voice-based prepaid package that allows customers to make calls at 11k/s to all networks in Nigeria and to top international destinations including the UK, USA, Canada, China, Norway, Denmark, Puerto Rico and Bangladesh with a daily access fee of only N5 billed along with the first call of the day.

The company has also upped its game in pushing out promotions and recently announced that its subscribers can now buy data directly on the social media platform, Facebook.

“At 9mobile, we are committed to the superior customer experience through innovative alternatives,” said Alan Sinfield, CEO of the company. “We are about giving the best to our customers, and this is a strategic partnership with the social media giant to make further data accessible for them. Imagine running out of data while having an important conversation on Facebook Messenger or making a post.”

Globacom is also not relenting on its cheap data campaign. Earlier in November 2020, the company was inviting its 3G customers to upgrade to 4G to benefit from a one-off 10GB free data.