The Africa Telecom 50 Report 2024 (West Africa), says Nigeria controlled 42.06 per cent of the 401,868,395 West African telecom market in 2024.
The report shows that Nigeria has a total of 169,044,258 mobile subscriptions as of January 31, 2025, making the country the biggest telecom market in West Africa.
The Africa Telecom 50 Report 2024 (West Africa), is a ranking of the leading telcos in West Africa, based on the most recently available data on their mobile subscriptions.
The report shows that Cote d’Ivoire followed with 42,771,201 subscriptions, while Ghana came 3rd with 38,294,564.
The report said the top three countries accounted for 250,110,023 mobile subscriptions or 62.24 per cent of the market in the region.
The other sizable markets in West Africa during the period under review the report shows include Burkina Faso with 27,455,428 mobile subscriptions, Mali with 25,607,193 subscriptions, Senegal with 24,149,942, Benin Republic with 18,2 46,662, Niger Republic with 16,097,521, and Guinea with 13,300,000.
It said the remaining six countries in the region (Sierra Leone, Togo, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Cape Verde) each had a subscription base of less than 10 million.
The report also showed that MTN Nigeria remained the dominant telco in the region with 87,549,410 subscribers as at January 31, 2025, followed by Airtel Nigeria with 57,665,796 as at the same date.
Coming in the third position was MTN Ghana with 28,618,000 as at September 30, 2024. Globacom and Orange Cote d’Ivoire came 4th and 5th with 20,545,782 and 17,458,000 respectively.
As a reflection of its market dominance in West Africa, MTN Nigeria alone had more subscriptions than all the telcos of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana combined.
Altogether, the report listed 46 MNOs, ranging from MTN Nigeria which is by far the biggest entity, to Hayo Senegal, the smallest operator in West Africa, with 28,980 mobile subscriptions as at December 31, 2024.
Announcing the release of the Africa Telecom 50 Report 2024 (West Africa) in Abuja, Nigeria, on Monday, the CEO of Alford Conferences Limited, Mr. Frederick Apeji, explained that in compiling the mobile subscription figures for each of the licensed and active mobile network operators (MNOs) in the 15 countries of West Africa, “we relied, first of all, on the market share data of these MNOs supplied by the telecommunications industry regulator of these countries. “The telecom regulator of eight of them (Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger Republic, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo,) have such data published on their website; making the collation for their MNOs seamless and accurate.”
He commended the regulators, and called on the other seven to take a cue from this.
“In those countries with no updated information by their regulator (Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone), we relied on the most recent data supplied by the MNOs themselves,” Apeji said, adding, “And when neither the regulator nor the operators have updated information on this subject, we relied on various online news websites and other online information sources.”
Apeji noted that the most current data to rank the 46 MNOs in the West Africa section of this continental report is on the Nigerian companies: MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom and 9Mobile (January 31, 2025). He said the least current data is on the Gambian companies: Africell, QCell, Gamcel and Comium (December 31, 2020).
A statement signed by the Special Adviser, Media and Communications Alford Conferences Limited, Mr. Awwal Ibrahim Ndako, and made available to Financialtrust.com.ng, said the annual Africa Telecom 50 Report is published by REVENUE Magazine, one of the trade publications of Alford Conferences Limited.
It noted that the first edition, Africa Telecom 50 Report 2023, was published in April 2024. The second edition, Africa Telecom 50 Report 2024, is expected to be published in April 2025.
“The purpose of the report is to use it as the basis to select the winners of Africa Telecom 50 Awards, one out of the eight award categories of World Digital Exhibition (WORLDEX), hosted annually in Abuja, Nigeria by Alford Conferences Limited,” the statement said.