A major shift towards digital lifestyles by Nigerians has resulted in consistent increase in data consumption.
Information obtained from the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) have shown that Nigerian telecommunication subscribers consumed a total of 1,131,255.90 terabyte in July 2025, the highest consumption since 2023.
With an average cost of gigabyte at N450, this translates to a whooping N509.065 billion spent on data by Nigerian telecommunication subscribers.
The information revealed that data consumption in July shut by 87,182.82 terabytes, 8.35% from the 1,044,073.08 terabytes consumed in June 2025 by subscribers.
Data consumption had shown a significant increase from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2025. Data consumption in the second quarter stood at 3,070,788.49 terabyte. The figure represents an increase by 180,926.99 terabyte from 2,889,861.5 consumed in first quarter, a 5.89% q-on-q increase.
Y-on-Y, data consumption increased by 301,671.43 terabyte showing a significant 26.67% increase from 829,584.47 terabyte consumed in July 2024 to the 1,131,255.90 terabyte consumed in July 2025 by subscribers.
Data consumption has more than doubled (54.23%) since January 2023 from 517,670.15 to the current figure as Nigerians now spend more time on the internet.
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Research shows that internet activities requiring heavy use of data are increasingly becoming daily life style as well as being increasingly adopted into business processes. Nigerians are increasingly patronizing video streaming platforms such as TikTok, YouTube for entertainment and business.
The penetration of smartphones (59% in cities and 26% in rural communities), and the adoption of faster networks like 5G have become as major driving factor for the adoption of mobile internet medium for essential communication, entertainment, remote work, online education, and e-commerce. Platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram have almost replaced the traditional calls Short-Message-System (SMS).
