MTN Nigeria has confirmed the restoration of network services in parts of Kano and Katsina states after a disruption left some customers without connectivity. The company issued a customer notice apologising for the challenges caused by the outage and confirmed that the issue had been fully resolved.
In the notice, MTN advised customers who were still unable to connect to restart their devices to reconnect. The company did not disclose the cause of the disruption or the number of subscribers affected.
MTN Apologises, Advises Device Restart
The telecoms operator said: “Service Restored! We sincerely apologise for the challenges experienced today with our services in parts of Kano and Katsina States. The issue has been resolved, and services are fully restored. Still having issues? Please restart your device to reconnect. Thank you for your understanding.”
This outage comes amid MTN's continued growth in Nigeria's mobile market. According to figures released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), MTN added 2.22 million subscribers in July, increasing its customer base from 98.64 million in June to 100.86 million.
MTN Crosses 100 Million Subscribers
This milestone made MTN the first telecommunications operator in Africa to surpass 100 million subscribers in a single national market. Nigeria's overall mobile market also expanded in July, adding about 2.88 million active subscriptions to reach 195.11 million, up from 192.23 million in June.
MTN accounted for most of the increase, consolidating its lead over competitors. Airtel Nigeria ranked second with 66.76 million subscribers, while Globacom followed with 23.63 million and 9mobile had 3.61 million. Based on the figures, MTN accounted for approximately 51.7% of Nigeria's active mobile subscriptions, compared with Airtel's 34.3%, Globacom's 12.1% and 9mobile's 1.9%.
NIN-SIM Policy Weighs on Total Subscriptions
Despite the July gains, Nigeria's total active subscriptions remain below the more than 200 million recorded before the full enforcement of the National Identification Number and Subscriber Identification Module (NIN-SIM) linkage policy. Introduced in late 2020, the policy required subscribers to link their phone numbers to their national identification numbers. Its enforcement contributed to a decline in active mobile lines across the industry.
MTN Nigeria began operations in the country in 2001 after obtaining a GSM licence. Its parent company, MTN Group, was founded in South Africa in 1994 and operates across Africa and the Middle East. Earlier, Legit.ng reported that MTN Nigeria restored its airtime and data borrowing service, allowing millions of subscribers to once again access emergency credit after weeks of disruption linked to a regulatory dispute. The company confirmed that eligible customers can activate the service by dialling *303# to borrow airtime or data based on their approved credit limits. The restoration came after Airtel and Glo had already resumed the service.
