By Juliet Umeh
From transferring money through mobile banking applications to attending virtual business meetings, streaming films, watching videos, marketing products, attending online classes and chatting with friends and family, the internet has quietly become part of almost every aspect of daily life in Nigeria.
The scale of that dependence is reflected in the country’s data consumption.
Between January and May 2026, Nigerians consumed approximately 6.98 million terabytes, TB, of internet data, according to statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.
The figure provides more than a measure of traffic moving through Nigeria’s telecommunications networks. It offers a glimpse into how Nigerians are increasingly living, working, trading, learning and entertaining themselves in a rapidly digitising economy.
May recorded the highest consumption during the five-month period, with 1,504,067.36TB, up from 1,414,848.70TB in April.
January recorded 1,385,536.04TB, while consumption dropped to its lowest level of the period in February at 1,260,060.27TB.
It rebounded to 1,422,764.54TB in March before easing slightly to 1,414,848.70TB in April and then climbing to the May peak.
Taken together, the figures show that Nigerians consumed an average of about 1.4 million TB of data every month during the period.
But what exactly are Nigerians doing online?
Banking without the banking hall
One of the most significant changes is the migration of financial activities from physical locations to digital platforms.
For millions of Nigerians, checking an account balance, transferring money, paying bills, buying airtime, receiving payments and carrying out other transactions can now be done from a mobile phone.
MTN Nigeria’s Chief Financial Officer, Modupe Kadri, described the transformation in simple terms.
“Everybody, your financial services rides on data,” he said.
The statement captures how deeply connectivity has become embedded in everyday financial activity.
The growth of fintech and mobile banking has also created a generation of consumers who may rarely need to visit a bank branch for routine transactions.
For small businesses, the dependence is even broader.
A trader can advertise products on social media, receive orders through messaging platforms, accept digital payments, communicate with suppliers and arrange deliveries, all without leaving the phone.
Thus, every transaction may generate multiple layers of data use — from advertising and messaging to payment confirmation and customer follow-up.
The office moves online
The workplace has also changed.
Business meetings that once required people to travel across Lagos, Abuja or other cities can now take place through video-conferencing platforms.
Employees participate in virtual meetings, exchange documents through cloud platforms, send emails, collaborate on projects and communicate through messaging applications.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transition, but the habits developed during that period have remained.
“We haven’t really gone back to our pre-COVID habits,” Kadri said.
“What has happened is that COVID changed the way we see data and how we use data.”
For businesses, internet connectivity has therefore moved from being an optional tool to becoming part of basic operations.
A network disruption can mean missed meetings, delayed transactions, lost sales and interrupted communication.
Entertainment becomes data-hungry
If work and financial services have driven the productive use of data, entertainment is another major force behind Nigeria’s growing appetite for connectivity.
Young Nigerians consume videos, music, films, live broadcasts and social media content through their smartphones.
At the same time, they are not only consumers.
They are also creators.
A football match, concert, political event, celebrity controversy or major national development can generate huge volumes of content as Nigerians record, upload, stream, comment on and share material across multiple platforms.
Kadri noted that the country’s youthful population was helping drive this trend.
“You have a youthful population, digital natives. You see a lot of what’s going on in the social media space,” he said.
He added that major events could generate significant traffic because people create content which is subsequently consumed and redistributed across different platforms.
“You can imagine how much data traffic, because people are creating content, all sorts of things, which people will harness multiple times through different social media platforms,” he said.
This means that one piece of content can continue generating data traffic long after it was originally created.
Learning beyond the classroom
Education is another area where internet connectivity is changing behaviour.
Students increasingly use smartphones to access tutorials, research materials, online courses, educational videos and digital libraries.
Teachers and educational institutions are also using digital platforms to communicate with students, distribute materials and conduct lessons.
For a student who cannot afford to travel to a library or attend an additional physical lesson, a smartphone can provide access to educational resources from virtually anywhere there is connectivity.
The rise of artificial intelligence is adding another layer.
Students and young professionals are increasingly experimenting with AI tools for research, writing, coding, learning and productivity.
The implication is that data consumption is no longer limited to traditional browsing. AI-powered services, cloud applications, video content and other data-intensive platforms are becoming part of everyday digital activity.
Small businesses find customers online
Nigeria’s entrepreneurs are also among the major beneficiaries of the digital shift.
For a fashion designer, food vendor, photographer, hair stylist, furniture maker or online retailer, social media can function as a shopfront.
A business owner can display products on Instagram, Facebook or other platforms, communicate with customers through messaging applications and receive payments electronically.
The internet therefore provides not just connectivity but market access.
A small business in Lagos can potentially reach customers in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano or even outside Nigeria without establishing a physical branch in those locations.
For many entrepreneurs, data has consequently become a business expense in much the same way transportation, electricity and rent are.
The people behind the figures
The NCC data also shows the enormous scale of the telecommunications market supporting these activities.
In May, MTN had 96,977,835 subscribers, Airtel 65,450,286, Globacom 23,468,730 and T2 3,538,021.
Although subscriber figures represent subscriptions and not necessarily unique individuals, they underline the size of Nigeria’s connected population and the potential demand for digital services.
For telecom operators, however, the more important question is increasingly how much data each subscriber consumes.
Kadri said MTN had about 55.6 million active data subscribers, with average consumption of almost 15 gigabytes monthly.
“When you translate it to a daily basis, you get about N118 per day for monthly consumption of almost 15 gig,” he said.
The figures demonstrate how millions of relatively small individual consumption patterns can combine to create enormous national data traffic.
More data, more infrastructure
The explosion in consumption is also creating pressure on Nigeria’s digital infrastructure.
As more Nigerians depend on connectivity for banking, business, education and entertainment, the cost of poor connectivity becomes higher.
Telecom operators must continuously invest in network capacity, fibre infrastructure and other facilities to keep up with demand.
MTN said it had spent more than N1.6 trillion in capital expenditure between January 2025 and the first half of 2026.
Kadri said the company spent about N1 trillion in 2025 and another N600 billion in the first half of 2026.
“Between January 2025 to date, MTN has actually spent over N1.6 trillion in capex,” he said.
“That money has come back into the network.”
Yet, challenges remain.
Fibre cuts, vandalism, power constraints and disputes around telecom infrastructure can affect network availability.
“You could make all the investments in the world, and you still have vandalism,” Kadri said.
He also cited situations where landlords lock operators out of telecom sites, affecting service availability.
“These are all sorts of factors that we have to battle day in, day out,” he said.
The affordability question
The growth in consumption also raises questions about affordability.
As Nigerians use more data, operators need sufficient revenue to continue investing in infrastructure, while consumers need affordable access to remain connected.
Kadri argued that sustainable investment requires pricing that reflects the cost of providing telecom services.
“Appropriate pricing is what encourages us to make those investments,” he said.
He noted that the value of data should also be considered in relation to what it enables consumers to accomplish.
“The reality is that at 15 gig for N5,000, or N170 per day, I think the way you should situate it is to look at what is that thing, what is the utility, what is it enabling you to do,” he said.
For many Nigerians, what data enables them to do is becoming increasingly difficult to separate from everyday life.
From megabytes to livelihoods
The 6.98 million TB consumed between January and May is therefore more than a telecommunications statistic.
Behind the figure are millions of Nigerians checking bank accounts, paying bills, attending meetings, selling products, watching films, listening to music, attending classes, creating content, chatting with relatives and searching for information.
There are also businesses whose customers exist almost entirely online and workers whose jobs depend on uninterrupted connectivity.
Nigeria’s growing data appetite is consequently both a reflection of the country’s digital transformation and a test of its readiness for the next stage.
As more financial services move online, more businesses adopt digital platforms, more entertainment becomes streamed and more work and learning take place virtually, the demand for connectivity is unlikely to diminish.
The challenge is no longer simply getting Nigerians online.
It is ensuring that the networks, fibre infrastructure, data centres, power supply, investment and policies supporting that connectivity can keep pace with the country’s rapidly expanding digital life.
From 1.38 million TB in January to 1.50 million TB in May, the five-month figures tell a simple story: Nigerians are not merely spending more time online.
Increasingly, they are living, working, doing business and participating in the economy online.
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