Airtel Nigeria explains that the expansion of the fifth-generation (5G) network in Nigeria may have been hampered by the dearth and the high cost of 5G devices in the country.
Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh, stated this yesterday, while interacting with journalists and stakeholders in Lagos. He said the 5G network is very much available in Nigeria but may have had slow traction due to the dearth and high cost of 5G devices.
Indeed, about three years into its commercial launch in Nigeria, data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that as of June 2025, 5G penetration stood at 3.07 per cent, where about 5.27 million of the 171 million active telephone users in the country have access to it.
According to report gathered MTN, Mafab Communications, and Airtel paid $820.8 million for the licenses, 5G services have remained largely in the cities of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Enugu, albeit faintly.
Balsingh said the firm is responding to the increasing complexity of Nigeria’s megacities by deploying distributed network solutions, including small cells, underground fibre, and lamppost-mounted micro-antennas, especially in high-density zones.
“This is no longer about traditional tower-based coverage. In dense cities like Lagos, network experience varies from floor to floor. We now deploy AI tools that analyse customer experience in real time, not just signal strength,” he added.
