Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ghana have emerged as the top three telecommunications markets in West Africa, according to the Africa Telecom 50 Report 2024 (West Africa).
The ranking, based on mobile subscription data, highlights the dominance of these countries in the region’s telecom sector.
As of January 31, 2025, Nigeria had the highest number of mobile subscriptions, reaching 169,044,258. This accounted for 42.06% of the total 401,868,395 mobile subscriptions recorded across West Africa. Cote d’Ivoire followed with 42,771,201 subscriptions, while Ghana ranked third with 38,294,564. Together, these three countries made up 62.24% of the region’s telecom market, with a combined total of 250,110,023 mobile subscriptions.
Other notable telecom markets in the region included Burkina Faso with 27,455,428 subscriptions, Mali with 25,607,193, Senegal with 24,149,942, Benin Republic with 18,246,662, Niger Republic with 16,097,521, and Guinea with 13,300,000. Meanwhile, the remaining six countries—Sierra Leone, Togo, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, and Cape Verde—each had fewer than 10 million mobile subscriptions.
The report also ranked leading telecom operators in West Africa. MTN Nigeria retained its position as the region’s largest telecom company, serving 87,549,410 subscribers as of January 31, 2025. Airtel Nigeria followed with 57,665,796 subscribers, while MTN Ghana secured third place with 28,618,000 as of September 30, 2024. Globacom and Orange Cote d’Ivoire ranked fourth and fifth with 20,545,782 and 17,458,000 subscribers, respectively. Notably, MTN Nigeria alone had more mobile subscriptions than all telecom operators in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana combined.
In total, the report listed 46 mobile network operators (MNOs) in West Africa, ranging from the largest, MTN Nigeria, to the smallest, Hayo Senegal, which had 28,980 subscribers as of December 31, 2024.
While announcing the report’s release in Abuja, the CEO of Alford Conferences Limited, Mr. Frederick Apeji, explained that data collection relied primarily on figures published by telecom regulators in eight countries—Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger Republic, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo. For the remaining seven countries, including Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, data was sourced from telecom operators and online news platforms.
Apeji noted that the most up-to-date data was for Nigerian telecom companies—MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom, and 9Mobile—as of January 31, 2025. The least current data came from Gambia’s telecom providers—Africell, QCell, Gamcel, and Comium—last updated on December 31, 2020.
The Africa Telecom 50 Report is published annually by REVENUE Magazine, a trade publication of Alford Conferences Limited. The first edition was released in April 2024, with the second edition set for publication in April 2025. The report serves as the foundation for selecting winners of the Africa Telecom 50 Awards, one of eight award categories at the World Digital Exhibition (WORLDEX), held annually in Abuja, Nigeria.
