Smartphone shipments to Nigeria, others rise 5%

Smartphone shipments in the Nigeria, Middle East and Africa (MEA) region rose five per cent in fourth quarter 2025 compared to the corresponding period of 2024.

Data by Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor showed that the modest expansion was the region’s third consecutive quarter of expansion. The upward trajectory was underpinned by technological evolution, premiumization and intelligence.

Rapid 5G smartphone adoption is accelerating the MEA’s premiumization trend, particularly in emerging markets where high-speed connectivity remains a primary catalyst. This has resulted in the region’s 5G shipments surging 22 per cent in fourth quarter 2025.

While established markets lead the charge, emerging markets are seeing a significant acceleration in 5G infrastructure and coverage, specifically countries including Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Sierra Leone. Though AI is also becoming widely available across the region, it has a limited impact in driving sales.

The regional landscape remains nuanced. While a temporary easing of political tensions mid-year provided a tailwind, a resurgence of friction in late 2025 moderated the growth rate. However, the market’s underlying health remained intact due to core indicators remaining steady QoQ, supported by stable oil prices, consistent purchasing power, and a high appetite for premium technology.Further, the market’s growth remains concentrated in the entry and premium segments. The $100-$249 price band recorded 28 per cent YoY growth, while the over-$700 price band recorded 46 per cent YoY growth. The entry segment’s growth was pushed by the feature phone migration, especially across Africa. However, the premiumization trend was the main driver for the premium segment growth, especially with the wide availability of several financing options and trade-in programs.

However, this quarter is expected to be among the last growth quarters for the entry segment (sub-$150) for the next several quarters. This is largely due to ongoing global shortage of Dynamic Random-Access Memory (RAM), a type of volatile semiconductor memory used as primary working memory in computers and mobile devices, storing each bit of data in a separate capacitor-transistor pair.  This shortage is impacting the budget segment the most, and mainly the MEA, the region being the world’s largest market for that price segment. This deceleration is also expected to slow down 5G adoption in the MEA, whereas feature shrinkflation is likely to become the main strategy for OEMs to offset the high component costs.

Samsung reclaimed the top position in the MEA with a record 53per cent YoY growth, outpacing Transsion for the second consecutive quarter. This performance was driven by a strategic front-loading to hedge against rising component costs and prepare for the upcoming Ramadan sales season.

Chinese OEMs like Transsion and Xiaomi were among the first brands to be constrained by the ongoing memory shortage. The shortage originating in mid-2025 affected the Q4 2025 production cycle, resulting in shipment declines of 14per cent and four per cent for Xiaomi and Transsion, respectively.HONOR maintained a significant YoY growth of 83 per cent, but this growth was largely due to the low base YoY and the resilient component inventories that supported HONOR to hold both volume and price.

Smartphone shipments to Nigeria, others rise 5% - The Nation Newspaper