Telephone numbers in Nigeria


Telephone numbers in Nigeria are administered by the Nigerian Communications Commission. Telephone numbers are composed of a combination of an area code and a local line or subscriber telephone number. Area code consist of one digit or two digits. Local telephone numbers contain from five to seven digits, and may vary within the area code. Mobile telephone numbers start with 070, 080 or 081, 090 or 091, and are followed by eight digits.

Calling formats

These examples use calls to Lagos as example:
  • xxx xxxx – Calls within the same local area code
  • 0201 xxx xxxx – Calls to Lagos from another Nigerian geographic area
  • +234 201 xxx xxxx – Calls to Lagos from outside Nigeria
  • 0xxx xxx xxxx – Calls to a Nigerian mobile number

Mobile network prefixes

The following prefixes are assigned to mobile telephone network operators. Nigeria implemented mobile number portability in 2013. Therefore, prefixes no longer reliably indicate the parent network of a number.
PrefixNetwork
0701Airtel Nigeria
07020Smile
07025MTN Nigeria (formerly Visafone)
07026MTN Nigeria
07027Multi-Links
07028Starcomms
07029Starcomms
0703MTN Nigeria
0704MTN Nigeria
0705Globacom
0706MTN Nigeria
0707MTN Nigeria
0708Airtel Nigeria
0709Multi-Links
0802Airtel Nigeria
0803MTN Nigeria
0804Mtel
0805Globacom
0806MTN Nigeria
0807Globacom
0808Airtel Nigeria
08099mobile
0810MTN Nigeria
0811Globacom
0812Airtel Nigeria
0813MTN Nigeria
0814MTN Nigeria
0815Globacom
0816MTN Nigeria
08179mobile
08189mobile
0819Starcomms
09099mobile
09089mobile
0901Airtel Nigeria
0902Airtel Nigeria
0903MTN Nigeria
0904Airtel Nigeria
0905Globacom
0906MTN Nigeria
0907Airtel Nigeria
0915Globacom
0913MTN Nigeria
0912Airtel Nigeria
0916MTN Nigeria
0911Airtel Nigeria

Other numbers

Tollfree numbers begin with “0800”, while non-tollfree numbers start with “0700” or 700 without the leading zero. These numbers have 10 digits and are not mobile numbers.
The emergency number is 112.