+234NG
Nigeria number screening
West Africa's largest number pool, where multi-SIM habits and the NIN registration purge leave a wide gap between the list you bought and the lines still alive.
Mobile number format
National format is 11 digits with a leading 0, e.g. 0803 1234567. Drop the 0 for the international form: +234 followed by 10 digits. Mobile prefixes are limited to 070, 080, 081, 090 and 091 - anything else is fixed-line or special service.
Main carriers
- MTN
- Airtel
- Glo (Globacom)
- 9mobile
0803 and 0806 were issued to MTN, 0802 to Airtel, 0805 to Glo, 0809 to 9mobile. Portability has been live for years, so a prefix tells you where a line started, not which network it sits on today.
On the ground
Every SIM must be linked to a NIN (national identity number), and unlinked lines were barred in bulk - the main reason older Nigerian lists decay so fast. The other half is multi-SIM behaviour: to work around coverage gaps, many people carry MTN and Airtel at once, so a raw list overstates how many individuals it really represents.
Screening guidance
Run validity and network status first to strip barred lines. Then screen WhatsApp registration and activity - it is the one dependable direct channel here. Android device lookups help you infer handset tier, and Binance, KuCoin and CoinW registration results deserve their own segment; they are the most valuable tag this market produces.
Key platforms in Nigeria
WhatsApp is the default chat app - support desks and group selling both run on it. What makes Nigeria different is the money layer: MoniePoint agents operate from street-corner kiosks, and P2P trading on Binance, KuCoin and CoinW is genuinely heavy, so exchange-account signals are worth more here than in most markets.
FAQ
How many digits is a Nigerian phone number?
Eleven digits nationally, always starting with 0 - for example 0803 1234567. In international format you drop that leading 0, so +234 is followed by 10 digits. A +234 number with only nine digits after it is almost always a formatting error, not a new range.
Which carrier does the 0803 prefix belong to?
0803 and 0806 were allocated to MTN, 0802 and 0808 to Airtel, 0805 and 0807 to Glo, 0809 and 0817 to 9mobile. Nigeria opened portability years ago, so a prefix only shows the original holder. If you route by carrier, verify the current network per number.
How do I check whether a Nigerian number has WhatsApp?
Normalise it to +234 plus 10 digits, then submit it for a registration and activity check. WhatsApp coverage in Nigeria is broad and usually out-performs Telegram on the same file, which makes it a good first pass for clearing dead and unused numbers.
Nearby markets
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