Abuja eSIM

Landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (ABV)

Airport

ABV / DNAA

Distance

20 km from the centre of Abuja

SIM on arrival

SIM counters or vending in the terminalMTN says its Visitor SIMs are available in the arrival halls of international airports and other ports of entry, and that the first activation is done in a service centre, including the service point at the airport.

Getting into Abuja

• Abuja Light Rail Yellow Line (Airport station to the Central Business District) (ABV)
• Abuja Kaduna Train Service

Underground and on the metro

Abuja Light Rail runs 2 lines. It opened in 2018. The operator does not publish whether the tunnels carry a mobile signal, so we do not claim either way.

Worth knowing about Abuja

• The Yellow Line of the Abuja Light Rail has a station inside Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, running to the Central Business District.
• Abuja Light Rail service was suspended in 2020 and only resumed in May 2024, running four trips a day on each line.
• Opened in 2018, the Abuja line was the first rapid transit system in Nigeria and in West Africa.
• The Nigerian Communications Commission states that foreigners on a tourist or visiting visa tender their international passports to acquire a SIM, and do not need a National Identification Number.
• For a visitor with a visa shorter than two years, the operator records the international passport bio-data page and the visa page instead of a NIN. Legal residents of two years or more must obtain a NIN.
• Under the 2025 business rules a visitor's SIM is configured for six months and is automatically deactivated at six months. It can be reactivated once for a further six months if the visa allows and the visitor asks.
• Nigerian operators must send collected international passport numbers to immigration for weekly validation, and a line is deactivated if the passport number is returned as invalid.
• MTN Visitor SIMs are valid for 14 days and can be extended up to 30 days through MTN self service menus or USSD, so no data connection is needed to extend them.
• MTN requires a visitor to register the Visitor SIM with biometrics, a return ticket and an international passport before the SIM can be used.
• The FCT project portal lists 12 Abuja light rail stations, four on Lot 1A and eight on Lot 3. Lot 3 includes Idu Transfer, Airport East and Airport Main stations.
• The airport authority describes the Nnamdi Azikiwe international terminal as the first airport terminal connected to the rail transport system in Nigeria and in the region, with a walkway linking the FCT metro rail.
• The Abuja international terminal has 72 check-in counters, 28 arrival immigration desks, 16 at departure, five baggage carousels and eight boarding bridges, with capacity for 15 million passengers a year.
• Abuja airport has separate international and domestic terminals and one runway, and the authority notes plans for a second runway to relieve traffic on it.
• Nigerian Railway Corporation fares on the Abuja Kaduna Train Service are NGN 9,000 first class, NGN 6,500 business and NGN 3,600 regular, with NGN 3,000 for a minor in regular class.
• Abuja Kaduna trains are booked through a separate site from the Lagos and Warri services, each service having its own booking platform listed by the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
• The FCT Transportation Secretariat supervises bus mass transit in three operation zones, run by Nationwide Unity Transport Limited, Sonic Global Resources and Abuja Urban Mass Transit Company.

Sources for this page

• en.wikipedia.org
• mtn.ng
• mtn.ng
• en.wikipedia.org
• nrc.gov.ng
• nrc.gov.ng
• en.wikipedia.org
• ncc.gov.ng
• ncc.gov.ng
• projects.fcta.gov.ng
• faan.gov.ng
• faan.gov.ng
• fcta.gov.ng

Other cities in Nigeria we cover

Lagos

537 km from Abuja, nearest airport LOS