The Nigerian Communications Commission is making good on the promises laid out in its Directive in March, which is designed to encourage investment in mobile networks
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) told mobile operators that from Friday, 24 April, they must start giving compensation to subscribers who experienced poor service experienced between the start of November 2025 and the end of January 2026. The NCC set out its intended action earlier this month, which follows a Directive announced in March. it is working with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to address issues surrounding the suspension of airtime and data credit services.
The NCC has also directed tower companies responsible for many of the outages to channel their compensation obligations into upgrading tower infrastructure. These investments, separate from their annual capital plans, will be monitored by independent auditors to ensure compliance, according to techcabal and other media reports.
Maida added, “What we have now adopted is to carry out the assessment at local government levels. This ensures that whatever we measure is as close as possible to what subscribers actually experience.”
Under the Directive, operators are evaluated across 2G, 3G and 4G against key performance indicators set out in the commission’s quality of service regulations. Where operators fall short, penalties are imposed, part of which is now being redirected as compensation to affected users.
Maida also noted that in 2025, operators deployed just under 300 new sites, but have committed to rolling out about 12,000 sites in 2026, about 2,800 have been completed. They include new builds, additional spectrum and upgrades such as converting 3G sites to 4G, and deploying 5G in certain locations.
