Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economic system, Bosun Tijani, has directed the nation’s telecom regulator to impose automated penalties on operators for community failures inside 90 days.
The directive alerts a shift from voluntary compliance to stricter regulatory accountability in a sector lengthy suffering from repeated service disruptions.
The directive comes at a time when public frustration with telecom providers is at a peak. In 2025, MTN alone recorded 1.62 million buyer complaints, highlighting persistent points with dropped calls, sluggish knowledge, and outages. These disruptions, subscribers say, have endured regardless of repeated regulatory assurances.
“The expectation is evident: Nigerians should expertise tangible enhancements within the high quality, reliability, and worth of telecommunications providers,” Tijani stated in a letter dated January 8, 2026, to the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) seen by TechCabal.
“Infrastructure funding permits capability; regulatory enforcement and accountability should ship high quality,” he added.
Tijani’s letter makes clear that incremental reforms are not adequate.
Persistent dissatisfaction with name high quality, knowledge efficiency, community availability, and grievance decision timelines, he stated, requires extra seen and persistently enforced regulatory motion.
The NCC instructed TechCabal that considerations about telecom providers have formed its strategic focus for 2026, with an emphasis on turning regulatory oversight into measurable enhancements in service supply.
“Deliberate efforts are being made to increase the provision of data within the public area, with the twin goal of strengthening public confidence and reinforcing operator accountability in delivering improved High quality of Expertise (QoE) to shoppers,” the fee said.
On the coronary heart of the directive is a 90-day framework designed to shift telecom regulation from discretionary oversight to predictable, enforcement-led supervision.
The primary section of the directive, to be carried out inside 30 days, centres on transparency and public accountability.
The NCC has been instructed to publish quarterly, operator-specific High quality of Service scorecards benchmarking every operator’s efficiency. These scorecards will monitor core indicators comparable to name completion charges, dropped calls, and precise knowledge speeds in contrast with marketed claims.
The transfer builds on the NCC’s earlier efforts to enhance visibility into community efficiency. In Might 2025, the regulator launched the Uptime Report portal, requiring operators to report and publicly disclose main community incidents, together with fibre cuts.
Hosted on the NCC’s web site, the portal features as a real-time standing dashboard the place operators log qualifying outages, detailing their causes, affected areas, impression on subscribers, and restoration timelines. It additionally identifies exterior events, comparable to building corporations or vandals, linked to infrastructure harm.
Regardless of these measures, the portal has not but curbed the frequency of fibre cuts, with incidents persevering with to rise month on month.
The directive additionally mandates the creation of a Client Expertise Index to trace how subscribers understand community high quality, making certain consumer suggestions is revealed alongside technical knowledge. Operators should additionally submit region-specific efficiency experiences, enabling the regulator to determine congestion hotspots and regional disparities with better precision.
Essentially the most vital modifications take impact after 60 days, when the NCC will introduce automated, progressive sanctions for repeated service breaches. This marks a transparent departure from the regulator’s conventional reliance on discretionary enforcement, which frequently resulted in delays or inconsistent penalties.
A working example is the interconnect debt between Globacom and MTN, which had lingered for practically two years and was solely resolved in January 2024 via last-minute, “amicable” mediation. The episode underscored the regulator’s earlier choice for negotiated settlements over strict, rule-based enforcement.
Underneath the brand new framework, repeated community failures will set off predefined penalties, making a clearer value for poor efficiency. The Minister has additionally directed the introduction of time-bound Service Stage Agreements (SLAs) for resolving client complaints. Operators’ compliance charges with these SLAs will probably be revealed, including one other layer of accountability.
To make sure reported enhancements are credible, the NCC has been mandated to conduct focused audits and spot checks, notably in areas that persistently document poor community efficiency. These checks are supposed to confirm operator claims and forestall beauty compliance.
The ultimate section of the directive, to be accomplished inside 90 days, introduces escalation measures for persistent offenders. Operators with persistent service deficiencies will probably be required to submit formal remediation plans outlining how they intend to handle recurring points. These plans should embrace clear timelines and particular funding commitments.
The place non-compliance persists, the NCC has been authorised to impose harder regulatory measures, together with restrictions on enlargement approvals or entry to sure regulatory incentives. The Minister confused that latest tariff changes granted to operators are conditional, warning that “improved client outcomes should match enhanced business viability.”
On the finish of the 90 days, the NCC should publish a remaining progress report evaluating present service ranges with baseline outcomes, demonstrating whether or not the brand new enforcement regime has delivered tangible enhancements.
The directive additionally lands in opposition to the backdrop of ongoing efforts to guard telecom infrastructure. In June 2024, telecommunications property had been designated Crucial Nationwide Data Infrastructure (CNII) by presidential order.
Operational steps will embrace nationwide mapping of important property comparable to fibre routes, towers, and knowledge centres, engagement with state governments, and public consciousness campaigns to curb vandalism. Regardless of these measures, business knowledge exhibits that service disruptions stay widespread, underscoring the hole between coverage intent and real-world outcomes.
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