The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has instructed telecommunications companies to compensate customers with airtime for substandard network performance across the country.
The directive was announced by the commission’s Executive Vice-Chairman, Aminu Maida, during a media briefing held in Lagos on Thursday.
Maida explained that the decision followed confirmed cases where service providers failed to meet the required quality-of-service benchmarks in multiple locations nationwide.
He clarified that the compensation is not a refund from the regulator but a mandatory obligation telecom operators must fulfill. Subscribers affected by service disruptions between November 2025 and January 2026 are expected to receive airtime credits, with details of the compensation communicated to them directly.
According to him, independent verification processes will ensure that all eligible customers are duly credited, warning that operators who fail to comply risk facing sanctions.
The NCC boss stressed that telecom firms must take full responsibility for lapses in service delivery, noting that the compensation policy is part of broader efforts to boost accountability and rebuild consumer trust.
To improve oversight, the commission has upgraded its monitoring framework, moving performance tracking from state-level assessments to more detailed local government-based evaluations. This, Maida said, would allow regulators to identify specific areas and periods of poor service more accurately.
Addressing infrastructure challenges, he revealed that telecom operators plan to upgrade about 12,000 base stations in 2026. He noted that only about 300 upgrades were completed in 2025, which contributed to network congestion amid increasing data demand. However, approximately 2,800 upgrades have already been carried out in the early months of 2026.
The planned upgrades include expanding network capacity, deploying new infrastructure, and transitioning from older 2G and 3G systems to faster 4G and 5G technologies.
Maida described spectrum as the backbone of telecommunications, adding that better allocation has already improved internet speeds in some regions. However, he warned that increased usage often follows improved service, which can quickly lead to renewed congestion if infrastructure expansion does not keep pace.
He emphasized that continuous investment in fibre networks remains essential to delivering reliable and affordable internet services across Nigeria, adding that the NCC will maintain strict monitoring of key performance indicators such as data speed and latency.
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