Nigeria’s telecom regulator is not taking the word of mobile network operators at face value. The Nigerian Communications Commission has announced plans to independently verify claims by telecom companies that they have compensated over 75 million subscribers for poor network quality, signaling that the era of self-reporting without scrutiny may be coming to an end.
The NCC disclosed the 75 million figure in a communique issued following its 109th board meeting held on May 25, 2026, stating that the compensation exercise reflected substantial progress in enforcing quality-of-service obligations across mobile networks. The announcement was widely seen as a milestone in Nigeria’s telecom consumer protection landscape, but the regulator has made clear that acknowledging the figure is not the same as accepting it uncritically.
ALSO READ:NCC Claims Telecom Service Quality Is Improving
NCC Executive Vice Chairman Aminu Maida confirmed that the commission would engage independent auditors to verify what operators had actually done, to ensure full compliance with the compensation guidelines. This verification step puts teeth into a process that critics feared could become a box-ticking exercise, with telcos simply claiming compliance without meaningful accountability.
The compensation directive itself has been months in the making. The NCC’s move came on the back of sustained subscriber frustration over poor service, which had intensified after the commission approved a 50 percent tariff hike in January 2025, with the condition that operators must improve service quality. Subscribers, however, continued to report failed calls, slow data speeds, and network outages despite paying higher prices. The regulator responded with a formal directive on March 29, 2026, mandating that telcos automatically issue airtime credits to affected customers based on their average spending in locations where service quality fell below regulatory benchmarks.
Both MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria were among the first to begin rolling out the compensation. MTN subscribers received airtime credits ranging from N20 to over N341, while Airtel sent SMS notifications directing customers to check their compensation balance using a USSD code, with amounts ranging from N167 to about N295. The credits, unlike regular promotional bonuses, carry no expiry date and can be used for data, calls, or SMS services.
In the first quarter of 2026 alone, telcos recorded 577 network outages, with 361 of them directly caused by fibre cuts. MTN and Backbone Connectivity together accounted for about 70 percent of these incidents. The scale of disruptions underscores why the NCC has taken such an assertive regulatory stance, and why verification of compensation claims is not merely procedural but essential.
Beyond the compensation exercise, the NCC’s 109th board meeting also revealed that operators had planned the deployment of over 12,000 additional coverage and capacity sites nationwide, with more than 5,000 already completed, representing over 40 percent of the targeted rollout. Fibre connectivity had also been extended to more than 700 sites to strengthen network resilience and backhaul capacity.
Operators also plan to upgrade about 12,000 base stations in 2026, following a slow 2025 in which only around 300 upgrades were completed. By early 2026, approximately 2,800 upgrades had already been done, covering migration from older 2G and 3G networks to 4G and 5G infrastructure.
For Nigerian subscribers, the verification plan is perhaps the most significant element of this entire story. Compensation figures mean little if they cannot be independently confirmed. By bringing in external auditors, the NCC is making a clear statement: operators will be held to what they claim, and non-compliance will carry consequences. Maida had earlier warned that sanctions could be imposed on operators that fail to comply with the directive. That warning now has a monitoring mechanism to back it up.
