By Prince Osuagwu, Hi-Tech Editor, & Efe Onodjae

The telecommunications sector in Nigeria is once again on a strong growth trajectory. At least both the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr Aminu Maida and the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo admitted that.

Their admissions came from reliable inside information due to their roles as leaders of the telecom regulatory agency and umbrella body of the telecom operators respectively
At a recent media parley in Lagos, Dr Maida had said: “A policy shift, introduced in January and February 2025, which allowed mobile network operators to adjust tariffs by up to 50 percent after nearly a decade of stagnant pricing has allowed investments to flow in.

“We will be revealing more specific figures in the coming weeks after verification, but we are talking about over a billion dollars worth of investment in 2025 alone,” he said.

Maida explained that until that policy shift investor confidence in the sector waned a trend of under investment which affected network growth and service quality improvements became the order of the day.

Echoing Maida at another event, Engr Adebayo said: “After addressing sustainability concerns earlier in the year, we are now witnessing significant new investments in the sector: the highest we have seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of ALTON are optimising networks, building new sites to meet rising capacity demands, upgrading existing infrastructure, and migrating more sites from old radio links to high-speed fibre connections.”

However, like the popular cliché “to who much is given, much is also expected” the federal government through the regulators, the NCC and Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has lined up measure which will ensure that the operators do not only smile to the bank and leave subscribers wallowing in poor services.

According to Maida, the NCC has revised its quality of service (QoS) guidelines and strengthened regulatory oversight on service delivery and in collaboration with the CBN has created a framework to standardise operations around airtime recharge.

He said: “Subscribers have been complaining about not being refunded their money after failed recharge or airtime top-up, data depletion, and poor network. When you recharge, you get debited and don’t necessarily get the credit. The director of consumer affairs with our counterparts in the CBN set up a task force, and there’s now a framework that is undergoing review to standardise the operations around top-ups and recharge.

“The commission has expanded accountability beyond mobile network operators (MNOs) to include tower co-location service providers, also known as TowerCOs, who are responsible for power and security at telecom sites.

“We have revised our quality of service guidelines, so no longer do we just hold the mobile network operators accountable. We have brought TowerCos into scope to hold them accountable for quality of service” .

He revealed that the commission and the telcos meet bi-weekly to discuss and examine improvement plans, so that the benefits of the investments unlocked by tariff adjustments and government policies will trickle down to the common consumer.

He said: “Equipment orders are arriving from overseas and installations are ongoing, but we must be patient because Nigeria has over 40,000 telecom sites, some in difficult terrain.

“So that framework is undergoing review by both regulators. We have to be very thorough, and once that is released and operationalised, I’m confident that that particular issue should come under control”.

As if responding to Maida, Adebayo at the unveiling of Nigeria’s first Digital Museum, an initiative that preserves and showcases the nation’s history and cultural heritage, said: “After addressing sustainability concerns earlier in the year, we are now witnessing significant new investments in the sector: the highest we have seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Now, members of ALTON are optimising networks, building new sites to meet rising capacity demands, upgrading existing infrastructure, and migrating more sites from old radio links to high-speed fibre connections.

“We are training and retraining our workforce to adapt to emerging technologies. The NCC has set strict service level requirements, and we are committed to not only meeting but surpassing them. Though network optimisation may occasionally cause service disruptions, we appeal to the public for understanding as these efforts will ultimately deliver a much-improved user experience nationwide.”

He added that Tower Companies (TowerCos) are enhancing security across telecom sites to mitigate against vandalism and theft.