75m subscribers compensated for poor telecom services – NCC – Daily Trust

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says about 75 million telecom subscribers have acquired airtime or knowledge compensation for poor community services between November 2025 and September 2026.
The Commission disclosed this on Tuesday on the ninety fifth version of the Telecom Consumers Parliament in Lagos, saying it had compelled telecom operators to compensate clients affected by service failures underneath its Consumer Compensation Framework.
Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, mentioned the regulator was dedicated to defending customers by imposing service requirements, holding operators accountable and making certain subscribers had entry to redress when service obligations weren’t met.
He famous that community failures usually have real-life penalties, starting from merchants shedding gross sales as a result of they can’t verify funds to college students lacking deadlines on account of poor web connectivity.
“When subscribers buy airtime or data, see the money leave their account and receive nothing, they should not have to spend days chasing a refund,” Maida mentioned.
He acknowledged that dropped calls, sluggish web speeds and repair outages continued to frustrate customers, notably at a time when households and small companies have been underneath monetary stress.
According to him, telecom operators are increasing community capability by putting in new websites, upgrading present tools and deploying newer applied sciences to enhance service high quality.
He revealed that the NCC had recorded greater than 6,500 community interventions throughout the nation in 2026, together with capability upgrades in high-demand areas.
The Commission, he mentioned, screens operators’ efficiency and requires them to deal with service deficiencies, whereas main outages have to be defined to customers with timelines for restoration.
Maida additionally inspired subscribers to make use of the NCC’s public protection maps, which depend on crowdsourced efficiency knowledge, to check community high quality in several areas earlier than selecting a supplier.
He, nonetheless, warned that vandalism and unintended harm to telecom infrastructure remained main challenges.
Fibre-optic cables are regularly reduce throughout highway development, whereas thieves steal tools, batteries and gasoline from telecom websites, disrupting services throughout a number of communities.
The NCC mentioned it was working with safety businesses, highway authorities and operators to guard essential telecom infrastructure, whereas urging communities to report suspected vandalism quite than confront offenders.
Although compensation remained an vital client safety measure, Maida burdened that the Commission’s precedence was decreasing service failures altogether.
He added that the NCC’s tariff simplification measures have been additionally aimed toward making operators’ knowledge and airtime affords simpler for customers to grasp.