By Dayo Omoogun

Sir: One sector that has seen a huge difference or transformation in Nigeria’s socio-economy since the days of our democracy is the telecommunications sector where we have transitioned from when the elites declared glibly that telephone is not for the poor, when possession of a phone was a status symbol to now that the average Bose, Emeka and Aliyu have active phone lines. In fact there has been a paradigm shift in the mentality of most Nigerians to the effect that the phone is a necessity, an essential life and business tool rather than a luxury.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the achievements in the sector which have been primarily facilitated by the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission.  As of today, official sources put the number of active phone lines in Nigeria at 185 million. For a country whose population is estimated to be in the region of 230 million and coming from less than half a million lines at the start of this revolution a little over 20 years ago, you be the judge whether or not there has been a positive transformation.

On the data side, the records show that Nigerians are using an average of 45,800  terabytes daily based on March 2026 figures. By the way, one terrabyte is 1 million megabytes or 1000 gigabytes. Let that sink in.

It is important to note that this is one sector where the nation is not only recording growth but also development. Using various tools and policies, the Commission continues to ensure improvements both in quantity and quality.

The twin tools of Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) assessments are being actively deployed to monitor performance of providers and satisfaction of consumers and this feedback mechanism positions the Commission to take appropriate steps to minimise the incidence of poor service. 

The Commission has remained steadfast in protecting and empowering consumers. Recently, upon the insistence of the Commission,  millions of consumers across  the nation were compensated for poor service by mobile network operators when service quality dropped lower than an acceptable threshold. For many,  it was a pleasant surprise, a total break with a systemic weakness that had become the norm, because  many Nigerians have come to terms with being serially cheated, oppressed or  defrauded with little or no chance of redress or recompense.

NCC also went further in its empowerment of consumers by directing Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to  inform consumers  ahead of time about any major network outages and planned service disruptions.

In the event of such outages, they are to provide further information such as  the cause of outages, affected locations, estimated time of restoration of service, etc  This and a few other policies show clearly that the Commission does not trifle with consumers.

• Dayo Omoogun wrote from Lagos.