Assures Subscribers On Quality Of Telephone Service 
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that 5G licencees in the country may have over promised to deliver full nationwide coverage within a year.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Dr. Aminu Maida, stated this on Friday in Lagos during an interactive session with journalists.

Maida said so many challenges may have dwarfed such a promise, stating that there are many micro and macro-economic challenges currently bedevilling the sector.

He specifically said that lack of access to forex has been a major challenge, emphasising that Nigeria imports virtually all telecom equipment into the country.

Maida disclosed that since the commercial launch of 5G in Nigeria about three years ago, there were not up to 2000 5G sites in the country as at Friday.

The Guardian checks showed that commercial 5G services started in Nigeria in 2022. Barely three years after the launch, penetration is just 3.07 per cent, indicating that of the 171.2 million active telephone subscribers in the country; only 5.2 million are on the 5G network.

MTN, Mafab Communications and Airtel became the 5G licencees in Nigeria after cumulatively paying over $820 million for their licences.

Maida, however, assured that operators were not relenting in investments to ensure subscribers are served robust telephone services.

Maida revealed that telephone services quality is expected to improve in about nine months, as about $1 billion equipment investments to boost services in Nigeria started coming into the country from June this year.

Maida said the $1 billion investment was triggered by regulatory reforms, which have further opened the sector and encouraged network expansion and upgrades.

According to him, these investments would fund upgrades of existing base stations, construction of new sites, and expansion of fibre backbones across the country, starting from the North Central region.

Maida reiterated that while the 50 per cent increase in tariffs was approved in January 2025 and subsequently expected to impact telephone quality, “the challenge is still much, especially rising cases of fibre cuts, vandalism, theft of generators and batteries that have impacted this drive.”

He added that there were issues of site closures and multiple taxations, which have equally impacted services.

Speaking on the rising cases of fibre cuts, Maida said it was a real menace in the sector, which has impacted it badly.

At an earlier forum, Maida had revealed that operators recorded 1100 fibre cuts almost on a daily basis, stressing that there were 545 access denials and 99 incidences of theft of varying degrees.

As such, he revealed at the interactive session that the NCC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Works and Environment (both at federal and state levels) for information flow on road constructions and others, especially from construction companies.

According to him, a new digital platform will allow ministries to notify operators ahead of planned works and receive feedback on possible service impact.

On the various investments for the sector, the NCC EVC warned that the benefits of the current investment wave would take months to translate fully into better quality of service, stressing that between six and nine months, there should be massive improvement in quality of service as the sector works on the necessary long-term sustainability .

He stressed the importance of the industry moving fast, noting that the world is already talking about 6G and Nigeria cannot afford to fall behind.

“The capital commitments we’ve unlocked this year put us back in the race,” he stated.