Tobe Okigbo, MTN Nigeria’s chief corporate services and sustainability officer,  has painted a bleak picture during the telecom CEOs forum in Lagos, emphasising the urgent need to address pricing challenges.

Tobe Okigbo, MTN Nigeria’s chief corporate services and sustainability officer

He highlighted the contrast between soaring costs for essential goods—like tomatoes, bread, and potatoes, which have increased by over 100% in the past year—and stagnant telecom tariffs.

“The discussion should not be about whether we should increase prices; it should be about whether we want a telecom sector that continues to drive the Nigerian economy. If operators can no longer sustain services due to financial strain, the cost of restoring the industry will be immense,” Okigbo stated.

Unlike electricity, which offers backup solutions like generators, telecommunications networks have no such alternatives. Network failures would cripple businesses, financial transactions, and everyday communication.

The proposed 50% tariff increase, Okigbo stressed, is not about profit but survival, necessary to maintain network operations, enhance service quality, and expand coverage to unconnected rural areas.

“The last cost study was conducted in 2021 but was never implemented because the government felt the suggested price hikes were too high. The reality is, the study recommended a 100% increase, but the government only approved 50%,” Okigbo explained.

Fiber cuts and vandalism pose significant challenges. MTN Nigeria experiences 37 fiber cuts daily, while Airtel suffers 44, largely due to construction activities and theft.

These disruptions degrade service quality, leading to dropped calls and slow internet speeds. Okigbo believes the government’s designation of telecom infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), with stricter penalties for damaging telecom assets, will improve service quality within the next three months.

Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), echoed these concerns, warning of widespread insolvency if financial losses continue.

“The telecom sector is the superhighway of the economy. If it collapses, the entire economy will suffer. The number of telecom operators has already declined due to financial pressures. Without urgent action, the sector could hit a tipping point from which recovery would be extremely difficult,” Adebayo cautioned.

Adebayo dismissed arguments for artificially low telecom prices due to economic hardship.

“Telecom operators cannot subsidise the economic difficulties in other sectors. If prices stay unsustainably low, service quality will deteriorate, and ultimately, the industry will collapse,” he warned.

He used a powerful analogy to illustrate the industry’s plight: “If a patient needs 100 litres of oxygen and you only provide 10, we all know what happens. The proposed 50 litres is already a compromise—a lifeline that allows us to survive, recover, and contribute to the economy,” he said.

Following government approval of the 50% price increase, telecom operators have submitted tariff adjustment proposals to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Ugonwa Nwoye, MTN Nigeria’s chief customer relations and experience officer, confirmed the ongoing regulatory process, stating that customers should expect phased price adjustments in the coming weeks, with full implementation anticipated by February. Operators have pledged transparency in communicating the new rates and minimising service disruptions.

Almost all e nine banks earmarked for disconnection from Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) service over a N160 billion debt have reportedly made good progress in terms of repayment, guarantees that none of them will lose access to USSD services.

USSD is a communication protocol that allows users to send short messages and commands to their mobile network operator’s computers. USSD is also known as “feature codes” or “quick codes”.

USSD is a crucial payment gateway for many Nigerians, and its disconnection would have cut off many from essential banking services.

In a notice on January 15, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed that it would cut off the USSD access of nine banks over their inability to settle their USSD accumulated since 2019 by January 27. However, these banks have rushed to de-escalate the issue, ensuring that their customers will continue to use USSD for financial services.

At the weekend, Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), disclosed, “The matter has been de-escalated. Money has been paid, and we are making progress thanks to the regulators.”

Earlier in the week, Karl Toriola, chief executive officer,  MTN Nigeria, noted that telcos and banks have resolved their differences. “The USSD debt issue is resolved, thanks to the masterstroke by both the Central Bank of Nigeria and NCC.”

On Tuesday, January 28, BusinessDay reported that five of the nine banks had made some form of payment before the NCC’s deadline of January 27. The nine banks that would have been affected by the commission’s disconnection move included Fidelity Bank Plc (770), First City Monument Bank (329), Jaiz Bank Plc (773), Polaris Bank Limited (833), Sterling Bank Limited (822), United Bank for Africa Plc (919), Unity Bank Plc (7799), Wema Bank Plc (945), and Zenith Bank Plc (966).

Commercial banks have been unable to settle a payment dispute with telcos over USSD infrastructure since 2019, prompting the CBN and the NCC to order banks to pay a chunk of the USSD debt owed to telcos.

In a December 20 memo, the CBN and the NCC gave banks a December 31, 2024, deadline to pay 85 percent of all outstanding invoices (from February 2022). According to the NCC, nine of the 18 banks indebted to the telcos cleared over 90 percent of their debt by the deadline.

MTN Nigeria, the country’s biggest telecom operator, spent N11.1 billion repairing and relocating 2,502km of fibre-optic cables over two years, according to data from the new GSMA Nigeria Digital Economy report.

It stated that if these funds had been used for rollout instead of maintenance, the operator with 77 million subscribers could have laid an additional 870 km of new fibre.

The costs showed that MTN spent N4.4bn in the 2022 financial year to repair 1,069km of fibre and an additional N6.7bn in 2023 to fix 1,433km.

It attributed the fibre damages to construction activities, road projects, and acts of vandalism.

The impact of fibre cuts continues to hinder network expansion, with funds allocated to repairs potentially diverting resources from expanding coverage in under-served areas.

“As a result, fibre networks in Nigeria are more expensive to build and maintain than they otherwise would be. These costs are substantial. For instance, MTN Nigeria was required to relocate 1,069km of fibre cables in FY22 and a further 1,433km in FY23. The budgets allocated for these activities were N4.4bn and N6.7bn, respectively,” the document stated.

According to Angela Wamola, head of Sub-Saharan Africa – GSMA,, “Vandalism and other forms of damage have been causing significant losses to the sector. In some cases, the affected areas are easily accessible and can be quickly repaired.

However, the damage has resulted in sustained complaints from consumers about the availability of services. This is one of the areas we’ve modeled in our report, which highlights the impact of vandalism on the evolution of connectivity in Nigeria.”

As of 2023, Nigeria had deployed 78,676km of fibre-optic cable, with most concentrated in urban areas like Lagos (7,864.60km), Edo (4,892.71km), FCT (4,472.03km), Ogun (4,189.18km), and Niger (3,681.66km).