Nigerian Communications Commission has directed telecom operators to compensate subscribers with airtime refunds after months of poor network service, in a move that signals tougher regulatory oversight of the sector.
The refunds, which begin on Friday, April 24, are meant to cover disruptions experienced between November 2025 and January 2026. According to the commission, operators failed to meet required service standards in several parts of the country.
Subscribers will be notified via SMS once the credits are applied to their lines, NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Aminu Maida, said during a press briefing in Lagos.
While compensation orders are not new, this directive marks a shift in how the regulator is enforcing service quality. The NCC has moved away from state-level assessments to a more detailed system that measures performance at the local government level an approach aimed at reflecting the actual experience of users more accurately.
“It’s compensation for the quality of service you may have had,” Maida said, noting that the new framework allows the commission to pinpoint underperformance across specific areas and network layers, including 2G, 3G, and 4G.
Beyond refunds, the NCC is also holding infrastructure providers accountable. Tower companies linked to many of the outages have been instructed to invest in upgrading their facilities, with those improvements to be tracked independently to ensure compliance.
The directive comes amid growing pressure on Nigeria’s telecom infrastructure, as rising demand continues to outpace capacity. Operators have stepped up investments in response, with over $1 billion spent in 2025 on network upgrades, new equipment, and expanded coverage.
So far in 2026, thousands of new sites ranging from fresh builds to 4G upgrades and selective 5G rollouts have already been deployed, with more planned before the end of the year.
For subscribers, however, the immediate impact will be the refunds landing in their accounts, a rare but tangible response to the service gaps many have experienced in recent months.