Maida highlighted a staggering shift in scale: while operators completed just over 300 site upgrades in 2025, they have committed to a massive 12,000 upgrades this year.
“So far, 2,800 of those have been done, including about 63 new sites,” Maida said, adding that the industry is already outperforming last year’s total deployment figures.
He noted that the investments would deliver meaningful improvements in both coverage and capacity nationwide.
The upgrades focus on adding extra spectrum to existing 4G sites while converting older 2G and 3G infrastructure to more advanced 4G and 5G technologies.
“These targeted enhancements are essential to meet the explosive growth in data demand and finally address the quality issues that have frustrated users for too long,” Maida said.
MTN Nigeria remains the clear leader with 95.3 million subscribers, followed by Airtel Nigeria on 63.02 million, Globacom with 22.6 million and T2 with 3.43 million.
The numbers illustrate how deeply mobile connectivity underpins communication, banking, education and business across the country.
Subscribers experiencing poor service have been given a clear, step-by-step complaint route.
The first action is to contact the operator directly through customer-care lines, email or a physical service centre, request a complaint ticket number and carefully record the date, time and name of the representative spoken to.
Maida urged users to follow the process diligently: “We encourage all affected subscribers to formally report their experiences to ensure accountability and prompt resolution.”
Compensation will be issued automatically as airtime credits rather than cash refunds whenever operators fall short of established quality-of-service benchmarks.
The scheme, which begins immediately, is based on network performance data collected between November 2025 and January 2026.
Only subscribers who carried out at least one revenue-generating activity during that period qualify, and the credit amount will reflect both usage levels and the severity of the disruption.
Eligible customers will receive SMS notifications explaining the reason and value of the credit.
“This localised approach ensures fairness, as we now measure performance at the local government area level rather than statewide,” Maida said.
The move comes against a backdrop of widespread frustration with unreliable connectivity that imposes real economic and social costs, hampering remote work, online learning and digital financial services.
By directly linking compensation to measured failures, the NCC is placing fresh pressure on operators to raise their game.
MTN Nigeria has already confirmed full compliance and said all eligible customers in affected locations will receive the due credits.
The company added that it is accelerating network investments, expanding capacity and strengthening infrastructure resilience.
Other operators, however, have pointed to external factors such as infrastructure damage, erratic power supply and environmental constraints as contributing to some service shortfalls.
Maida was firm in response: “While we acknowledge these challenges, consistent underperformance will no longer go unaddressed and will carry tangible financial repercussions for the operators.”
Industry analysts view the new framework as part of a broader evolution in Nigerian telecom regulation.
With 185 million active lines, even modest credits spread across millions of users represent a significant cost to operators, creating a powerful incentive to maintain high standards.
The shift to local-government-level monitoring is also welcomed for promoting transparency and fairness, ensuring only genuinely affected users are compensated while efficient operators are not penalised.
“With 185 million active lines, this framework represents a powerful tool for consumer empowerment,” Maida said.
As mobile services continue to drive Nigeria’s digital economy, reliable connectivity has become indispensable.
The NCC’s tougher enforcement stance, combined with the operators’ ambitious upgrade commitments, points to faster improvements in service quality ahead.
For the first time on this scale, millions of subscribers now have both a structured complaints system and an automatic guarantee that poor service will be met with direct compensation.
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