The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has expressed excitement that reverting to market-driven pricing in the industry has attracted into the country about $1 billion new telecoms infrastructure investment in 2025
According to the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Nigeria’s Telecoms sector regulator, Dr Aminu Maida, this decision has restored investors confidence, reversing years of under investment that witnessed slow network expansion and service quality improvement.
He said as at June 2025, operators have already started receiving new equipment ordered and upgrades and new site construction now underway, noting that the fresh investments will boost capacity, improve service quality and strengthen Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global telecom space.
Speaking in an interactive session with reporters in Lagos, Dr Maida said the move also made one operator, who has not invested a single Kobo on network upgrade over the last three years, to start doing something in that direction.
This is as he explained that when NCC issued licences for the provision of services on the fifth generation (5G) technology, MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria and Mafab Communications, all underestimated the huge challenges in the industry when they promised nationwide rollout of the services.
The NCC boss said the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that got the licences “over-promised” to deliver services to their consumers, without minding challenges in the industry.
He further said the 50 percent tariff hike for end users of telecom services approved by the NCC to MNOs earlier in the year has started changing the dynamics by stopping the drought in both local and foreign direct investment (FID).
While highlighting why the increase in tariff has failed to translate to improved service quality, Maida said those equipment were not what could easily be purchased on the shelf, adding that some of the equipment are yet to be built by the original equipment manufacturers.
Further explaining that bringing equipment into the country required a process, the Commission’s Vice Chairman said, “MNOs would need to book, pay, ship, pay for clearing at the ports, transport to sites, install and commission before customers would start feeling the impact.”
Maida however admitted that installing the equipment nationwide will take some time, said as the installation process, which has already commenced in the North Central zone and Abuja, will soon be extended to other areas gradually.
For him, since the rollout of the technology in the country, less than 2000 5G sites have been built across the country, a situation he blamed on a combination of factors, including foreign exchange (forex) issue and difficulty securing land for new cell sites.
Explaining that the Commission took the decision in January 2025 to allow market forces determine the prices to be charged by operators for telecom services, Maida said the TowerCos (Tower companies) had effected adjustment in their pricing but the MNOs are yet to do so.
The NCC Chief said the adjustment granted the Operators have set in a new wave of competition in the industry such that some are beginning to accuse themselves of undercutting the system.
On infrastructure protection, he said the NCC is working with the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to design region-specific rapid response frameworks, blending community engagement with civil defence presence to tackle threats such as generator theft, poor security, and local disputes.
Addressing the issue of low local content in the Telecoms industry, Maida said globally, only three countries are responsible for supply of low level software and hardware used. These are China that has Huawei and ZTE; Finland with Nokia and Sweden with Ericsson.
The Executive Vice Chairman also spoke about the challenges confronting the operators, noting that the telecom industry has rising service delivery cost such as consuming huge litres of diesel monthly, even as he expressed the hope that with the coming on stream of Dangote Refinery, there will be a positive change of the story.
