Manny Ita –
The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, says last year’s approval of a 50 per cent tariff increase prevented the country’s telecom industry from sliding into a crisis marked by possible service rationing.
He said operators had reached a “stage where service rationing was becoming a real possibility,” but noted that the tariff adjustment helped stabilise the sector.
Adebayo said the impact of the increase is already evident across the industry. “Today, we are seeing companies gradually return to profitability. Network stabilization has improved. Capital expenditure planning has resumed,” he said.
Despite the improvements, he warned that operators continue to face operational challenges, particularly frequent fibre cuts nationwide, which disrupt network services and increase maintenance costs.
He also called for government intervention to address what he described as “multiple and excessive” taxes and levies imposed by state governments, arguing that the burden threatens long-term sustainability.
Responding, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Aminu Maida Olurunnimbe, assured stakeholders that the regulator would work to preserve the sector’s viability.
“It is very important that this sector, which has been working for over two decades and continues to be a flagship sector for our country, continues to work,” he said.
“We will do what needs to be done, and I know that the channels of communication between us and NCC are very, very open. We will not close those channels.
“In fact, we will widen them so that we can hear you better and react faster. So, those issues concern us as well. And we will continue to deepen the workings,” he added.
Adebayo also recalled that banks had cleared about 95 per cent of the debt owed to telecom operators for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services, leaving only three banks yet to settle their obligations. He said repayment of the outstanding debt was a key condition for migrating to an end-user billing system, adding that the remaining lenders had negotiated instalment payments.
Under the new arrangement, charges for USSD services are deducted directly from customers’ mobile airtime rather than from their bank accounts. Telecom operators introduced the model in June last year following a directive from the NCC aimed at resolving longstanding disputes over unpaid USSD fees.
The new pricing framework sets the charge at N6.98 per 120 seconds of USSD session time, replacing the previous system in which banks billed customers and remitted payments to telecom providers.
ALTON said the migration followed the NCC’s Determination of USSD Pricing and Services, developed in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria and other stakeholders, and is intended to create a more sustainable, transparent, and customer-friendly system for delivering USSD services amid Nigeria’s expanding digital financial ecosystem.
