One year after 50% tariff hike: How improved is telecoms service in Nigeria

On January 20, 2025, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved a 50% hike in telecoms tariff following months of delay. The telecoms tariff hike came at a time when Nigerians are battling with several unfavourable economic conditions.

While the adjustment was justified to address rising operational costs and infrastructure push, the main debate was whether the hike would translate into improved quality of service. At that time, broadband penetration stood at 45.61%.

At that time, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, argued that the adjustment is vital for the long-term sustainability of the sector.

He noted that “the inability to recover investments in the telecom industry has made sustainability increasingly difficult.”

Within weeks of implementation, MTN, Airtel and Globacom rolled out new voice and data subscription prices. Phone calls increased from N11 per minute to a range between N15.40 and N16.50 per minute. 

Specifically, Globacom increased its call tariff from 11 kobo per second to 22 kobo per second. MTN raised its Pulse bundle call rate from N7.8/min (13k/sec) to N13.8/min (23k/sec) while SMS charges increased from N4 to N6. Also, Airtel increased its call rate from 18 kobo to 25 kobo per second.

Revenue boost for telcos

As expected, the tariff adjustment has improved their voice and data revenue for the telecoms service providers in Nigeria.

For instance, MTN Nigeria, in its annual financial statement, revealed that active data users increased by 12.8% to 51.1 million. Its data traffic expanded by 36.3% while average usage per user increased by 20.8% to 13.2 GB per month.

Similarly, Airtel Nigeria, in its H1 2025 financial report, reported that voice revenue grew by 34.7% in constant currency to $268 million, driven by 25.7% growth in voice average revenue per user (ARPU). Data revenue also grew by 62.4% to $357 million from $229 million, fueled by the surge in data customers and data ARPU growth of 12.2% and 46.6%, respectively. 

Despite the hike, Nigerians still spend more time online. The industry data released by the NCC shows that internet usage increased month-on-month from over 983k terabytes in April to 1.2 million terabytes in November 2025. 

More cost for the average user 

Following the tariff hike, subscribers demanded a system with data transparency, and a quality that justifies the increase in prices. 

Consequently, investing in sustainable infrastructure become obligatory for telecom service providers.

“Only improved service quality will justify the price hike,” said Adeolu Ogunbanjo, President of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS). He expressed this in May while echoing widespread frustration over network issues.

For the majority of Nigerians, the telecoms tariff hike was not justified. It was portrayed as ‘anti-poor’. For instance. Abayomi, a 300-level Civil Engineering student at the University of Ibadan, expressed how most of his allowance has been devoted to mobile data subscription since the hike. 

“Online lectures have increased in the last two semesters. I spend close to 50% of my allowance on buying data. And this data drains fast due to watching YouTube tutorials to complement lecture notes,” he said. 

In a particular Technext report, Nigerians from different parts of society expressed their predicament amid the telecoms tariff hike. You can read it here. Similarly, a report by the Alliance for Affordable Internet indicates that Nigerians spend an average of 4.8% of their monthly income on 1GB of data, far above the UN-recommended threshold of 2%.

Also Read: NCC licensed 46 MVNOs in two years, but only 2 are operational. Here is why. 

State of service quality: The good and the bad

1- Broadband penetration: it crossed the halfway mark for the first time (50.58% in November 2025). It is still short of the 70% broadband penetration target set under the National Broadband Plan (NBP 2020-2025).  Projects, such as the 90,000 km fibre-optic backbone deployment (Project Bridge) and the 2,800 towers roll-out by telcos, aim to close the gap. 

2- Improved network performance in rural areas: NCC’s Quality of Experience (QoE) report for Q4 ’25 revealed that overall download speed in rural areas now averages at 11.0 Mbps. A year ago, the rate stood at 8.5 Mbps. In fact, T2mobile (formerly 9mobile) recorded the best network performance in rural areas with a download speed of 24.9 Mbps (more than the 18.5 Mbps in cities).

3- 5G (fifth-generation network) is still lagging.  The latest data shows a 55% 5G coverage gap in Nigeria. Disturbingly, Lagos and FCT Abuja, the country’s major cities, recorded 5G coverage of 27% and 31%, respectively. The inefficiency leaves a wider gap as only 6.3 million Nigerians (3.6%) use the 5G network.

Also Read: Nigeria’s 5G network fails 55% of the time despite a surge in smartphone readiness.

The road ahead

For the Nigerian telecoms sector, the ability to further curtail disruptions to towers and increase investments in infrastructure will shape subscribers’ experience in 2026. It will also, to an extent, justify the 50% telecoms tariff hike.

As of now, figures and trends indicate that the intended quality improvements have yet fully materialise for the average user.

On a positive note, the NCC has reiterated its commitment to improving the quality of service and strengthening the network experience for Nigerians in 2026. 

The agency’s Boss, Dr Aminu Maida,  noted in his New Year’s address that the commission will prioritise Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring, ensure an improved voice quality and more consistent data performance in everyday use.

With this, Nigerians may look forward to better services in 2026.

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