Nigeria: NCC to Address Telecom Operators on Poor Coverage in North-Eastern Nigeria

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced its plan to write to telecom operators to address the issue of inadequate network coverage in communities affected by insurgency in the North-East, where coverage remains below 35 per cent.

Speaking at the fourth edition of NCC’s Telecom Consumer Conversation village square dialogue in Yola, Adamawa State, the Director of Consumer Affairs Bureau, representing the Executive Vice Chairman, Umar Danbatta, acknowledged stakeholders’ concerns about the impact of the Boko Haram insurgency on telecommunications infrastructure in the region.

The stakeholders expressed their grievances, stating that mobile telephone coverage in the affected areas had not yet recovered to pre-insurgency levels due to the destruction of physical and telephony infrastructure during the conflict.

The dialogue, themed ‘Know your rights as telecom consumers’, highlighted the challenge of access and GSM communication coverage created by the insurgency, prompting representatives of service providers in the state to disclose that telecommunications coverage in the region had fallen below 35 per cent.

They lamented the lack of network coverage in many communities that were initially covered by the telcos but lost access as a result of the insurgency.

Abubakar Saleh, a telecom consumer from Gombi, highlighted the poor telecom coverage in the northern axis of Adamawa, worst hit by the insurgency.

In response to the stakeholders’ concerns, the NCC representative, Alkasim, assured that the regulator was committed to addressing the issue in collaboration with the telecom operators.

He stated, “Since we have confirmed from the service providers that their coverage of communities affected by insurgency is still below 35 per cent, we are going to write to them to explain why telecommunications coverage in the region is still poor.”

Alkasim also acknowledged that telcos would need guarantees from the government to invest in network expansion in the region. He added that providing such guarantees would be crucial to rebuilding the destroyed base stations in areas like Mubi, Gombi, and other locations lacking network service. However, without these assurances from the government, the commitment of the telcos to invest in network expansion in these areas may be hampered.