The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued a new directive requiring telecom operators to publicly disclose major service outages and compensate affected customers accordingly.
According to a statement released by Nnenna Ukoha, Acting Head of Public Affairs at the NCC, operators must now inform the public—through media channels—about the cause of service disruptions, the specific areas impacted, and the expected timeline for full restoration.
This move, the Commission said, is part of efforts to foster greater transparency, improve customer experience, and enforce accountability in Nigeria’s telecom industry.
“The Commission has trialled the reporting process and portal with operators for some months now before issuing this directive,” said Edoyemi Ogor, NCC’s Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity. “By providing consumers and stakeholders with timely and transparent information on network outages, we are entrenching a culture of accountability.”
Ogor emphasized that telecom providers must also notify consumers at least one week in advance of any planned service outages. For unplanned disruptions that extend beyond 24 hours, customers will be entitled to proportional compensation, including service validity extensions, in accordance with the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations.
The directive applies to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and other last-mile service providers.
The NCC outlined three key categories of major outages that fall under this mandate:
Disruptions affecting five percent or more of a network’s subscribers or impacting five or more Local Government Areas (LGAs).
Loss of connectivity at 100 or more sites or at least five percent of a provider’s total sites for more than 30 minutes.
Severe service degradation in any of the top 10 states by traffic volume.
The Commission has also activated its Major Outage Reporting Portal, accessible via its official website, where the public can monitor reported disruptions and their causes.
This directive also supports the Federal Government’s Executive Order declaring telecom infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII)—highlighting its importance to national security, economic resilience, and daily life.
