By Mariam Sanni
Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has disclosed that its decision to return to market-driven pricing in the telecoms sector spurred over $1 billion in infrastructure investment in 2025.
The Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Aminu Maida, said this during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos.
He explained that the policy shift, introduced in January and February, allowed mobile network operators to adjust tariffs by up to 50 percent after nearly a decade of stagnant pricing.
“This act alone allowed investments to flow in. We will be revealing specific figures in the coming weeks after verification, but we are talking about over a billion dollars worth of investments in 2025 alone,” he said.
Maida said the move restored investors confidence in the sector and reversed a trend of under investment that had slowed network growth and service quality improvement.
According to him, the imbalance in the value chain, where tower companies can adjust prices annually for inflation and exchange rates but mobile network operators cannot, discouraged new investments.
“This is an industry that requires continuous investment. The world is moving ahead and if we do not create the right conditions, we will be left behind,” he said.
The NCC boss said the commission decided to return to the guiding principles of the 2000 Telecom Policy and the 2003 Communications Act, which allowed market forces to determine fair prices, while maintaining healthy competition to protect consumers.
He disclosed that some of the new equipment ordered by operators had started arriving the country since June, with network expansion and upgrade works already underway.
“We are closely tracking the rollout. We hold weekly calls with operators to monitor how many sites are being built, upgrades done and we step in when they encounter challenges with authorities,” Maida said.
He added that the investments would help address capacity challenges, improve service quality, and ensure Nigeria remained competitive in the global telecom landscape.
The NCC boss also highlighted operational cost pressures facing the industry, noting that operators consumed over 40 million litres of diesel monthly to power their base stations, with most of the product imported.
He said the industry’s dependence on foreign exchange (FX) for importing all network hardware and software added to the challenge, as no major telecom equipment was manufactured locally.
“There is nothing you need to build or upgrade a network today in Nigeria that you can buy locally. Everything from the hardware to the software has to be imported and that requires FX,” Maida said.
