Telecoms giant MTN Nigeria has confirmed it is experiencing network disruptions affecting customers in parts of Lagos State.
In a message sent to subscribers on Sunday evening, the company said:
“Dear Customer, we’re experiencing network challenges in some parts of Lagos State, and our services may be temporarily unavailable as a result.
Our engineers are working to restore services as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
Backdrop of complaints
The message followed hours of mounting complaints across social media platforms, where many users reported being unable to make calls, access data, or complete transactions dependent on MTN’s connectivity.
- Frustrations trended on X (formerly Twitter), with some subscribers tagging the company to demand urgent updates.
- Connectivity complaints have become increasingly common in Nigeria, where poor infrastructure, vandalism, and rising energy costs often disrupt telecom services.
Lagos, as the country’s commercial hub, is particularly sensitive to such outages given the heavy reliance of businesses and individuals on mobile data and voice services.
However, complaints from customers also revealed that the issues are beyond Lagos. For instance, a customer of the telco in Bayelsa State, Ogu Ibrakimo Daniel, complained bitterly of how they have been suffering poor network for over two months.
“In Yenagoa, we have experienced bad network issues for over 2 months…” he lamented in a post on X.
Another customer of MTN, identified as ‘Dhark Psalm’, also shared a similar experience all the way from Yobe State.
“In Yobe State, for the past 3 months, very poor; even to do WhatsApp is hard, haba MTN,” he lamented.
Fibre cuts challenge
The issue of poor quality of services across telecom networks in Nigeria is often attributable to the incidence of fibre cut, a challenge that seems to have defied all solutions.
Recently, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) raised an alarm over the increasing damage to telecommunications infrastructure nationwide, revealing that MTN, Airtel, 9mobile, and other telecom operators now record an average of 1,100 fibre cuts per week.
This year alone, MTN Nigeria reported that it had suffered more than 5,400 fibre optic cable cuts between January and July, with road construction and vandalism emerging as the biggest threats to its infrastructure.
The company recorded 760 fibre cuts in July alone, bringing the seven-month total to 5,478 and causing widespread network disruptions. June saw the worst impact, with 1,016 incidents, the highest in the period.
To address this challenge, the government recently designated telecom infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII), thereby criminalizing any attack on such infrastructure. However, the rate of fibre cuts have remained unabated despite this declaration.
MTN largest subscriber
MTN is the largest telecom operator in Nigeria, with over 89 million subscribers, representing about 52.70% of the market share as of July 2025.
While the company has invested heavily in network expansion and 5G rollouts, service interruptions still occur, often attributed to fiber cuts, power supply disruptions, or technical glitches.
- Telecom operators, under the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), have repeatedly called for tariff reviews to help them cope with inflation, rising diesel prices, and network congestion.
- Earlier this year, tariffs were indeed adjusted upwards following regulatory approval, a move the telcos argued was necessary to sustain operations and improve service delivery.
- However, despite the upward tariff review, Nigerians continue to experience frequent service disruptions across the country, raising concerns that higher charges have not translated into an improved quality of service.
What happens next: MTN says its engineers are already working to restore services, though no timeline has been provided for full resolution.
