The directive is part of new corporate governance rules announced on 7 August to align Nigeria’s telecom industry with global best practices. The guidelines mandate separation of the chairman and CEO roles, a structure already adopted by MTN Nigeria, Airtel, and T2 (formerly 9mobile).

Globacom, founded and chaired by billionaire Mike Adenuga, has historically combined both roles under his leadership. An attempt to comply last year through the appointment of Ahmad Farroukh as CEO collapsed after two months, reportedly due to disagreements over operational control.

Under the NCC’s new framework, chairmen must be non-executive directors, boards must have more non-executive than executive members, and at least one-third must be independent. The rules also require ICT or cybersecurity expertise among directors.

Failure to comply within the stipulated period could trigger penalties ranging from fines to enforced management changes or revocation of operating licences.

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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced it has put the partial disconnection of Globacom by MTN over unpaid debt on hold.

The NCC said this in a statement signed by Reuben Muoka, the director of public affairs of the commission, on Wednesday.

The commission had on 8 January said it had approved the partial disconnection of Globacom to MTN due to a non-settlement of interconnect charges.

The partial disconnection, according to the commission, means that Globacom’s subscribers will no longer be able to make calls to MTN, but will be able to receive calls to the Globacom network.

The commission explained that at the expiration of 10 days from the date of the notice, disconnection will be implemented.

But in its statement signed on Wednesday, the commission said it has put the phased disconnection on hold for 21 (twenty-one) days from 17 January.

The commission said it expects MTN and Glo to resolve all outstanding issues within 21 days.

“On 8 January 2024 the Nigerian Communications Commission published a Pre-Disconnection Notice informing subscribers of the approval granted to MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN) to commence the phased disconnection of Globacom Limited (Glo) with effect from 18 January 2024 due to long-standing interconnection debt dispute between the parties,” Mr Muoka said.

In granting the approval, he said the commission was deeply conscious of the potential impacts of the decision on consumers and therefore continued to engage both parties to facilitate a resolution which prioritizes and protects consumer interest and the seamless operation of the national telecoms network.

“The commission is pleased to announce that the parties have now reached an agreement to resolve all outstanding issues between them. For this reason, and in the exercise of its regulatory powers in that regard, the Commission has put the phased disconnection on hold for a period of 21 (twenty-one) days from today, 17 January 2024,” he said.

While the NCC expects MTN and Glo to resolve all outstanding issues within 21 days, it added that interconnect debts must be settled by all operating companies as a necessary component towards compliance with the regulatory obligations of all licensees.

“It is obligatory that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and other licensees in the telecom industry keep to the terms and conditions of their licenses, especially as contained in their interconnection agreements,” he added.

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In a decisive move to address the persistent issue of interconnect debt within the Nigerian telecom industry, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted approval for the partial disconnection of Globacom by MTN.

This decision follows Globacom’s alleged refusal to settle interconnect charges.As per the NCC’s public notice issued on Monday, the partial disconnection implies that Globacom’s subscribers will be unable to make calls to any MTN number.

However, they can still receive inbound calls from MTN customers. The telecom regulator has given Globacom a 10-day notice, starting from January 8, before implementing the disconnection.

The NCC, in its notice to inform Globacom’s subscribers, stated, “The Commission, having examined the application and circumstances surrounding the indebtedness, determined that Globacom does not have sufficient or justifiable reason for non-payment of the interconnect charges.”

This move signifies a bold step by the NCC to tackle the interconnect debt issue, which, as of 2020, was estimated by the former Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, to be over N70 billion.

Danbatta highlighted the detrimental impact of interconnect debt on infrastructure expansion, describing it as a “big challenge” to healthy competition and the growth of the digital economy in Nigeria.

Interconnect debt arises from the failure of telecom operators to settle the cost, known as the interconnect rate, for calls terminating on their networks. This latest action by the NCC aims to address the longstanding problem and ensure the sustainability and quality of telecom services in Nigeria.

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TECHDIGEST – According to the statistics published on January 1, 2023 by the industry regulator – Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The GSM operators added 4,258,509 in the month under review when compared to the 214,350,098 active GSM subscribers in October 2022.

However, in November 2022, Nigeria’s telephony subscriptions increased to 218,953,849. What this means is that 345,242 telephony subscriptions in Nigeria as at November 2022, are inactive.

MTN Nigeria remains the market dominant with 86,434,447 active GSM subscribers. The company accounts for 39.54 per cent of the market share. It increased the figures by 3,162,555 when compared to the 83,271,555 subscribers in recorded in October 2022.

Globacom with 27.42 per cent of the GSM market in Nigeria is second on the table with 59,950,116. This means Glo added 312,274 more subscribers than 59,637,842 it recorded in October.

Third on the chart is Airtel Nigeria. The telecom operator with 27.16 per cent market share reported 59,382,939 active GSM subscribers in November 2022 compared to 58,669,071 it recorded in October. The implication is that Airtel lost 713,868 subscribers in November 2022.

READ ALSO: How Telecom Impacted Nigerian Economy in 2022

Fourth on the chart is 9mobile with 12,841,105 subscribers. The operator gained 69,812 active GSM subscribers to top the 12,771,293 it reported in October. 9mobile now accounts for 5.87 per cent GSM market share in Nigeria.

Leading Fixed Wired Operators in Nigeria

For Fixed Wired, no statistics was released for the month under review. However, in October 2022, the Fixed Wired operators had a total of 97,961 active subscriptions.

The leading operators are 21st Century (86,404 subscribers), MTN Fixed (7,638), Glo Fixed (2,702), and ipNX (1,217).

Smile Communications and nTel are the leading Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), operators in Nigeria. As at October 2022, Smile reported 246,393 subscribers while nTel comes distant second with 1,775.

The CDMA and Fixed Wireless are no longer ‘markets of interest’ as NCC last reports about them was in March 2019. This simply means there are inactive subscribers within those ranges.

Source: Techeconomy

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TECHDIGEST – Some 1.23 million new telecommunications subscribers joined the networks between October and November 2021 in Nigeria. This pushed the country’s teledensity from 100.56 per cent to 101.20 per cent during the period.

According to the latest subscription statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), released at the weekend, users of the services of the quartet of MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9mobile increased from 191.9 million in October to 193.2 million in November.

From the figures, the new users were largely for voice subscriptions. The new addition did not impact Internet subscription, but the users, especially, via the narrowband, marginally increased by 77, 553, moving from 139.9 million to 140 million within the period.

The statistics showed that MTN, as of November, had 58.1 million people using it as an Internet service provider; Globacom’s Internet users were 39.3 million; Airtel, 36.9 million and 9mobile, 5.77 million.

From the data, broadband penetration rate remained low as well, as players in the sub-segment only added 168,027 new users to the networks.

The broadband users figure moved from 76,146,156 to 76,314,183 within the period under review.

In another word, broadband penetration only leapt by 0.09 per cent.

Users of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services with players, including, Smile Communications and Ntel, dropped from 340,542 in October to 339,427 one month after.

Despite the slow growth, MTN maintained its market dominance as the largest player in Nigeria. The telecommunications firm currently has 38 per cent market share with some 73.5 million customers. Globacom is next with 53.7 million users and 27.9 per cent penetration; Airtel through boasts of 27.4 per cent market share, servicing 52.9 million customers. 9mobile is fourth with 12.8 million users and 8.6 per cent market reach.

It would be recalled that as of at third quarter of 2021, the telecoms sector’s contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 2.48 per cent. Data from the NCC showed that the figure dropped from 14.42 per cent in Q2, 2021 to 11.94 per cent in Q3, 2021. Checks showed that within the same period in 2020, the contribution was 11.20 per cent

Expert hinged the drop on several factors, comprising the Federal Government’s National Identity Number (NIN)-Subscriber Identity Module (NIN-SIM) policy, Twitter ban, weak consumer purchasing power and the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

The Nigerian Coordinator, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), Olusola Teniola, said the impact of the NIN-SIM policy affected the Q3 2021 statistics and is still being felt in conjunction with suppressed consumer spending due to job losses, unemployment and the result of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

Essentially, he said the trend has flat-lined Y-o-Y and remains in the slowing down of growth witnessed on the Q-on-Q numbers for 2021.

He told The Guardian that the ARPU remains steady, stressing that the minutes used per subscriber and subscriber numbers have tapered.

According to him, the top end of the market has a mix of Over Top (OTT) usage against the steady voice market, so data usage is the determinant for revenue stability across the market, “otherwise, the trend is flat to negative as expected.”

Teniola, a former President of, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), said the Q4 2021 numbers are sensitive to FG policies.

His words: “It needs Twitter, other digital services and apps to provide an uptick in consumer usage on the back of 5G deployment circa Q2 2022 onwards. FG needs to adopt a light hand regulatory approach to ensure that any potential momentum in the market is not severely depressed.”

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TECH DIGEST – Telecommunication Company, Globacom, has provided more options for its subscribers to effectively link their Mobile lines to their National Identity Number (NIN) as directed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Globacom, in a statement, said that the new channels were unveiled to support government’s effort in achieving a more secure and sustainable telecoms industry in Nigeria as well as to provide a smooth platform for Glo subscribers in the registration process.

“We have further simplified the process for our esteemed customers to link their National Identification Number (NIN) to their mobile numbers by giving them more options to conduct the process.

Firstly, they can simply text their NIN to 109.

Alternatively, they may dial *109# or *109*your NIN# directly. Customers can also call 109 to update their NIN via voice call”, Globacom explained.

Advising subscribers who have registered with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), but have not obtained their NIN to dial *346# to retrieve the number, Globacom also enjoined those without the number to visit any NIN centres across the country to enroll immediately.

For further enquiries, the company urge subscribers to contact any of its customer contact channels or visit Glo website.

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TECH DIGEST – Globacom has unveiled a new service designed to boost education in the country.

A statement by the company released in Lagos, described the Glo Smart Learning Suit as veritable platform for online education, as it facilitates teaching and learning as well as school management.

The company in the statement entitled ‘Glo Smart Learning Suite facilitates online school management, learning’ said the learning suite included the Enterprise Resource Planning and Learning Management System.

“The Glo Smart Learning Suite is a customisable platform, which offers rich features including live classes, online tests and examinations, performance reporting, course registration and blended learning.

“The platform will be customised for schools with their specified look and feel (colours and logo) at zero cost to each school and help students whose educational institutions are shut due to COVID-19 pandemic to fulfill their educational needs,” Glo added.

The telecom said students of public and private primary and secondary schools, tertiary institutions and working profesmsionals who needed to enhance their capabilities could leverage the tool.

The benefits of the service, according to Globacom, include bundled free access to the learning portal for students and teachers, full-feature platform, ability to learn from anywhere, live classes, performance reporting, access for parents and students, live test and examinations, chat services and video conferencing, among others.

The telecoms company added that the new product would enhance learning and skill development that was key to the future development of youths.

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