Data Is Not a Luxury: A Serious and Respectful Appeal to Nigeria’s Regulators and Telecom Operators

My Thoughts Have No Filter By Abdul’Azeez Bello

WhatsApp: 0805 113 0075 | omobolajibello@gmail.com

We Live on the Internet Now. Please Let Us Afford It.

Let me start with a simple picture.

A student in a hostel downloads lecture notes before the night ends. A trader at the market confirms a transfer on her phone before she releases the goods. A young man sends his CV to a company in another state. A mother books a doctor’s appointment by message. A father transacts business services online because he needs to earn extra income to meet his daily financial obligations to the family.

Nobody woke up and decided to live big. This is just how life runs in 2026. The phone is now the bank, the classroom, the shop, the office and the post office.

The World Bank has linked better internet coverage in Nigeria to a drop in extreme poverty. So the internet is not only for entertainment. It is a tool people use to earn, learn and survive.

That is why the cost of data and the speed of the internet are not small matters. They touch everybody, from the okada rider with a transport app to the final year student writing a project. I am writing this as a citizen who wants things to work, not as someone who wants to fight. But I must say it clearly, because many of us feel it every day.

What Changed in January 2025

On January 20, 2025, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved a 50 percent increase in call, SMS and data tariffs. The operators had asked for 100 percent, so the NCC capped it at half of that request. It was the first adjustment in almost twelve years.

On paper, the floor price for 1GB moved from N287.50 to N431.25. But BusinessDay checked the published prices of MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile and found the average cost of 1GB had risen by 65.22 percent, from N287.50 to N475. That is more than the 50 percent most people thought they were signing up for.

Some bundles moved even more. MTN’s 15GB plan was reported to have gone from N2,000 to N6,000, and the Nigeria Labour Congress declared a daily boycott of MTN, Airtel and Globacom from 11am to 2pm.

In fairness, the operators made their case. The chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), described the increase as a necessary step to keep the sector alive. Fuel, power, equipment and the exchange rate are real costs. We understand that. Nobody wants a telecom company to collapse.

But understanding the operator does not make the subscriber’s pocket any bigger.

We Were Doing Well Once. We Can Do It Again.

Here is the part we forget. Nigeria has been here before, and Nigeria did well.

The average cost of 1GB of data in Nigeria fell from $12.44 in 2010 to $1.57 in 2020, and later to about $0.22. That is a big drop. Millions of people came online because of it.

In 2015, 1GB took about 6.54 percent of average monthly income. By 2016, 2017 and 2018, it had dropped to roughly 1.58 percent each year. The global affordability benchmark, set by the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), says 1GB should cost no more than 2 percent of monthly income, and Nigeria was among the countries that adopted that target.

So we know the road. We walked it. And here is something worth noting: A4AI has raised the bar to 5GB at no more than 2 percent of average monthly income by 2026. That is this year. It is a fair moment to ask how close we are.

Nobody Lives on One Gigabyte

Someone will say 1GB is not expensive compared with the national minimum wage of N70,000. And on its own, that is true.

But nobody lives on one gigabyte. MTN reported that its average subscriber used about 14.3GB per month in the first quarter of 2026.

Let me do a simple illustration. If you pay around N500 for each gigabyte, 14GB comes to about N7,000 a month. That is roughly one tenth of the minimum wage, spent on data alone, before food, transport or rent.

Bigger bundles cost less per gigabyte, I know. But the point stands. Real life uses real data, and the monthly bill adds up quickly for people who earn little.

Where Did My Data Go?

Ask any Nigerian about data and you will hear a second story. It goes like this: I just bought it. Where did it go?

This is not only gossip. The NCC recorded 413,587 consumer complaints in the first half of 2026, and reported that 98.38 percent were resolved. The resolution rate is good news. The volume of complaints is still a signal.

Of those, 23,396 were about data depletion. MTN had 12,212, Airtel 9,806, Globacom 1,373 and so on.

To be fair, the NCC has responded. It told operators to explain clearly how subscribers are charged for calls and data, and directed them to carry out independent audits. The NCC has also said background apps and automatic updates can drain data. Both things can be true. Some depletion comes from the phone. Some may come from the billing.

But a customer who pays should be able to see, simply and clearly, where the data went. That is all we are asking.

Credit Where It Is Due: The Speed Story

I do not want to complain about everything, so let me give credit.

Ookla reports that Nigeria’s median fixed broadband speed rose from 13.50 Mbps in 2023 to 34.47 Mbps in the first half of 2026. That is real progress, and the people who laid that fibre deserve thanks.

But most Nigerians do not use fixed broadband. They use their phones. Ookla’s December 2025 index put Nigeria’s median mobile download speed at 44.14 Mbps, a drop of seven places. That placed Nigeria 85th in the world. And the gap between rural and urban areas remains wide.

So the picture is mixed. Good progress in some places. Slow and costly service in others. And the people in the slow places are usually the ones who can least afford to pay more.

A Word on Both Sides of the Table

Operators have real problems. Industry data showed 19,384 fibre cuts in 2025, and another 5,934 in the first three months of 2026. Every cut means repair bills and unhappy customers. It is also why protecting these lines matters so much.

But we must also look at the full picture. MTN Nigeria reported a profit after tax of N707.5 billion for the first half of 2026, up 70.6 percent, with revenue of N2.99 trillion, up 25.9 percent, and data supplying most of the growth. The same reporting credits a more stable naira and tighter cost control. MTN now has 92.2 million subscribers, 55.7 million of them active data users.

Congratulations to MTN. I say it sincerely. Healthy companies build better networks. But when profit rises by seventy percent in a year, and the pressures that justified the increase have eased, you will agree that the subscriber is entitled to ask a polite question. Where does the good news reach the customer?

The Way Forward

We are not asking for free internet. We are asking for fair internet. Here is what could help.

To the NCC, under its Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Aminu Maida: publish a simple scorecard every quarter.

Show each operator’s price per gigabyte, average speed and complaints in plain language. Publish the results of the data depletion audits too. When people can compare, operators compete, and prices and service improve on their own.

To the operators: tie any future price review to visible improvement.

Show subscribers what they are getting for what they pay. Offer lifeline plans for students, small traders and low income users, and let unused data roll over. These are small steps that build big trust.

To the operators again: put profit to work where service is weakest.

Rural communities and busy low income areas often get the weakest signal. Let some of the strong earnings reach them first.

To the Federal Government: protect the network and set a clear target.

Treat telecom lines as critical national infrastructure, because thousands of fibre cuts hurt everybody. Work with states to reduce what it costs to build networks. And adopt the 5GB for 2 percent goal as a public national target, with a progress report every year.

To us, the subscribers: know your rights.

Check your phone’s background data settings. Keep a record of what you buy. And report problems to the NCC and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). Complaints are how systems learn.

The Verdict

Nigerians are not asking for the moon. We are asking to afford the tool that now carries our schools, our shops, our jobs and our families.

We have seen what is possible. Nigeria cut the price of data dramatically, and millions came online. We have seen the opposite too. Prices went up, complaints stayed high and many people quietly switched off.

To the regulators, the operators and the government: you are not enemies of the Nigerian people. You hold the keys to something that can lift millions out of poverty, if it is priced fairly and works well.

So here is my simple request, from one Nigerian to everyone who can do something about it. Make data affordable. Make it clear. Make it fast. And let every Nigerian, in the city and the village, enjoy the same internet that makes life easier for everyone else.

We are online. We are ready. We only need the cost to meet us halfway.

Abdul’Azeez Bello writes from the streets of Nigeria, where the truth is always louder than the headlines.

My Thoughts Have No Filter.