MTN Nigeria subscribers in parts of Lagos, Oyo, Rivers, Delta states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) experienced prolonged network disruptions on Thursday, with customers reporting interrupted communications, failed transactions and business losses.
The outage reportedly lasted more than five hours and extended into the night, triggering complaints on social media from subscribers who demanded explanations and a clear timeline for the restoration of services.
MTN Acknowledges Network Challenges
In a network alert, MTN acknowledged the disruption, saying some services might be temporarily unavailable in the affected locations. The company stated: “We’re experiencing network challenges in some parts of Oyo, Lagos, Rivers, FCT and Delta States, and our services may be temporarily unavailable as a result.”
MTN added that its engineers were working to restore connectivity as quickly as possible and appealed to customers for patience and understanding.
Subscribers Lament Business Losses, Seek Compensation
The assurance did little to ease concerns among customers who said the prolonged downtime disrupted their daily activities.
Nnamdi @CimpleKev said: "You have knocked me out of internet since 3pm today. I hope you are preparing for compensation as well as you make efforts to fix the network?"
Chi_Annabel @Anabel_Chi326 said: "See you incompetent company, the only apologies we deserve is to add up the hours your network failed to our subscriptions period."
SIR HENRO DE GREAT @SirHenroDeGreat said: "What will be the compensation for all these down time since yesterday? Do they know the lost we've experienced?"
chessed ngga @cheesedupmf said: "Please sha refund my data money for the both time I subscribed today and e no reflect thanks."
JOD @Meet_Jod said: "And the annoying part? You guys don’t even seem to care enough to offer any form of compensation to the affected lines when these timeouts occur."
Some customers also called for compensation for affected FibreX subscribers, suggesting that additional service days could help make up for the period of lost connectivity. The financial losses linked to Thursday's incident had not been quantified as of the time of reporting.
Network Disruption Affects Digital Activities
The complaints highlight Nigerians' growing dependence on telecommunications services for digital banking, online shopping, remote work, customer communications and other economic activities.
For small businesses, online vendors and digital service providers, network interruptions can delay payments, disrupt customer relationships and prevent transactions from being completed.
The incident also raised concerns about how telecom operators communicate with customers during major outages, particularly when the cause and expected restoration time remain unclear.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which regulates the telecommunications industry and monitors service quality, listed an MTN major outage on Thursday through its incident-reporting platform. However, the notice reviewed did not specify the extent of the disruption experienced by individual subscribers.
The disruption comes amid continued scrutiny of telecommunications service quality as Nigerians increasingly rely on mobile networks for personal communication and commercial activities.
As of the information available for this report, the company had not issued a detailed public explanation of the incident.
