MTN Nigeria has confirmed an ongoing network outage disrupting voice and internet services in parts of several key states, including Lagos, Oyo, Rivers, Delta, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

In a notice posted Thursday night to subscribers on X (formerly Twitter) through its communications support handle, the operator said customers in affected areas may experience temporary service disruptions.

“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,” the company stated in the official announcement.

MTN acknowledged that engineers are working to restore services as quickly as possible but did not specify a timeline for resolving the issue. Before the update, subscribers across the affected states had reported difficulties making voice calls, sending text messages, and accessing mobile data services.

The company did not disclose the precise cause of the outage or provide an exact timeline for full restoration, though it assured users that technical teams are actively working on the problem.

For subscribers, the disruption is more than a simple outage. Digital businesses, online vendors, remote workers, and gig workers such as ride-hailing and delivery drivers rely on continuous mobile data for service delivery, and network downtime halts expected output, order processing, and communications. The scale of the disruption carries weight beyond the listed states: MTN is Nigeria’s largest mobile network operator, and mobile networks are the dominant channel through which Nigerians access the internet, so downtime at this level touches a wide cross-section of the economy.

Timed data purchases add to the losses. Active hourly or daily internet bundles, social media packages, and other timed subscriptions continue counting down—and expire—even while services remain unavailable. MTN Nigeria had previously clarified that its airtime compensation applies to poor network quality, not data depletion.

In a separate reply to subscribers under the post, MTN Nigeria also confirmed that its FibreX broadband internet service was down across multiple locations. “We are experiencing a general service downtime affecting our FibreX network. This is receiving urgent attention from our support team,” it said in an X response to customer complaints.

The major outage comes days after MTN rolled out airtime compensation to subscribers who experienced poor network quality between February and April 2026, following a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator responsible for monitoring operators’ quality of service. Affected customers began receiving SMS notifications of the airtime credit on Sunday night, with amounts varying by subscriber. Screenshots shared across social media showed credits as low as ₦20 and as high as ₦1,436.

“In line with NCC Directive, your account was credited earlier today with ₦xxxx airtime for network Quality of Service deficiencies identified in February, March, and April 2026. Thank you,” the SMS to customers reads.

While the airtime compensation policy offers eligible subscribers a form of redress for poor network service, not all customers qualify for the benefit. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) guidelines, only subscribers located in Local Government Areas affected by service failures and poor network quality are eligible for the compensation.

Subscribers in the affected states can follow restoration updates through the operator’s official support channels. The company has not indicated whether the current disruption will be assessed under the same NCC guidelines that shaped the recent compensation exercise.