Tinubu backs Airtel's Open Network, tells telcos to fix poor service

President Bola Tinubu has thrown his weight behind a new Airtel Nigeria platform that lets subscribers see what is happening on the network in their own areas and report service problems directly to the company.

The Open Network initiative was unveiled in Lagos on Friday. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida, attended the launch.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the President said the move fits his administration's push for private investment in digital infrastructure and for services Nigerians can actually rely on.

But he also used the occasion to press telecom companies on the everyday complaints subscribers know too well: dropped calls, weak data and slow responses when something goes wrong.

Tinubu said the real test of all the money going into telecoms is what customers experience. Investments, he said, should show up as wider coverage, fewer disruptions and support lines that respond when people call.

What the President said about the sector

According to the statement, Tinubu welcomed the NCC's public network coverage maps, performance data and consumer satisfaction surveys, saying they help Nigerians judge what they are paying for and hold operators to account.

He also pointed to the Federal Government's Zero-Rated Access to Educational Platforms and Content Initiative, run by the NCC with the Federal Ministry of Education and telecom operators. Under it, eligible students get up to 100MB of free data daily to reach approved learning websites.

The President recalled meeting the Founder and Chairman of Bharti Airtel, Sunil Bharti Mittal, at the State House in Abuja in February 2025, where he restated his commitment to a friendly environment for telecom investment, stronger regulation and protection of digital infrastructure.

He noted that Airtel Nigeria's network sites have risen from about 15,000 two years ago to more than 17,000 nationwide. That includes over 1,050 sites added in the company's 2025/26 financial year, among them 657 fifth-generation (5G) sites.

He commended Maida and the NCC for their regulatory work and asked operators to keep building in underserved communities, where poor coverage still locks many Nigerians out of digital services and the opportunities that come with them.

What happens next

The statement did not announce any new penalty or deadline for operators. What it does is set a public yardstick: the President has tied the success of telecoms investment to fewer service failures and quicker answers to complaints.

For subscribers, the Open Network platform offers a new way to flag problems in their areas. Whether that translates into better calls and data will be the thing Nigerians watch.