Nigeria’s leading telecommunications company, MTN, has disclosed that its network endured a staggering 9,218 fibre cuts in 2025, exposing critical vulnerabilities in the nation’s digital infrastructure.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, made the revelation in a year-in-review post, noting that theft and vandalism also impacted 211 sites by the end of November, severely straining service reliability.
Dr. Toriola stated that each disruption affected services relied upon by millions, saying, “The fibre cuts, theft, and vandalism directly disrupted services, and we take responsibility for these realities.”
The CEO’s data aligns with Nigerian Communications Commission reports, which indicated MTN accounted for 64 of the 118 network outage incidents recorded across all operators in December 2025 alone.
Alongside the infrastructure damage, MTN received over 1.6 million customer complaints through various channels last year. Toriola emphasized that the company treats every complaint as crucial feedback for improvement.
Despite the challenges, he reaffirmed MTN’s commitment to its over 85 million subscribers, stating, “We are not where we want to be yet, but our commitment to putting the customer at the centre of everything we do remains constant.”
The persistent issue of fibre cuts and vandalism continues to plague the telecom sector, despite government interventions. These include President Bola Tinubu’s 2024 order designating telecom infrastructure as critical national assets and the NCC’s establishment of an interministerial committee and public reporting platform in 2025.
Weak enforcement remains a key obstacle, with few arrests or prosecutions reported even as incidents surged. Contributing factors include theft for resale, accidental damage during road construction, bush burning, and restricted access to sites, leading to significant revenue losses for operators and degraded service quality for users.
