MTN Nigeria subscribers were left frustrated for hours as a major network outage disrupted communication services from Friday to Saturday.
Many customers were unable to make calls, send texts, or access the internet, prompting widespread complaints online.
The disruption also impacted financial transactions, as Nigerians increasingly rely on mobile networks for money transfers and online payments since a Central Bank of Nigeria policy pushed many transactions online, Nigerians have had to increasingly rely on Mobile Network Providers to make money transfers.
Frustrated customers took to X (formerly Twitter) to express their dissatisfaction.
An X user, Timi Asaju who identifies as #TheKelvinAsaju on Friday quipped, “At this point, I’ve toggled Airplane mode so much, MTN should just hand me a pilot’s license. What kind of useless network is this?!”
Ojukwu Daniel who tweets as #Mazi_OJD criticised the lack of accountability, writing, “MTN network is terrible but no one’s issuing a statement cos Nigerians don’t know they deserve accountability for poor service. There’s no light in Kaduna State, and the government isn’t panicking. People are receiving awards. No problem trumps how bad a knock is.’
Bambi who writes as #hafsat_dy said, “Am I the only person whose MTN network has been very unbearable since yesterday?💀”
Anime Queen who identifies as #layzeeloli wrote, “Mtn, airtel and glo are very lucky they’re probably the only network industry that we can afford. I wish one mind blowing network will come out and put them out of business, maybe they’ll sit up. I need an opay version of network providers. All these mid networks they tire me.”
Queen Saber who tweets as #toqueensaber wrote, “02/03 – Airtel was out of coverage for over 4 hours. It was almost impossible to use MTN, too.
“As a remote worker living in Nigeria, na so you go dey explain taya, and then dey hop btw service providers wey no different from each other with their service provided.”
Sir David Onyemaizu wrote tweets as #SirDavidBent wrote, “MTN should stop telecommunications and turn their offices to canteens. A rubbish network.”
Chameleon who tweets anonymously as #chameleon wrote, “Who dey use mtn and who no get phone… No difference”
“Anytime this tweet loads, my God will arise and deal with MTN and all its subsidiaries for me,” Dr Olawale Ogunlana who identifies as #olawalesmd wrote.
Despite the public outcry, MTN Nigeria has yet to issue an official statement addressing the outage.