Business
‘NCC Won’t Shift Grounds On Sanctions’
The Director, Public Af
fairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Tony Ojobo, last Wednesday said that the commission was not ready to shift ground on the sanctions made to service providers.
Ojobo said this at a news conference in Abuja after a meeting with Chief Executive Officers’ of the service providers.
He said that the deadline given to the service providers by the commission to pay fines for poor service delivery expired on May 25 and none of them had complied till date.
He insisted on the position of NCC that the sanctions and the penalties would have to be paid by the service providers.
“NCC is not ready to shift ground, we are re-emphasising that we are maintaining our stand on the payment of sanctions.
“We are not reconsidering our position, we have not indicated that the default period has been waived. So, nothing is waived, neither the regional sanction nor the default period penalty at the time of payment, all of that have to be paid.
“So, we have entered the default period from May 26, so counting from 26th of May to anytime payment is made, it is N2.5 million per day of default,’’ Ojobo said.
He said that the management of the commission agreed to meet with the CEOs of the service providers so as to find out if there would be any new issues that would be raised.
Ojobo said that at the meeting, the NCC sought to know reason for their coming and the service providers indicated that they wanted to see if NCC could review its position on the sanction.
He said that the service providers attributed the cause of poor quality service to inadequate power supply, cable cut, multi taxation, adding that these challenges were not new to the commission.
The NCC spokesperson said that the issue of quality of service had been on in the last six years until January this year when the quality of service guideline was gazetted.
Ojobo said that in the guideline of the key performance indicators, after the deadline for the payment of the sanction, there was going to be N2.5 million penalty for each day of the default.
“We are already in a default period and it is expected that the sanctions as well as the default penalties have to be paid,’’ he said.
Credit to Nigeria’s private sector rose to N83.26 trillion in June 2026 from N81.04 trillion in May, signifying a positive balance of N2.22 trillion month-on-month.
Year-on-year, the figure represents a nine per cent increase compared with the N76.13 trillion recorded in June 2025. The latest figures come as the CBN continues to balance efforts to control inflation with the need to support economic growth and expand credit to businesses.
The CBN data shows that credit to Nigeria’s private sector increased by approximately 2.74 per cent month-on-month between May and June 2026. Also, the CBN data noted that credit to the government fell slightly to N40.03 trillion from N40.38 trillion. Other assets, net, dropped to N10.76 trillion from N12.63 trillion.
The credit surge signifies sustained growth in lending to businesses and other private-sector borrowers during the month. The rise in private sector credit was recorded alongside an increase in net domestic credit, despite declines in credit to government and other assets.
Further analysis of the report says that compared with June 2025, private sector credit rose by about N7.13 trillion yea-on-year but net domestic credit increased by approximately N1.87 trillion during the month.
The CBN’s relatively tight monetary policy stance notwithstanding, more banks still loaded funds to the private sector within the period. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) held its 306th meeting on July 20 and 21.
The Committee reviewed recent developments in the global and domestic economies, assessed emerging risks to the outlook and considered their implications for monetary policy and retained all rates.
The Committee decided to retain the Monetary Policy Rate at 26.5 per cent; the Standing Facilities Corridor around the MPR at +50/-450 basis points and retain the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) for Deposit Money Banks at 45.00 per cent, Merchant Banks at 16.00 per cent, and non-TSA public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent.
The MPC decision means that credit extension in the private sector will likely continue to rise because of rising confidence in the sector and calls by stakeholders for banks to invest in the private scetor instead of government securities.
