Reporting by The Punch indicates that the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has formally disputed the recent capital importation report issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The stats agency had reported a devastating 91 percent drop in foreign investment into the telecom sector, claiming it plummeted from $80.78 million down to a mere $7.24 million in the first quarter of 2026. However, telecom service providers argue that these numbers capture only a fractional sliver of the actual capital deployed across the country’s digital ecosystem.
In a statement co-signed by ALTON Chairman Gbenga Adebayo and Publicity Secretary Damian Udeh, the group clarified that the sector’s financial machinery is increasingly powered by domestic capital and reinvested corporate earnings. Operators confirmed that mobile network players and tower firms deployed a massive N2.13 trillion in capital expenditure throughout 2025, with an additional N1.86 trillion already budgeted for infrastructure expansion in 2026. This domestic momentum was heavily stabilized by the 50 percent tariff increase approved by the federal government last year, helping the industry move away from operational collapse.
Factual details from ThisDay back the telcos’ position, pointing out that “the massive disparity between formal capital importation and real-time network expansion proves that traditional investment tracking tools are failing to capture modern domestic reinvestment patterns.” Concurrently, economic summaries from Leadership affirm the trend, reporting that “ALTON is currently advocating for a unified tracking framework between the central bank, telecom regulators, and statistics boards to rectify these glaring data gaps.”
Echotitbits take: The pushback from telecom operators shows a significant structural shift in how Nigeria’s critical infrastructure is being financed. As foreign direct investment faces macroeconomic friction, domestic capital accumulation and targeted tariff adjustments are keeping the digital economy afloat; watch for whether the NBS and Central Bank of Nigeria yield to demands for a modernized, multi-agency financial tracking framework to boost investor confidence.
Source: The Punch – https://punchng.com/telcos-dispute-nbs-report-over-excluded-n2-13tn-domestic-sending/, June 8, 2026
Photo credit: Techeconomy
