Residents and business owners in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory have continued to lament the persistent disruption of mobile networks in the area, particularly those of MTN Nigeria and Globacom. The residents say most of the network providers in the area have abandoned customers who depend largely on their networks to transact business.
The residents were hard hit on Wednesday when they woke up to yet another disruption in mobile network services affecting users of MTN Nigeria, a development many say is crippling communication and business activities in the area.
Reports early Wednesday morning indicated that MTN subscribers across Bwari and neighbouring communities were unable to access network services, leaving many residents stranded without communication or internet connectivity.
A check by DAILY POST confirmed the situation, with several residents complaining that the network failure had severely disrupted commercial activities, particularly transactions that depend on internet connectivity and mobile banking services.
Some residents who spoke with DAILY POST noted that the problem was not new, stressing that the community has been battling intermittent network failures from both MTN and Glo Mobile for a long time without a lasting solution from the companies.
Mr. Koboko Master, a popular Nigerian comedian who resides in the area, described the situation as a recurring challenge that frequently leaves residents cut off from communication.
“MTN Internet in our area is bad, very bad. Sometimes the network disappears totally, and you become completely incommunicado, except for those who have routers that can still use WhatsApp. But if you don’t use WhatsApp, it means you will miss everything entirely.” He said.
“This has been very consistent. It turns on and off regularly. It’s not something that happens once a year or once a month. It happens consistently, and it is a very big problem,” he added.
Madam Ogochukwu Jenifer, a building materials dealer at SCC Bwari and an MTN subscriber, also lamented that the poor network service was negatively affecting her business.
“The network is very bad in this Bwari area,” she said.
“Honestly, it is affecting our business. You cannot use the internet, and so many things are not working. You want to do transactions, but there are no transactions because of the network.
“So it’s not funny. No communication means no business. Things are just standing still.”
A banker in the area who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that the persistent network problem was affecting not only individuals and businesses but also banking operations.
“Most of the time, people come with complaints about failed transactions, but at the end of the day, you discover that the problem is not with us. It’s because they don’t have good internet service to complete their transactions, or they don’t have a network at all,” he explained.
“That situation is also affecting us here because people who normally do simple transactions at home are forced to come to the bank. That can lead to an increase in customer queues,” he laments.