By Adebayo Obajemu
It appears there is no respite yet for digital financial consumers, especially those who make use of the Internet facility, as the service has remained at its lowest ebb in the last six days, churning out very low speed, and in some cases totally down.
The network downtime has made banking transactions difficult, especially across all electronic banking platforms, including online, ATMs, Instant Transfers, among others.
Subscribers have been having hitches downloading and uploading content online, while bank customers too are faced with incomplete transaction processes.
Investigations by Business Hallmark showed that various banking transactions, which rely on the Internet facilities have remained poorly-served in these past days, and subsequently impacted financial transactions.
Many bank customers, who tried doing instant transfers, using some USSD platforms belonging to some of the financial institutions found it very difficult, recording huge failure rates.
The banking halls too have not been finding it easy, as crowd besieged some of the halls, which forced some banks to extend service hours beyond the normal time.
These disruptions, according to investigations, were as a result of network down time suffered by Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement ( NIBBS), which affected some financial technology platforms across the country.
The development led to delays in transfers and other payment services, causing many customers pain as they were unable to complete transactions through mobile banking apps and fintech platforms. For clarity, NIBSS conducts an instant payment platform that powers real time electronic funds transfers between banks and financial institutions in the country.
Medicine After Death
Last week, some of the payment channels alerted their customers about the challenge. Carbon and KongaPay informed their customers. KongaPay noted that incoming transfers into KongaPay accounts were affected.
“We are currently experiencing a temporary issue affecting incoming transfers into KongaPay accounts, and our partners are working diligently to resolve it as soon as possible”, the payment platform said last Tuesday.
As at Friday some Nigerians who spoke with Business Hallmark complained of accounts being debited in transaction process without the funds reaching the individuals intended for.
Adisa , a 46-year-old mechanic along Alakuko road said he purchased about 1500 airtime and was immediately debited but telco network did not credit his line.
” I was talking to one of my clients when my call card finished. Immediately I purchased about 1500 worth of airtime but was not credited. As I speak it has not been rectified despite my call to customer service.”
A Carbon customer, Nkechi could not complete her money transfer transaction to one of her brother at University of Ilorin. “I sent the money through Carbon to my brother’s Access Bank account , and despite the fact that I was debited he did not receive the money.”
For Ajoke Samuel, last week’s network downtime was an experience rather she did not remember. “I needed to send money to my son who was about to finish her NYSC orientation at the camp in Ede, Osun state. I sent the money through my Zenith online app, I was instantly debited but he didn’t receive the money. I was totally disturbed and was looking for way to borrow money and go to banking hall to send when I saw his text message that they had paid them the 77k that I shouldn’t bother to send any money.
Regular Challenges
Network down time has been a recurring decimal of recent. Between January and August 2025, over 19,000 fiber cuts occurred, averaging 80 daily, impacting the backbone of financial connectivity. And this has always led to network down time.
This has often morphed into disputes over debt between banks and telcos to threats of USSD service suspension, endangering financial services for millions of users.
70% of network downtime is linked to power failures, as generators at towers run out of fuel.
In today’s digital age, the financial services sector is increasingly reliant on technology to provide efficient, reliable services. Nigerian banks are no exception, as they harness advanced technologies to deliver banking services to millions of customers. However, when these systems experience downtime, the repercussions can be severe. These systems downtime stem from a variety of reasons from network and infrastructure failure to other cybersecurity threats such as ransomware attacks, DDoS attacks, and software glitches and upgrades to mention a few.
Abiodun Hasan, a post graduate student of banking and finance at the University of Lagos told Business Hallmark that ” Last week was tough for many who relied on digital banking on account of network down time of the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement. The network downtime paralyzed digital banking. How does it work? It works by severing the connection between customers, mobile banking apps, USSD platforms, and bank servers. Without telecom infrastructure (mobile data and SMS routing), electronic transfers fail, point-of-sale (POS) terminals go offline, and ATM withdrawals stall, bringing daily economic and commercial activities to an immediate halt.
“For clarity, the specific ways telecom outages cripple digital banking include transaction failures and processing delays.
Also Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) relies entirely on a stable telecom signal to route banking requests. When the network is down, dialling bank codes results in session timeouts, dropped requests, or undelivered transaction menus.
There’s also App and Fintech bottlenecks. It must be noted that mobile banking apps and digital wallets (like OPay or Palmpay) cannot process payments if the device lacks internet access. Even if a bank’s internal servers are functional, the last-mile connection to the customer’s device remains broken”, he said.
But some experts say Nigeria’s telecom network problem may be much deeper than most people realise.
Dr. Okubayo Onimole, an expert in telecom in his chat with BH
highlighted the impact of infrastructure vandalism and fuel theft on service continuity.
According to Onimole, “fiber-optic cables are frequently damaged during road construction projects, while diesel theft at telecom base stations continues to disrupt power supply at network sites.
New industry data from the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, shows that telecom operators recorded 5,934 fibre cuts in just the first three months of 2026.
That means the industry experienced nearly 500 fibre cuts every single week.
And for subscribers, those cuts often show up as the everyday frustrations people already know too well:
slow internet, dropped calls, unstable networks, and sudden service outages, stalled digital banking transactions.
Self Made Problems
The data shows that March alone accounted for 3,855 fibre cut incidents, making it the worst month of the quarter.
But the bigger issue is what’s causing the damage.
According to the report, degradation was the leading factor behind most of the fibre cuts. This includes environmental wear, human activity, and other forms of physical damage affecting telecom infrastructure.
Road construction projects also contributed heavily, alongside vandalism, cable damage, theft, bush burning, and equipment sabotage.
At the same time, operators recorded more than 1,100 telecom equipment theft cases within the same period.
Cables, diesel, batteries, and generators were among the most stolen infrastructure components and that creates a difficult cycle for telecom companies.
Instead of spending more on expanding network quality and infrastructure, operators are constantly forced to repair damaged systems, replace stolen equipment, and respond to outages.
As more Nigerians come online and internet demand keeps rising, the network itself is still struggling with repeated physical disruptions happening almost every week.
Onimole concluded that “The deeper issue is that Nigeria’s telecom infrastructure may have been labelled “critical national infrastructure,” but the level of vandalism, theft, and damage suggests the protection around it is still weak.