Protests, terrorist attacks, abductions, etc. Nigeria has been grappling with rising insecurity over the past months; a situation that deters the activities of many businesses across various sectors, sparing not even a telecom giant such as MTN.

MTN Nigeria, the country's largest mobile network operator, said it could disrupt its service due to mounting insecurity in many parts of the country. 

The local subsidiary of the South African eponymous group, in a message cited by Reuters, announced: "Sadly, we must inform you that with the rising insecurity in different parts of Nigeria, service delivery to your organization may be impacted in the coming days."

"This means that in some cases, our technical support team may not be able to get to your site and achieve optimum turnaround time in fault management as quickly as possible," MTN added.  

Insecurity in Nigeria, MTN's most profitable market, has been rising rapidly in the past months. Conflicts among herdsmen in the north, mass abductions, kidnapping for ransom, and the terrorist threat which still looms, are progressively causing an air of panic to spread across the country. 

What is the government doing to abate the issue? According to the APCLAC, an awareness campaign group that is part of the ruling party, the Buhari administration is determined to rid Nigeria of crime and criminality. The government, the group said, is working closely with the States and Local Governments, and the Legislature and Judiciary, to continue to initiate more reforms that can improve the capacity of security agencies to secure the country. 

On Tuesday, June 15, the World Bank cited heightened insecurity among factors that were a drag on growth and job creation in Nigeria. The Bretton Woods institution, in its latest update on development in Nigeria, forecast a GDP growth of 1.9% in 2021 and 2.1% in 2022 for the country. This is against 3.4% and 4% for sub-Saharan Africa, in the same respective years. 

Schadrac Akinocho