On April 23, 2019, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority met with the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (Alton) to issue an ultimatum to operators.

During the meeting, Muhtar Usman (photo), director of the public institution, warned telecom operators that they had a 30-day deadline to comply with the statutory Aviation Height Clearance (AHC). After this deadline, the non-compliers’ towers will be pulled down. According to local media, close to 7,000 towers are threatened to be destroyed.

Sam Adurogboye, NCAA spokesperson explained that all the masts and telecom towers deployed by operators without NCAA’s approval represent airline safety hazard. Therefore, as those operators are aware of the law governing such deployment, they are just forcing the NCAA to take coercive measures.

The destruction of these telecom towers and masts could have a strong negative impact on the country’s telecommunications sector. This could result in poor service quality.

The destruction would also be a hard blow for telecom operators.