The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday launched a new telecom industry corporate governance guidelines which stipulate revocation of licence, board dissolution, heavy fines, suspension of licence among others for non-adherence to any provision of the guidelines.
The new guidelines also bar any NCC top management staff from joining the board of any telecom firms until after five years after leaving NCC.
Speaking at the launch of the corporate governance guidelines for the telecommunications industry in Lagos on Wednesday, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said stronger corporate governance is central to sustainability of the telecom industry in the country.
Maida said effective boards ensure disciplined capex, energy and site-security
strategies, and cyber resilience—reducing outages, protecting data, and improving customer outcomes.
“The Guidelines on Corporate Governance, 2025 are a decisive step toward a resilient, ethical, and innovative telecoms industry”, he explained.
According to him, the telecom industry’s sustainability demands that boards and management teams are configured and incentivized to deliver reliable service quality, strong compliance, prudent leverage, robust cybersecurity, responsible supply chains, and credible disclosures—year after year.
He said finding from a research conducted last year by NCC shows that “firms with stronger governance consistently demonstrated superior service performance, higher compliance with NCC regulations, and more resilient financial results. The evidence affirms an important truth: good governance is not merely a regulatory requirement— it is a strategic imperative for business success and long-term sustainability.”
He added: “We examined board composition and diversity, board effectiveness, value systems and business conduct, compliance and ethics, audits, risk management, and corporate social responsibility, and correlated these with financial performance, service performance, and regulatory compliance over time. The results were clear and compelling: firms with stronger governance consistently demonstrated superior service performance, higher compliance with NCC regulations, and more resilient financial results. The evidence affirms an important truth: good governance is not merely a regulatory requirement— it is a strategic imperative for business success and long-term sustainability.”
He explained that the Guidelines on Corporate Governance 2025, elevate practice where it matters most: Board Strength & Independence.
Daily Trust reports that the new guidelines stipulate a balanced composition of Executive Directors (EDs), Non Executive Directors and INEDs.
It also makes separation of Chair and CEO; and sector-specific expertise—particularly ICT and cybersecurity—on the Board mandatory.
He said the provisions in the guidelines are mandatory for individual licensees, implemented in phases by licence class, and designed to embed cultures of accountability, adaptability, and sustainable value creation.
Though implementation of the guidelines will begin next year, he said NCC would continue to engage with stakeholders in the industry on how the implementation could be without problems.
In his paper presentation, the CEO of Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Dr Armstrong Takang, said Nigeria’s economy could only be revived if all MDAs and private firms uphold good corporate governance.
Takang said many Nigerians continue to blame the government for the bad economy while they themselves fail to uphold corporate governance guidelines in their individual corners.
