Inside the fertilitly scam in Nigeria

Chioma is adamant that Hope, the baby boy she is holding in her arms, is her son.  After eight years of failed attempts to conceive, she sees him as her miracle baby.

“I’m the owner of my baby,” she says defiantly.

She’s sitting next to her husband, Ike, in the office of a Nigerian state official who spends the best part of an hour interrogating the couple.

As the commissioner for women affairs and social welfare in Anambra state, Ify Obinabo has plenty of experience in resolving family disputes - but this is no ordinary disagreement.

Five members of Ike’s family, who are also present in the room, do not believe Hope is the couple’s biological child, as Chioma and Ike claim.

Chioma claims to have “carried” the child for about 15 months. The commissioner and Ike’s family are in disbelief at the absurdity of the claim.

Chioma says she faced pressure from Ike’s family to conceive. They even asked him to marry another woman.

In her desperation, she visited a “clinic” offering an unconventional “treatment” - an outlandish and disturbing scam preying on women desperate to become mothers that involves the trafficking of babies.

The BBC was allowed by authorities to sit in on the commissioner's discussion with Chioma as part of our investigation into the cryptic pregnancy scam.

We have changed the names of Chioma, Ike and others in this article to protect them from reprisal in their communities.

Nigeria has one of the highest birth rates in the world, with women often facing social pressure to conceive and even ostracisation or abuse if they cannot.

Under this pressure, some women go to extremes to realise their dream of motherhood.

For over a year, BBC Africa Eye has been investigating the “cryptic pregnancy” scam.

Scammers posing as doctors or nurses convince women that they have a “miracle fertility treatment” guaranteed to get them pregnant. The initial “treatment” usually costs hundreds of dollars and consists of an injection, a drink, or a substance inserted into the vagina.

None of the women or officials we spoke to during our investigation know for sure what is in these drugs. But some women have told us they led to changes in their bodies - such as swollen stomachs - which further convinced them they were pregnant.

Women given the “treatment” are warned not to visit any conventional doctors or hospitals, as no scan or pregnancy test would detect “the baby”, which the scammers claim is growing outside the womb.

When it’s time to “deliver” the baby, women are told labour will only begin once they are induced with a “rare and expensive drug”, requiring further payment.

Accounts of how the “delivery” happens vary, but all are disturbing. Some are sedated only to wake up with a Caesarean-like incision mark. Others say they are given an injection that causes a drowsy, hallucinatory state in which they believe they’re giving birth.

Either way, the women end up with babies they are supposed to have given birth to.

Chioma tells commissioner Obinabo that when her time to “deliver” came, the so-called doctor injected her in the waist and told her to push. She does not spell out how she ended up with Hope, but says the delivery was “painful”.

Our team manages to infiltrate one of these secretive “clinics” - connecting with a woman known as “Dr Ruth” to her clients - by posing as a couple who have been trying to conceive for eight years.

This so-called "Dr Ruth" runs her clinic every second Saturday of the month in a dilapidated hotel in the town of Ihiala, in the south-eastern Anambra state. Outside her room, dozens of women wait for her in the hotel corridors, some with visibly protruding stomachs.

The whole atmosphere is buzzing with positivity. At one point, huge celebrations erupt inside the room after a woman is told she is pregnant.

When it’s our undercover reporters’ turn to see her, "Dr Ruth" tells them the treatment is guaranteed to work.

She offers the woman an injection, claiming it will enable the couple to “select” the sex of their future baby - a medical impossibility.

After they turn down the injection, "Dr Ruth" hands them a sachet of crushed pills as well as some more pills for them to take at home, along with instructions on when to have intercourse.

This initial treatment costs 350,000 naira ($205; £165).

Our undercover reporter neither takes the drugs nor follows any of "Dr Ruth’s" instructions and returns to see her four weeks later.

After running a device that looks like an ultrasound scanner across our reporter’s stomach, a sound like a heartbeat is heard and "Dr Ruth" congratulates her on being pregnant.

They both cheer with joy.

After delivering the good news, "Dr Ruth" explains how they’ll need to pay for a “scarce” and expensive drug needed for the baby to be born, costing somewhere between 1.5 and two million naira ($1,180; £945).

Without this drug, the pregnancy could extend beyond nine months, "Dr Ruth" claims with disregard for scientific fact, adding: “The baby will become malnourished - we’d need to build it up again.”

"Dr Ruth" has not responded to allegations the BBC has put to her.

The extent to which the women involved genuinely believe the claims is unclear.

But clues as to why they would be susceptible to such brazen lies can, in part, be found in online groups where disinformation around pregnancy is widespread.


A network of disinformation

Cryptic pregnancy is a recognised medical phenomenon, in which a woman is unaware of her pregnancy until the late stages.

But during our investigation, the BBC found widespread misinformation in Facebook groups and pages about this type of pregnancy.

One woman from the US, who dedicates her entire page to her “cryptic pregnancy", claims to have been pregnant “for years” and that her journey cannot be explained by science.

In closed groups on Facebook, many posts use religious terminology to hail the bogus “treatment” as a “miracle” for those who’ve been unable to conceive.

All of this misinformation helps solidify women’s belief in the scam.

Members of these groups are not only from Nigeria, but also from South Africa, the Caribbean, and the US.

The scammers also sometimes manage, and post in, these groups, enabling them to reach out to women expressing an interest in the "treatment".

Once someone expresses readiness to start the scam process, they are invited into more secure WhatsApp groups. There, admins share information about “cryptic clinics” and what the process involves.

 

‘I’m still confused’

Authorities tell us that to complete the “treatment”, the scammers need new-born babies and to do that they seek out women who are desperate and vulnerable, many of them young and pregnant, in a country where abortion is illegal.

In February 2024, the Anambra state health ministry raided the facility where Chioma “delivered” Hope.

The BBC obtained footage of the raid, which showed a huge complex made up of two buildings.

In one were rooms containing medical equipment - apparently for clients - while in the other were several pregnant women being kept against their will. Some were as young as 17.

Some tell us they were tricked into going there, unaware their babies would be sold to the scammer’s clients.

Others, like Uju, which is not her real name, felt too scared to tell their family they were pregnant and sought a way out. She said she was offered 800,000 naira ($470; £380) for the baby.

Asked if she regrets her decision to sell her baby, she says: “I’m still confused.”

Commissioner Obinabo, who has been part of efforts in her state to crack down on the scam, says scammers prey on vulnerable women like Uju to source the babies.

At the end of a tense interrogation, commissioner Obinabo threatens to take away baby Hope from Chioma.

But Chioma pleads her case, and the commissioner eventually accepts her explanation that she is a victim herself and that she hadn’t realised what was going on.

On this basis she allows Chioma and Ike to keep the baby - unless the biological parents come forward to claim him.

But unless attitudes towards women, infertility, reproductive rights and adoption change, scams like this will continue to thrive, experts warn.

By Yemisi Adegoke, Chiagozie Nwonwu, and Lina Shaikhouni, BBC

Related stories: Nigerian 'baby factory' where men were hired to impregnate women before the newborns were sold is busted with ten victims rescued including four bearing children

Video - Baby trafficking syndicate arrested in Imo state

 

A coastal community in Nigeria fears extinction

As a child growing up in Akodo-Ise, Kadiri Malik would pass a boulevard of coconut trees on his way down to the shore with his father to start the fishing day.

The two would walk, sometimes hand in hand, past lush vegetation before settling down to gather a bountiful harvest of fish. But that’s now a distant memory in the coastal village in Nigeria’s Lagos.

“This place used to be very beautiful,” the 40-year-old fisherman laments, sitting on the verandah of his house from where he can see the ocean in its blue, choppy glory. “[Now] all the coconut trees are no more, they have been taken by the water. The ocean used to be very far away, but now it is just a stone’s throw from us.”

The coconut belt used to be part of a scenic shoreline that brought economic gains for the fishing community and served as a natural buffer against the weather and natural disasters. But now, thousands of trees have been swallowed by the ocean.

Globally, coastal communities are grappling with the consequences of rising sea levels brought on by worsening climate change. Villages along Nigeria’s 853km (530-mile) coastline are no different, battling extreme weather events and accelerated sea level rise. Among the worst hit is Akodo-Ise, as it loses land to ocean encroachment.

Every day, Malik carries a heavy thought in his mind – that it is only a matter of time before the ocean surges and coastal erosion destroys everyone’s homes, handicaps the economy and washes away important community landmarks for good.

‘We do not have rest of mind’

The fishermen suffer the most.

Most of the violent ocean surges happen at night while people are asleep. The morning after, fisherfolk often find their boats and nets are gone.

“We the fishermen in this area do not have rest of mind at all … Before we know it, we have lost some properties like our net, our engine, boat,” says Malik, who has taken to dragging his boat close to the house and keeping his engine indoors. “It is always too late before we’d wake up to try and save our net and boat engines.”

In the past year, the community has lost more than 30 boats, 25 boat engines, and 50 bundles of net.

“This is our only source of income,” says Malik, whose family includes his wife, two children, two brothers and an aged mother – all of whom he must support. “If we don’t go to sea, how can we feed our family?”

Last year, he had made more than 500,000 naira ($300) in monthly profits by September, but he says this year his income has depleted as he has been making fewer trips to reduce the chances of losing his boat.

Finding a fair catch also takes more effort nowadays.

In the past, fishermen could fish nearby; now, with the rougher seas, they must travel further, consuming more fuel.

“In the past, we could use five to 10 litres [2.64 gallons] for a round trip, but now we use 35 to 40 litres [9.3 to 10.6 gallons],” Malik says.

Fuel is also more costly than it used to be since President Bola Tinubu removed a petrol subsidy upon taking office last year. A litre (0.26 gallons) of petrol that used to cost 165 naira ($0.10) last May now sells for 1100 naira ($0.65).
 

‘Beyond repair’

Standing by the shore, Johnson Igbokoyi helps his friends who have been out fishing pull in their boats, though he has not been to sea in more than three weeks as he bides time for a calmer ocean.

“You can fish today and tomorrow – then the day after that, your boat is destroyed. Then you start looking for money to buy a new one or mend it if it is not beyond repair,” says the 49-year-old father of two.

He has lost more than five boats to the ocean, most recently in July. Every time he has lost a boat, he has been able to find money for a new one, but now, he has no savings left.

For assistance, he took to a cooperative society – an organised monetary contribution scheme popular among working-class people in Nigeria – to borrow 3 million naira ($1,772) for a boat and a pre-owned engine. Every week, he must pay 10,000 naira ($6) to the cooperative until he repays the loan.

Rising inflation, currently at 32.7 percent, has also compounded his woes; previously, the same engine cost 700,000 naira ($414) but is now 2.5 million naira ($1,477). Brand new ones go for as high as 3.8 million naira ($2,245). Fishing nets also cost 85,000 naira ($50), up from 30,000 naira ($18).

“I do not have money should something happen,” Igbokoyi laments, saying his wife has also been struggling to adjust as she is unable to buy many of the things the family needs. “After the loan has been repaid, we can go back to the way we were living,” he says.

Like most fishermen in Akodo-Ise, Igbokoyi feels he cannot change careers. “This is the job passed down to me by my ancestors so I cannot just leave it for something else now. I did not even go to school at all; what career can I start now?” he asks.

Some 80 percent of African coastal communities depend on nature for their livelihoods, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Meanwhile, other local fishermen, like Kadiri Suluka, have faced more than just financial disaster. Last year, he and a coworker were out at sea when waves slammed against his boat and broke it into pieces. He feared he was going to die as the boat sank quickly.

“[We] could have died but we were spared. We swam back to shore because we had not gone very far,” says Suluka.

Now, with Suluka unable to work and his savings depleted, his family survives on charity. Sometimes colleagues give him fish or money and he also buys food on credit.

“The only thing it has not taken from me is my life,” he says with a sigh.
 

Development accelerating climate change?

On the road leading to Akodo-Ise, once-full mangrove forests are also depleting quickly – more evidence of the escalating climate disaster.

Less than 30 minutes up the road, there is the Lekki free trade zone, the Dangote oil refinery – the seventh-largest in the world – and the Lekki deep sea port, all grand economic ventures that signal the bubbling economic pulse of the area. But some of these projects have been accused of accelerating the climate challenges in nearby communities.

Lateef Shittu, the village chieftain, told Al Jazeera many problems started at about the time construction of the Dangote refinery began in 2004, and that dredging activities have forced water to push against their village.

Experts say the claims from Akodo-Ise about the effect of dredging and large-scale developments on its coastline are grounded in scientific evidence and observable impacts.

These projects “disrupt sediment flow along the coast, destabilising the shoreline and making it more vulnerable to erosion”, Adenike Adesemolu, the director of The Green Institute, a Lagos-based sustainability think tank, told Al Jazeera.

Dredging, in particular, can be highly destructive to coastal stability, she explained. By removing large amounts of sand and sediment from the seabed, dredging prevents the natural replenishment of beaches. When waves strike the shore, they need that sand as a barrier to dissipate their energy. Without it, waves hit the coastline harder, leading to faster erosion and violent sea incursions. This leaves the community defenceless against the sea’s natural force.

Large construction also alters the natural landscape by creating imbalances in water flow and wave patterns. Construction along the coast redirects waves which causes sediments to pile up, unevenly amplifying the risk of flooding, intensified erosion and violent sea incursions in nearby communities.

“We cannot ask them to stop developmental activities but they must have known it could have this kind of effect and they should have made provisions to cushion its impact on us,” Chieftain Shittu says.

Al Jazeera reached out to the Dangote refinery and the commissioner for waterfront communities to respond to the claims, but did not receive a reply.

Jenty Ibrahim, vice chairman of the local youth association, said young people – who make up the bulk of the fishermen – have tried to write letters to the authorities and have met with the Dangote refinery and the deep sea port to no avail. They have also held protests that have yet to yield any change.

With the future of fishing uncertain, many are turning to bricklaying or carpentry as professions out of desperation, Ibrahim says,” to make some money so they can feed [their families]”.

Chukwumerije Okereke, the director of the Centre for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, told Al Jazeera that “the government has to learn to rise up and protect the livelihoods of these people and put up measures that can help to cushion the impact of the erosion on the local people.”
 

‘Heartbreaking’

Forty-five-year-old Oluwaseyi Obadiya and her family have been in dire straits recently. An ocean surge in September destroyed their wooden home, spoiled her fisherman husband’s boat, ruined her kitchen and nearly drowned her daughter.

To earn money, her husband would catch fish and she would smoke some of it to sell at the weekly market. But since her husband cannot work, she has been out of business too.

With their home also gone, she found a room in a nearby house to rent until the family could figure out their next steps while living off meagre savings.

“We eat so little in a day and I no longer ask the children if they are satisfied, I only make sure they have eaten something however small,” she says. “They [children] complain of stomach ache but it is because they are hungry, not because they are sick.”

Shittu, the village chieftain, was another victim of the ocean surge in September, which cracked open half his house. He was out of town and someone called him in the middle of the night to inform him. He begged them to break down his door and salvage his essentials, but half the appliances, as well as vital documents, were destroyed by the water.

Now he and his wife can no longer live in their home and are temporarily staying in a room in Malik’s house.

“It is really heartbreaking for me. I used to be a homeowner and now I am living in somebody else’s house,” the chieftain says. “When issues happen in the community, they bring it to me to settle and now I don’t have a home to entertain the issues any more.

“Our people cannot sleep with both eyes closed; they are always anxious [that] something might happen.”

Not even the dead have been spared in Akodo-Ise. The coastal erosion washed away some of the graves in the village, leaving relatives without a memorial to honour their deceased.

Many have since started reburying their dead in locations safe from erosion. However, culturally, it is a delicate and sometimes costly process. According to Yoruba traditions, the family must kill an animal as part of a sacrifice and reburying ceremony.

In most cases, the family buys a ram or goat to be used in the reburying ritual. But many cannot afford it – with some buying sweets and biscuits as substitutes.

Chieftain Shittu is one of those who has had to rebury the remains of a relative.

“My grandfather died in 1956, I was not even born then but I have had to dig his grave and rebury him,” he says. “With which mouth will we say we can no longer find the graves of our forefathers?”
 

Future ‘in jeopardy’

Though resilient, the community is helpless in the face of an ocean coming very quickly to take everything they know and love, said Doyinsola Ogunye, a coastal restoration expert who has been working to highlight the community’s plight.

“The future of this community, if nothing is done to support and help to rebuild, is in jeopardy. I don’t think the children will have anywhere to live or learn. The school is being overturned by the encroachment of the sea,” she said.

The school building, shared with four nearby communities, has leaky roofs, the floors are damaged and there is discolouration on the parts more exposed to the water.

Meanwhile, Akodo-Ise’s plight is spreading across Lagos, with different parts of the city battling climate disasters such as flooding. In October, the government said Lagos is sinking and might be uninhabitable by the end of this century as experts warned that the sea level may rise faster than earlier said.

Okereke of the Centre for Climate Change and Development said the climate issues Lagos faces are due to bad planning, mismanagement, lack of efficient drainage systems and human refusal to respect the ocean.

Adesemolu of The Green Institute believes “it’s the result of unchecked development that overlooks the vulnerability of communities dependent on these lands.”

According to the World Bank, up to 70 percent of the world’s sandy beaches are expected to erode significantly by 2100 if current coastal practices continue, and 100 million people worldwide may face displacement by 2050 due to climate-related erosion.

Experts say reversing this damage requires urgent action: strategic environmental management, better regulation of dredging activities, and development that protects – rather than harms – coastal ecosystems.

Local-based approaches, such as mangrove restoration and planting, should be prioritised by the government, Okereke feels.

Akinsemolu agrees, adding that climate education sessions should be held for people in coastal areas, and the government should invest in community-specific early warning systems and emergency preparedness to help people safeguard their homes.
 

‘Are we going to become strangers?’

At his house overlooking the encroaching ocean, Malik sits mending a fishing net.

He is overwhelmed by sadness over his inability to help the community and can only watch as things erode day by day, concerned that if nothing is done, in a few years, the community may not exist at all.

“In two years’ time, are we going to be able to remain in this community or are we going to relocate to another community to become strangers? That is going to be a bad history,” he says.

He worries that his grandchildren will not have a place to point to as their grandfather’s homeland.

“This is my father’s burial ground,” Malik says sombrely, pointing in the direction of a grave. “Where am I going to take him to? Am I going to leave him to get washed away by the ocean surge?

“The government should come to our aid,” he adds quietly, “because we do not have the power to stop it.”

By Pelumi Salako, Al Jazeera

Brazilian meatpacker JBS agrees to invest $2.5 bln in Nigeria, build six factories

Brazilian meatpacker JBS said on Thursday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Nigeria's government for a $2.5 billion investment plan in the African country, including the building of six new factories.

In a statement, JBS said three of the factories would deal in poultry, two in beef and one in pork.
Based on the memorandum of understanding, JBS said it will build up a five-year investment plan in Nigeria, including feasibility studies, budget estimates and an action plan for local supply chain development.

The government of Nigeria, in turn, would ensure the economic, sanitary and regulatory conditions needed for the project's viability, JBS added. 

Reuters

Nigerians Are Switching Cars to Compressed Natural Gas After Petrol Prices Surge

Long queues of cars are a common sight at petrol stations across Nigeria, but for some drivers turning to compressed natural gas, pumps are becoming a thing of the past.

A fivefold increase in petrol prices since the rollback of fuel subsidies last year has convinced them to make the switch to CNG, which is much cheaper and far kinder to the environment.

At the NIPCO Plc station on the outskirts of Abuja, the capital, business is also brisk for retrofitting cars to run on compressed gas. It’s built a dedicated workshop, where mechanics install the cylinders and inject systems to make the switch.

“We are booked until the end of January at least,” said Chris Uche, the technician in charge. “There are so many cars waiting to be converted.”

The CNG shift reflects a push by Africa’s top oil producer to ease its reliance on crude by promoting investment in the country’s largely unexploited 200 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves, most of which are burned off or re-injected into wells.


Incentives are being offered to gas companies, tariffs and taxes have been waived on CNG equipment, taxis and other commercial drivers can get discounts, and a 10 billion naira ($6 million) credit facility has been set up for private car owners to take the plunge.

The “mission is to enhance Nigeria’s energy security, lower transportation costs, and reduce carbon emissions,” said Toyin Subair, vice-chairman of a presidential committee on CNG, which has set a goal of converting 1 million vehicles by 2027.

The country is on track to meet its initial goal for 100,000 commercial vehicles by end-2024, he said, “bringing substantial cost savings to transporters, reducing public transport fares for Nigerians, and advancing Nigeria’s clean energy objectives.”

While that’s a modest goal given Nigeria’s 12 million vehicles, and low when compared to Egypt’s 500,000 CNG cars, it signifies the nation’s clean energy ambitions.

The conversion involves installing a high-pressure gas tank and fuel lines, a pressure regulator and injectors. When CNG is injected into the engine, it is ignited by the car’s spark plugs, similar to how gasoline is burned in a conventional engine.

Vehicles driven for rideshare platforms Uber and Bolt, distinctive in their elderly Toyota Corollas, Honda Civics and Peugeot 206s, have been keen customers. Their cars are now being retrofitted to run on CNG that retails for 230 naira per liter, one fifth of the price of petrol. Some drivers have seen profits surge more than 400% a month.

“The only disadvantage it has cost me is the space in the boot. Passengers with luggage have proved to be an issue,” said Bolt driver Clement Sunday, whose gold-colored 2002 Peugeot 206 runs on both petrol and CNG. Also, it “doesn’t drive as fast because gas burns slowly, but the oil is cleaner, the smokes are gone. This is a cleaner option,” he said.

The bulky yellow gas cylinder in his boot takes up a third of the space but can power the car for 150 kilometers (93 miles) on a single 3,500 naira fill.

Sunday spent 800,000 naira to modify the car, an amount that was a third less than the starting price thanks to the government subsidy, and says he has since recovered the investment in full.

While such drivers are just discovering the appeal of CNG, it’s been used in the trucking industry for years, including by billionaire Aliko Dangote. His tanker fleet has been retrofitted to make the 700 kilometer journey between Abuja and the commercial hub Lagos, where his oil refinery is located.

Nigeria hopes that a combination of Dangote’s refinery and the push into CNG will help end its costly need to import refined petroleum. That’s paid for in dollars, straining the country’s foreign exchange reserves and weakening the naira.

Despite the incentives, the promotion of CNG remains a work in progress.

Gas is produced in southern Nigeria by oil majors including Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE, and is distributed to filling stations nationwide. But outside big cities, CNG use is low and even finding a station that sells it in Lagos or Abuja can he hard.

“We have to drive for two three hours to find a station, and as more cars are converted, the queues have lengthened,” said Sunday.

Also, other than the state-owned oil company and its partners like NIPCO, most gas distribution firms are staying away, describing the retail cost of CNG for cars as currently unprofitable because of price regulation.

Subsidy Substitution

“It is like replacing one subsidy with another, but we see the market settling at 50% - 60% of the price of petrol and diesel,” said Sumeet Singh, the chief executive officer of Powergas Africa Ltd, who prefers to sell CNG to factories and other industrial users where the price is unregulated.

The government says there are more than 90 conversion centers nationwide, with $450 million earmarked for investment in CNG infrastructure. Another 88 smaller stations are in development and mobile units to refuel up to 40 vehicles per hour are planned.

But the biggest hurdle to embracing the hybrid cars is probably safety concerns over driving with a gas cylinder on board. Unlike petrol, CNG reacts to temperature and risks exploding if not handled properly.

Its image wasn’t helped by a recent incident in the southern city of Benin when a car exploded while being filled up, injuring three people. The government, pushing back on what it claimed was misinformation on social media, said the accident was caused by an illegally-modified vehicle.

By Nduka Orjinmo and Ruth Olurounbi, Bloomberg 

Related story: Video - Nigerian drivers face hurdles in the transition to natural gas-powered vehicles

Starlink suspends new orders across Nigeria

Elon Musk’s Starlink says it has suspended orders for its residential kits across Nigeria with a note that the suspension will be lifted after securing approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for its recently announced price increment.

The company, however, allows orders for its high-end Business Plan, in which it is allowed to charge N159,000 for a monthly subscription compared with the Residential Plan which costs N38,000 per month.

“We’re committed to providing high-speed internet in Nigeria and are working closely with regulators to make adjustments that will improve the customer experience.

“Until these changes are approved, we are placing new Residential orders on hold,” the company stated in response to an attempt to order its kits.

Starlink sold out in some cities

Earlier, Starlink had stopped new orders in five major cities including Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Benin City and Warri because it was at capacity in those areas.

However, the current suspension cuts across Nigeria and it is hinged on the need to increase prices; a move that the regulator had frowned at.

Demand for Starlink services in Nigeria has soared since the Space X-linked company officially launched in the country in January last year.

Starlink had on the last day of September announced a 97% price increase for its monthly subscription from N38,000 to N75,000.

For new users, the company also increased the Starlink kits (hardware) by 34% from N440,000 to N590,000.

The company in a message to its customers in Nigeria cited “excessive inflation” as the reason for the increment.

The announcement had sparked controversy in the Nigerian telecom sector as local operators accused the NCC of double standard for allowing Starlink to increase price, which they are not allowed to do despite years of appeal to the regulator.

The NCC, however, responded saying it did not approve Starlink’s price increment.

The telecom regulator pointed out that Starlink’s action contravened sections 108 and 111 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, and its license conditions regarding tariffs.

NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr Reuben Muoka, later announced that the commission had commenced pre-enforcement actions against Starlink for implementing price increments without the approval of the regulator.

With the rebuttal from the telecoms regulator, Starlink suspended the announced increment with a warning that “without these approvals, our ability to continue delivering service is at risk.”

The company noted that while it is committed to providing high-speed internet in Nigeria, it would need regulatory support to make the improvements necessary for a better customer experience.

By Philip Shimnom Clement, Daily Trust