Is MTN Nigeria Running a Data Empire or a Criminal Scheme?
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s effort to open up the digital economy is facing serious challenges, which are coming in the form of data exploitation. The move is having a negative telling effect on many, especially at a period when the economy is obviously struggling. It is obvious that data is the currency of participation in the government-planned digital economy drive.
It is therefore surprising that MTN Nigeria, a company that promises to be a partner in this revolutionary drive, has been engaging in underhand tactics to derail the growth of the country’s digital growth drive, as investigations have revealed it is manipulating usage metrics to inflate data consumption and extract more value from unsuspecting Nigerian users.
A growing body of evidence suggests that Africa’s largest mobile operator, valued at over ₦5.98 trillion as of May 2025, has been neck-deep in practices that amount to consumer fraud on a national scale, and at the center of the unfolding controversy is Mojisola Savage, a computer science student and aspiring AI engineer whose personal investigation is now exposing what she believes to be systemic manipulation by MTN.
Her journey began on May 1, 2025, when she purchased 165GB of data from MTN to support her studies in technology and machine learning. Surprisingly, the telecommunication company sent her a message within just seven days that the data was fully exhausted despite what she describes as minimal usage.
Systematic Testing on MTN Router That Uncovers MTN Discrepancies
Annoyed and determined, Mojisola Savage on May 9 repurchased 165GB of data, but this time, she decided to conduct a detailed test, monitoring her data usage through three independent sources available:
Actual usage logs from her Huawei 4G router,
Daily SMS usage summaries sent by MTN, and
Data balance readings from the official MTN mobile app.
Initial findings of her investigation revealed inconsistencies; SMS alerts were erratic, with missing updates, especially on May 10, when no update was sent, and, as anticipated, it was declared on May 16 that the data she purchased about seven (7) days earlier was depleted, even though her logs showed far less usage. The contradictions of the recorded data usage were so obvious and alarming; for example, on May 16, when MTN claimed her entire 165GB was used up, her router logs indicated only about 17GB had been consumed.
Date MTN SMS MTN App
May 9 22GB 22GB
May 10 (No SMS) 77.98GB
May 11 4GB 4GB
May 12 2GB 2GB
May 13 6.9GB 6.7GB
May 14 6.1GB 5.9GB
May 15 48GB 47GB
May 16 (No data) 17GB
The Confrontation
Believing she had gathered enough evidence to demonstrate a major fault in MTN’s system, Savage visited the MTN service center at Shoprite, Victoria Island, presenting full screenshots of her router logs, MTN SMS alerts, and app records.
But to her surprise, the MTN staff claimed that on May 10, the exact day no usage alert was sent, Apple Services alone had consumed 80GB of data. What the staff is saying is that despite the fact that she’s not using Apple TV or upgrading her Apple phones, her phone was said to have consumed a whopping 80 GB in a day, which incidentally was the day they skipped sending usage SMS.
This further confirmed her suspicion of a carefully orchestrated data fraud racket by the telecommunication company, as it seems more than just a billing error but a manufactured justification to cover up a much deeper problem.
In the course of seeking clarification on the initial discrepancies, Mojisola Savage later discovered another contradiction in the readings of the 3rd independent monitoring source while still at the MTN center: when her MTN-issued router dashboard showed zero, the MTN mobile app reported she still had 19 GB remaining, whereas the two (2) sources are both being operated by MTN, and the fact that they completely contradicted each other means there is indeed something fishy.
“Right there, I realized something was very wrong,” she said. “MTN’s claims didn’t just fail to add up; they actively canceled each other out.” She concluded.
A Controlled Experiment: The 200GB Test
Determined to remove any remaining doubt, Mojisola Savage takes her investigation a notch higher. While still at the MTN service center, she purchased 200GB of data and configured her Huawei MTN-issued router with precise internal bandwidth management rules:
- Limit total usage to 50GB out of the 200GB.
- Trigger a notification once 80% of that limit (40GB) was reached.
- Automatically cut off internet access when 50GB was fully consumed.
This setup would ensure that no more than 50GB could possibly be used under any condition.
According to her, “This time, I wanted to monitor every byte directly from the device, isolated from any external interference, especially from MTN.”
But like the proverbial witch that cries a day before a death occurs, just five (5) days later, MTN once again claimed that the full 200GB had been consumed. Whereas, the router’s own dashboard reported a mere 12GB of actual usage, making it convincing that data usage fraud is actually being perpetrated by the telecommunication company.
Below is what the daily breakdown from data reading that MTN SMS and App showed:
Date MTN SMS MTN App
May 16 2GB 212MB
May 17 (No SMS) 47GB
May 18 28GB 28GB
May 19 (No SMS) 27GB
May 20 (No SMS) 112GB
“According to MTN, I used over 40GB per hour between 1am and 3am on May 20,” Savage said. “That’s impossible. What can one person possibly do to burn through 40GB in an hour? Stream? Maybe I was watching 100 8K movies simultaneously?” she queried.
Suspicious and frustrated, Savage did what any basic network engineer would do: she pulled the internal usage logs directly from the router.
What she found was damning, because as of the time of writing this article, the router shows just 28GB total usage, a far cry from MTN’s claim of 200GB consumed. And unlike MTN’s invisible systems, the router’s logs can be audited, verified, and tested.
To validate her findings, we reached out to a network infrastructure expert, a certified Cisco and Huawei systems engineer with 12 years of experience in enterprise-grade broadband networks, to give us an expert and independent opinion about contradictions, and he explained that the routers are reliable.
In his words, “If properly configured, routers with bandwidth controls are highly reliable. They don’t just track traffic; they enforce limits.” He explained further. “In a case where the router shows 28GB and the provider claims 200GB, I would trust the router, especially when there’s a hard cutoff configured. For MTN’s numbers to be right, either the router is lying or something more concerning is going on.” He concluded.
Mojisola Savage, when contacted about the expert’s opinion, also gave her view. “We all know that a router can be audited. But can MTN’s accounting be audited the same way?” Savage asked. “Because if the router is right and all signs point to that, then MTN has some serious explaining to do.”
A Pattern of Evasion and Silence
Since the discrepancies first emerged, Mojisola Savage has made multiple formal requests to MTN, asking for a detailed breakdown of her data usage, something that includes timestamps, application logs, IP addresses, and traffic volumes. Till the time of publishing this report, the telecommunication company has refused to provide any such report.
All efforts to get the side of MTN have also proved futile, as the company is maintaining total silence; even messages sent to their social media handles were left unattended. This, we believe, is with the hope that the discovered fraud will die with the silence, but rather Savage keeps pressing on, seeking answers on their continuous silence. In her statement, “Why won’t they release a breakdown?” she asks. “Because it would have to match the router’s bandwidth logs, and it won’t. That’s why they’re hiding behind silence.” She suggested.
In the process of her investigation, she had meticulously preserved every piece of evidence: SMS alerts, screenshots from the MTN app, daily usage reports, and router bandwidth logs directly from the admin interface. She even maintained a full timeline of her activity, down to the minute.
She further revealed that “Since this started, I haven’t touched the router. I’ve kept everything intact,” she said. “If MTN tries to challenge me, I have the facts. I can show exactly what happened.”
Despite repeated follow-ups, MTN’s only responses have been generic messages and contradictory claims, none of which address the specific evidence Mojisola Savage has documented. The silence, in her view, is no longer just frustrating; it is a confirmation of a misdeed by the company.
Fraud, Incompetence, or Both?
At the heart of this controversy lie two questions. Savage argues that
- Either the Huawei router’s bandwidth tracking is severely flawed, which is improbable, given the device’s global reliability and its complete independence from MTN’s internal systems,
- Or MTN is knowingly fabricating usage data, attributing inflated consumption to vague background processes like the “Apple Services” to justify premature data depletion.
The question is why MTN is not releasing the logs if they are sure they have nothing to hide. It is expected they will treat her case as an example by releasing the logs to counter the claim together with a powerful press statement to back it up and clear the image of the company, but instead, they were hiding behind silence to shrug off accountability.
Another point is taking into cognizance the fact that Huawei’s routers have been tested by governments, corporations, and telecom providers worldwide, and they were found to be dependable and hardly a candidate for arbitrary failure. Whereas in contrast, MTN has offered no third-party verifiable data, no access to internal traffic reports, and no plausible explanation for the discrepancies.
Thinking about the MTN staff’s explanation, a bemused Mojisola Savage quipped, “Apple Services? On a non-Apple network setup? That’s not just suspicious; it’s absurd,” she said. “This isn’t a glitch. It feels like a system that’s been optimized for silent overcharging.”
Not an Isolated Case
Savage’s story is far from unique. Across social platforms like X (formerly Twitter), thousands of Nigerians have reported eerily similar experiences: abrupt data exhaustion, conflicting usage reports between the MTN app and SMS notifications, and a deafening silence from MTN when pressed for explanations.
“I bought data on March 19. No usage. No refund. MTN is ripping Nigerians off,” wrote one user on June 2.
Others were more blunt, calling the telco’s operations “digital extortion,” and one even described it as “a Ponzi scheme with airtime.”
Even public figures aren’t exempt. Afrobeat musician Seun Kuti recently took to Instagram to complain about losing over 1 terabyte of data. While he was out of the country
Since beginning her investigation, Savage claims to have uncovered at least 10 friends and acquaintances with similar unexplained data losses often dismissed by MTN without accountability or remedy.
“This isn’t anecdotal anymore. It’s systemic,” she said.
Regulatory Inactions: Aiding or Ignoring?
What makes this situation even more troubling is the deafening silence from the very institutions meant to protect Nigerian consumers. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the nation’s telecom regulator, has yet to issue a single public statement, let alone demand accountability from the telecom company, despite a growing volume of complaints and evidence.
“How can millions of Nigerians complain, and the regulator say nothing? Either they’re complicit, or they’ve abandoned their role.” Savage retorted in anger.
Critics argue that the NCC’s failure to act is not just negligence; it’s enabling. Without routine audits of telecom data systems, independent verification of consumer usage, or mandatory public disclosures, mobile operators are effectively left to self-regulate.
And in an environment where transparency is optional, exploitation becomes inevitable.
The Case for a Forensic Audit
In light of mounting discrepancies and public outcry, Mojisola Savage, along with a growing number of Nigerians, is calling for a full forensic audit of MTN Nigeria’s data billing infrastructure. The demand is simple: transparency, accountability, and truth.
This audit, she insists, must be conducted independently, under the supervision of a coalition that includes digital rights organizations, consumer protection agencies, and certified cybersecurity experts.
At a minimum, such an investigation should:
* Cross-examine MTN’s claimed data usage with actual router-level bandwidth logs.
- Identify and explain inconsistencies between SMS/app usage reports and real-world consumption.
- Review the basis of so-called automatic consumption by background services like “Apple Services.”
* Determine whether discrepancies are due to technical faults or deliberate overbilling.
Every Nigerian deserves to know the truth. Is our data being stolen byte by byte, or are they truly unable to explain where it’s going? For a country with one of the world’s most vibrant digital populations that truly wants to open up the digital economy in line with the goals of the President, the answer has never mattered more.
Legacy at Risk
For decades, MTN has positioned itself as a cornerstone of Nigeria’s digital evolution, powering commerce, education, and innovation across the country. But this unfolding crisis raises a stark and uncomfortable question:
Can a company claim to be a driver of digital progress while facing credible allegations of digital exploitation?
For Mojisola Savage, the answer is unequivocal.
“If they can’t explain where my 530GB went,” she said, “then they’ve already lost something more important than data trust.”
As the evidence mounts and public pressure intensifies, MTN now stands at a crossroads: defend its integrity with transparency or watch its reputation unravel byte by byte.
