The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) have jointly launched a scheme that gives eligible learners daily free data to access approved educational platforms, effective from October 1, 2026. Under the arrangement, qualifying users receive up to 100 megabytes of free data each day for use exclusively on designated educational sites.
Over time, that adds up to roughly 700MB weekly, about 3GB monthly and as much as 36.5GB over a full year per learner.
NCC’s executive vice chairman and chief executive officer, Dr. Aminu Maida, said the scheme forms part of a wider push to build digital skills across Nigeria and aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s goal of growing the economy to $1 trillion.
He added that better connectivity could narrow the gap in access to learning resources, linking students to teachers and study materials regardless of where they live in the country.
ALTON chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, said the telecoms and wider technology sector has committed almost N200 billion in financial and in-kind support to cover the pilot phase, which targets 5,000 learners.
The figure accounts for the daily connectivity allocations, network capacity, devices, terminals and other contributions from industry partners, including original equipment manufacturers and tower companies.
Adebayo described the initiative as a multi-stakeholder partnership, with each party playing a distinct role.
He urged other stakeholders to join the effort, noting that meaningful digital education requires more than data alone and must be backed by devices, relevant content, reliable infrastructure, digital literacy programmes and sustained funding.
ALTON said it would continue working alongside the government, the NCC, the Federal Ministry of Education and other partners to track whether the programme produces measurable improvements in learning outcomes.
Reports said that Nigerians consumed about 1.6 million terabytes of data in July 2026, highlighting the rapidly growing appetite for internet services across the country. The latest figure from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) represented an increase of almost 47% from the 1.13 million terabytes consumed in July 2025.