MTN’s service in Nigeria could be disrupted as a result of rising insecurity in different parts of the country, the local unit of SA’s telecoms group said on Tuesday.

MTN Nigeria is the first company to acknowledge a possible disruption to its services due to insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation.

Nigeria faces increased insecurity across the country — ranging from mass abductions at schools, kidnappings for ransom, armed conflict between herdsmen and farmers, armed robberies and various insurgencies — a drag on growth and job creation.

“Sadly, we must inform you that with the rising insecurity in different parts of Nigeria, service delivery to your organization may be impacted in the coming days,” MTN wrote in a message to customers seen by Reuters.

“This means that in some cases, our technical support team may not be able to get to your site and achieve optimum turnaround time in fault management as quickly as possible.”

Nigeria is MTN’s most lucrative market out of the 22 countries the company operates in across Africa, Asia and the Middle East but it is also one of the most problematic.

MTN runs Nigeria’s largest mobile phone network which generates around a third of the company’s revenue.

Growth in Nigeria resumed in the fourth quarter after a Covid-19 induced recession but it lags the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, with food inflation, heightened insecurity and stalled reforms slowing the economy and increasing poverty, the World Bank said.