Abuja, Jan. 9, 2025 – The federal government will soon approve tariff hike for operators in the telecoms industry.
Dr Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, announced this on Wednesday after a meeting of the federal government and representatives of the telecom operators.
The meeting was held to discuss the contentious issue of tariff hike in the sector which had assumed a crisis situation in the last few days.
Tijani, who spoke on behalf of the federal government, said the federal government had agreed to accede to the demand of the telecom operators, but said that it would not be 100% hike as being demanded by the operators.
He said consultations and engagements were still ongoing with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to arrive at acceptable rates that would be announced in the coming weeks.
“You have seen over the past weeks that there has been agitation from some of these companies to increase tariff. They are requesting for 100 per cent tariff increase.
“But it will not be by 100 per cent. We are still looking at that study and NCC will come up with a clear directive on how we will go about it.
“We want to strike the balance as a government to protect our people, but also protect and ensure that these companies can continue to invest significantly.
“We need to ensure that as a sector, we get our acts together, ensure that from the regulation side, we put the right regulations in place that can ensure the growth of this sector.
“As a country, over time, we have left these investments in the hands of the private sector. They typically invest where they can see returns in the short to medium term.
“We will not want this conversation to just be about tariff increase. I think what the world is talking about today is meaningful connectivity,” he said.
Dr Aminu Maida, the Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, said that the meeting with stakeholders was about the sustainability of the industry.
“We have looked at all of these factors and that is why, like the minister said, it is not likely that we are going to approve 100 per cent tariff increase.
“I know that Nigerians are agitated to hear the exact percentage approved. There are still some stakeholder engagements that we are going through, but you will hear from us within a week or two.”
He said that the NCC had put a number of tools and instruments into place in reviewing its quality of service regulations for compliance.
He said that the operators must comply with the simplified templates to show Nigerians their charges per minute for voice calls, SMS and a megabyte of data.
“We are moving away from the regime where you will have a main rate, then you will now have a bonus which is at a different rate.
“It makes it often complicated and difficult for Nigerians to actually understand what they are being charged for.
“This is one of the things when we took a lot of time over the past year looking at data there is this agitation that the MNOs are stealing our data,” he said. (GBN)
