- Increase Not 100% – Minister
THE Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has confirmed that cost of calls and data will soon increase.
He, however, assured Nigerians that the hike will not be 100 per cent, which is what the GSM operators are pushing for at the moment.
TIjani disclosed this at the end of a stakeholders meeting with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), yesterday, in Abuja.
He said that very soon, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would approve new tariffs and make it public.
“You have seen over the past weeks agitations from some of these companies to increase tariffs. They are requesting a 100 percent tariff increase.
“But it will not be by 100 percent. 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 and ensure that from the regulation side, we put the right regulations in place that can ensure the growth of this sector.” The minister also noted that the federal government would no longer leave investments in infrastructure in the sector to private companies alone.
“As a country, over time, we have left this investment 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.
“You want to have access to very good quality service.
“A part of it that the consumers may not be aware of is the investment that needs to go into the infrastructure that is used to deliver these services,” he said.
The Executive Vice-Chairman, EVC, of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said 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 a 100 percent tariff increase.
“I know that Nigerians are agitated to hear the exact percentage approved. There is still some stakeholder engagement 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 by revising its quality of service regulations for compliance service quality.
He noted that the MNOs must comply with simplified templates to show Nigerians 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, and then you will now have a bonus that 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 that, when we took a lot of time over the past year looking at data, there was this agitation that the MNOs are stealing our data,” he said.
Meanwhile, telecom subscribers had also urged telcos to consider alternatives to tariff hikes.
This comes as telcos, including MTN and Airtel, had recently written to the NCC for fresh tariff hike approval.
