Costs of calls, data to go up, FG confirms

Costs of calls, data to go up, FG confirms

Users of telecommunication services in Nigeria will pay higher costs as the Federal Government has agreed to the demand of industry operators for a tariff hike.

But the hike will be below the 100 per cent increase requested by service providers, the government has said.

Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, disclosed this during an industry stakeholders forum in Abuja on Wednesday.

“The essence of this gathering is recognizing the critical role the telecom sector plays in driving Nigeria’s economic development,” Tijani said.

“Tariff will go up. That’s the verdict. But it won’t be by 100%.

“We need to ensure that as a sector, we put the right regulations in place that can ensure the growth of this sector, continue to contribute to job creation, but also enable other key sectors in the country as well.”

This implies that prices of calls, data and SMS will go up for the average Nigerian.

Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Telecommunications commission (NCC), Aminu Maida, also said that tariff adjustments would be accompanied by measures to simplify billing systems and increase transparency.

He said, “We’ve revised our quality of service regulations, bringing the entire value chain into scope for compliance, from MNOs to tower codes and transmission companies.

“So when we do see these tariff modifications, it’s also going to come with simplification.

“So every MNO or every service provider must comply with a simplified template; to show Nigerians what you are charging per minute, per voice, per SMS, and per megabyte of data.”