The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has announced that Nigerians will soon face a 30-60% increase in telecom tariffs.
Tijani disclosed this in an interview with Channels Television.
Tijani emphasized the need to balance the sustainability of the telecom sector with affordability for Nigerians. He assured that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would soon approve and announce the new tariffs.
“I think the telecommunications tariff increase should not be more than 30 to 60 percent.
“The sector is about investment in infrastructure; the technologies are changing, so you have to keep investing in technology. Things like 3G will be decommissioned at some point because you have higher technology, so they have to keep investing in equipment. And we all know that there is inflation. For us, as we are protecting them, we want to keep importing capital in the sector. The foreign direct investment in our sector in the first quarter of 2024, driven by telcos, was close to $199 million; this is bigger than the entire inflow in 2023. We can’t get to a $1 trillion economy if mobile network operators are investing at a snail’s pace,” he stated.
This decision comes in response to the demands from telecom operators who have been pushing for a 100% hike due to rising operational costs and inflation.
Get instant and latest news updates via Our WhatsApp Community, X/Twitter or Google News online channel.