Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, has disclosed that the anticipated hike in telecom service prices may push the floor costs of calls, SMS, and data up by between 30 and 60 percent.
This is less than the 100 percent that telecommunication firms have asked for. The minister disclosed this recently while appearing on a Channels TV program, where he insisted that the 100 percent increment requested by the telecom operators is impossible.
The minister noted that the increase will be between 30 percent and 60 percent. “It shouldn’t be more than anywhere between 30 percent to 60 percent.”
If the 60 percent is adopted, the average cost of phone calls will increase from N11 to N17.60 per minute, SMS charges will rise from N4 to N6.4, and the price of a 1GB bundle will increase from N287.5 to N460.
Tijani highlighted that increasing costs by 100 percent will be harmful to citizens who are dependent on telecom services. “This sector is responsible for driving growth in our country, it will be harmful to our people to allow the MNOs to increase by 100 percent,” he said.
