NEW TELECOM TARIFF MAY CAUSE BREAK DOWN OF LAW AND ORDER, NATIONWIDE PROTESTS
Written by darling on January 28, 2025
BY CHRISTIAN NWOKOCHA
Nationwide protest is in the making, following the recent approval by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, for telecommunication operators to increase tariff by 50%, an action some analysts have said may cause break of law and order.
Reports had it that the huge financial burdens occasioned by the devaluation of the naira and increasing operational costs in Nigeria, telecom operators such as MTN and Airtel had pushed for a 100% tariff increase on telecom services.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, had on Monday, January 20 announced the approval of a 50% tariff increase.
To implement the new tariff, Nigerians are expected to pay N16.5 per minute for calls from instead of N11, SMS will now cost N6 from N4, and the cost of 1 gigabit of data – N431.25.
Recall that the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC had, while reacting to the proposed tariff increase, rallied Nigerians to reject “another harsh burden”, threatening to mobilize workers to boycott telecom services across the country.
