Wednesday, February 12, 2025 - The House of Representatives has asked the Nigerian Communications Commission to suspend the recent 50 per cent hike in telecommunication tariffs.
The House gave the order on Tuesday citing economic hardship being
experienced by Nigerians owing largely to the removal of fuel subsidies.
The decision of the House was a sequel to the adoption of a motion of
urgent public importance sponsored by a member of the Peoples Democratic Party
from Bayelsa State, Oboku Oforji during Tuesday’s plenary.
Titled, ‘Need for the Nigerian Communications Commission not to approve
the impending hike in the telecommunications tariffs,” Oforji argued that
though the telecommunications companies premised the hike on rising operational
costs and the need for better service delivery; he noted that Nigerians were
already going through a lot, just to put food on the table.
He said, “The House is aware that
telecommunications companies have been advocating for the hike for the last
eleven years. The Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria and the
Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria argued that the telcos
need cost-reflective tariffs in the face of adverse economic realities like
record inflation of 34.6 per cent in November 2024 and losses resulting from
foreign exchange fluctuations.
Oforji reminded his colleagues that “The National Association of Telecoms Subscribers has rejected the
proposed increase in tariffs, describing it as insensitive and a further burden
on consumers already grappling with economic hardship, and poor network service
delivery.
“The telecommunications companies must improve on their service delivery
(poor network), which Nigerians have been yearning for for years, before
embarking on the increase in their tariffs.
“The far-reaching effects of these price hikes will deepen financial
struggles for the average Nigerian, threaten the country’s vision of leveraging
technology to drive economic revival, exacerbate poverty and widen existing
inequalities, hitting lower-income families the hardest.”
He added, “Affordable connectivity is a must for progress in
critical sectors like digital banking, education, healthcare, agriculture and
e-governance, stressing that “Informal sector workers who depend on affordable
mobile data to access gig work opportunities may find it harder to stay
connected.”
He further argued that small businesses “which rely heavily on
affordable telecommunication for operations, marketing, and customer
engagement, will face additional financial burden, noting that “It is estimated
that a 10 per cent increase in telecommunications costs would reduce small
business profitability up to 7 per cent, potentially leading to the closure of
businesses.”
In his contribution, a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance,
Dominic Okafor justified the increment, noting that without the hike in tariff,
service providers might find it difficult to deliver consumer satisfaction to
millions of Nigerians.
“For these telecom service providers to improve their performances, they
need to make money to make further investment in infrastructure but this
increment should not go as high as 100 per cent,” he said
Okafor’s position was however countered by a federal lawmaker from Edo
State, Billy Osawaru who called on the service providers to first improve the
quality of their services before coming up with a hike in tariff.
“Why is it that when things go wrong in this country, the poor people
must suffer? First, it was electricity tariff, now it is the turn of the
telecom companies. Nigerians must enjoy these services.
“In the developed world, people are not used to carrying two mobile
phones but this is the practice here. The thinking is if there is no service in
one, you might be lucky with the other one. I believe that this increase in
tariff should wait until services improve,” he said.
Following the adoption of the motion, the House urged the Minister of
Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and the Nigerian Communications
Commissions to suspend the impending hike in telecommunications tariffs until
their service improved.
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