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The Federal Government has acknowledged plans to implement a hike in telecommunications tariffs, clarifying, however, that the increase will not reach the 100% mark proposed by service providers. This reassurance comes amidst growing concerns over the financial strain such a move could place on subscribers already grappling with economic pressures.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, disclosed the government’s position on the proposed telecom tariff adjustments. His remarks aimed to clarify the administration’s approach to balancing industry growth with consumer protection.
The Minister further stated that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would be responsible for outlining the modalities of the tariff adjustments, emphasizing a methodical and balanced approach to addressing the interests of all stakeholders in the telecom industry.
Tijani said, “We’ve look at a number of things in terms of how to ensure that can meaningfully contribute to the development of Nigeria.
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“Some of those things include implementing the Executive Order around ensuring that we can protect infrastructure around telecoms, driving up significantly local content and importantly, ensuring the sustainability of the companies themselves that as we see inflation across the world that telecommunications companies, we don’t run them down but we allow them to continue to be sustainable so that they can contribute to our economy.
“You have seen over the past weeks that there has been agitation from some of these companies to increase tariffs, requesting for 100% tariff increase. This is not something that as a government we will be able to subscribe to at the minute.”