Reverse the Tariff Hike, NAAT asks Telecom Companies: Report

Reported by Tanuja K February 24th, 2025 at 07:49 pm

Global telecom body, GSMA has supported this tariff hike by the operators. As per a statement from GSMA, this tariff hike will allow the telecom operators to boost telecom infrastructure in the country, which will ultimately help the consumers.

Highlights

The telecom operators in Nigeria recently hiked the mobile tariffs for consumers.
The scale of the hike was 50%.
This is massive hike for the consumers.

reverse the tariff hike naat asks telecom

The telecom operators in Nigeria recently hiked the mobile tariffs for consumers. The scale of the hike was 50%, as per reports online. This is massive hike for the consumers. The National Assoication of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has asked the telecom companies to reverse the tariff hikes. At present, the tariff hikes are under assessment by the Nigerian government's review committee.

This is not all. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), largest labour union in Nigeria, had also voiced against the tariff hikes by the telcos. The telcos were only able to go ahead with the 50% tariff hike after the approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Nigerian telecom operators have long been struggling with low tariffs amidst global inflation and currency fluctuations.

Global telecom body, GSMA has supported this tariff hike by the operators. As per a statement from GSMA, this tariff hike will allow the telecom operators to boost telecom infrastructure in the country, which will ultimately help the consumers. GSMA noted that with this tariff hike, the telecom operators will be able to unlock about $150 million of additional investments which would help with increasing 4G coverage to 94% of the population. This means moble internet for 9 million additional phone users and 2 million of those in the underserved areas.

MTN Nigeria, a prominent telecom operator in Nigeria has even defended the tariff hikes. MTN Nigeria's CEO, Karl Toriola, said that the recent tariff hikes by the mobile operators are essential for the survival of the telecom industry in Nigeria. As per Karl, the tariffs should have ideally gone up by 300%. The telecom operators in India also increased the price for their mobile plans in July of 2024, post which there was heavy criticism by the consumers. However, after several months, things have smoothened out for the telcos and people seem to have accepted the new tariffs.