The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has announced that telecommunications companies (telcos) will fully introduce new tariffs by March.
Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of ALTON, disclosed this while speaking to journalists at a forum with telecom executives. He said telcos are currently filing, reviewing, and obtaining regulatory approvals before implementing the new rates.
The tariff adjustment follows the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) approval of a 50 percent hike on January 20. Three days later, Wale Edun, Minister of Finance, confirmed that telecom tariffs would undergo periodic reviews.
Adebayo stated, “So we are now following what is called the regulatory requirement, regulatory steps of filing, review and obtaining approvals.
“As soon as those approvals come through, different players will introduce new rates as the time comes.
“I’ll say over next week, we start seeing some improvement in the prices.
“Over the next month, we should start seeing some total introduction in what the new rates will be like, but it’s important that we’ve come to a point where what has to be done has to be done for the sector to survive.”
Adebayo emphasized that the adjustment is necessary for the survival of the sector, arguing that telecom operators should not be expected to subsidize other industries.
“The other side of it is that the sector cannot be the subsidy for other sectors.
“So you can’t say because cost of garri and pepper and okro has gone up, we now have to subsidise people’s living by providing services that are sold at lower than cost. It’s a matter of time before we start seeing the negatives.
“I think it is important that we need to charge rates that are sustainable and we can’t stand as a subsidy for the problems of people in other sectors, which is not the problem caused by the operators.
“Government cannot outsource that problem to their network operators to solve for the public.
“The government needs to provide adequate palliatives to help people live, and our services cannot be used for those palliatives,” he added.
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