The House of Representatives, has urged the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend the planned tariffs hike by telecommunications service providers until their services improve.
The House has also mandated its Committee on Telecommunications to ensure compliance with the resolution.
This followed a motion sponsored under matters of urgent public importance on Tuesday by Hon. Oforji Oboku.
The lawmaker in the motion recalled how on Wednesday 8th of January, 2025, the Minister disclosed that telecommunication tariffs will soon increase, as according to the Minister, consultations are ongoing as there have been agitations from some of these companies to increase tariffs to as high as 100 percent.
“The argument of the telecommunications companies for the hike include the cost of investment, better networks, increasing demand for digital services across sectors such as education, banking and healthcare amongst others”, he said.
He also recalled that the minister had disclosed that the telecommunications companies have been advocating for the hike for the last eleven years, “according to the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) they argued that the telcos need cost- reflective tariffs in the face of adverse economic realities”.
“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 stated.
