The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has announced that Nigerians should expect a 30-60 per cent increase in the cost of calls, data, and other telecom services.
Speaking in a recent interview with Channels Television, Tijani explained that the telecommunications industry is heavily reliant on investment to drive Nigeria’s economic growth. He emphasized that despite inflation, sector investors must continually upgrade their equipment to stay competitive.
“I think the telecommunications tariff increase should not be more than 30 to 60 percent.
“The sector is about investment in infrastructure; the technologies are changing, so you have to keep investing in technology. Things like 3G will be decommissioned at some point because you have higher technology, so they have to keep investing in equipment. And we all know that there is inflation. For us, as we are protecting them, we want to keep importing capital in the sector. The foreign direct investment in our sector in the first quarter of 2024, driven by telcos, was close to $199 million; this is bigger than the entire inflow in 2023. We can’t get to a $1 trillion economy if mobile network operators are investing at a snail’s pace,” he said.
