The Federal Government has approved the planned hikes in telecom tariffs by MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, but it will not be the 100 percent that telecom operators are pushing for at the moment.

This was the outcome of a stakeholders’ meeting with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) with the Minister of  Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Minister disclosed during the consultations and engagements meeting that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), would soon approve the new tariffs and make it public to Nigerians.

He said: “You have seen over the past weeks that there has been agitation from some of these companies to increase tariff. They are requesting for 100 percent tariff increase.

“But it will not be by 100 percent. We are still looking at that study and NCC will come up with a clear directive on how we will go about it.

“We want to strike the balance as a government to protect our people, but also protect and ensure that these companies can continue to invest significantly.

“We need to ensure that as a sector, we get our acts together, ensure that from the regulation side, we put the right regulations in place that can ensure the growth of this sector.”

The Minister also noted that the Federal Government would no longer leave investments in infrastructure in the sector to private companies alone.

As a country, over time, we have left these investments in the hands of the private sector. They typically invest where they can see returns in the short to medium term.

“We will not want this conversation to just be about tariff increase. I think what the world is talking about today is meaningful connectivity.

The Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said that the meeting with stakeholders was about the sustainability of the industry.

“We have looked at all of these factors, and that is why, as the Minister said, it is not likely that we are going to approve a 100 percent tariff increase.

“I know that Nigerians are agitated to hear the exact percentage approved. There are still some stakeholder engagements that we are going through, but you will hear from us within a week or two.

” He said that the NCC had put some tools and instruments into place by revising its quality of service regulations for compliance service quality. He said that the MNOs must comply with simplified templates to show Nigerians charges per minute for voice calls, SMS, and a megabyte of data.

We are moving away from the regime where you will have a main rate, then you will now have a bonus which is at a different rate.

“It makes it often complicated for Nigerians to understand what they are being charged for.

“This is one of the things when we took a lot of time over the past year looking at data there is this agitation that the MNOs are stealing our data,” he said

The CEO of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh, represented by Femi Adeniran, Airtel media spokesperson, noted that for the telecoms commitment to delivering superior connectivity and fostering digital inclusion, there is need for tariff increments.

“The economic realities of rising operational and capital costs necessitated the proposed tariff adjustments.

This is aimed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the sector while unlocking significant benefits for Nigerian consumers,” he said.