The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has explained that competition has made the country’s telecommunications service tariffs remain relatively cheap despite the recent tariff hike.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Aminu Maida, disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.
Maida said the voice call rate in Nigeria still hovers around N18 per minute since the early 2000s due to healthy competition in the telecoms sector.
“But today, even with the 50 per cent, up to 50 per cent increase, which, by the way, not all of them did. Right now, I’m inundated with complaints that, oh, this person is refusing to retire the old tariff, or that person is trying to undercut you. It’s about N18 (per minute).
“I think the most expensive is about 18 or 19 naira per minute. So in the early 2000s, we were 15 naira. Today, the maximum is 18 naira. That’s competition at work.”
He assured that the commission would scale up rules and enforcement to encourage competitiveness, including adequate disclosure by operators in the country’s telecoms industry.
