The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, on Tuesday defended the decision to approve a 50 per cent tariff hike for telecom services, despite widespread backlash and legal threats from advocacy groups and subscribers.
Minister Tijani, who appeared before lawmakers to defend the ministry’s budget, explained that the tariff hike was driven by broader economic pressures, including rising inflation and the cost of imported goods.
“Rising inflation and operational costs are the reasons for the recent tariff increase,” Tijani, who is also spearheading the country’s ambitious 90,000-kilometre fibre project, explained to the lawmakers.
Further, he said, “What most people don’t pay attention to is that historically, we’ve left investment in telecommunications infrastructure to private companies.
“And these private companies will only go to where they can make money. They use a data set, called night-time satellite data, which will look down on the economy at night.”
