Minister explains 50% tariff increase in telecom services

The Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has justified the 50 percent tariff increase in services rendered by telecommunication outfits, saying it was due to inflation and rising costs of operation.

The minister spoke while responding to questions at the 2025 budget defense session by the joint House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Communication on Tuesday.

He added that the move was in tandem with broader economic patterns, where tariffs lead to higher consumer prices as a result of additional costs on imported goods, adding that tariffs act as a sales tax, causing a one-off price increase rather than sustained inflation.

The minister further informed that the Federal Government is planning to invest N6 billion to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable to expand the country’s capacity from 35,000 kilometres to 125,000 kilometres.

According to him, the planned deployment of more fibre optic cables is an initiative aimed at fostering growth in critical communication sectors in the country.

He added, “Because outside of South Africa and maybe Egypt, perhaps Tunisia, a lot of countries have a serious deficit in cable. This is going to become a big business. We want Nigerian companies not only to lay cables in Nigeria but become companies that will provide these services for neighboring countries as well.

“And we want our people to become the employees that will go out and do this work. We’ve seen more companies like South Africa benefiting from global business. They can now create security, but not only have to.

“So this is something we focus on. On security, we’ve seen a problem. You cannot secure a society if you don’t have strong communications.

“And 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 where they can make money. In fact, they use a data set, which is called nighttime satellite data, that looks down on the economy at night.

“And they will see where light exists, and that’s where they will put their money. Because those lights, for them, indicate economic activities.”

The minister, however, informed the committee that the ministry is not adequately funded to discharge its responsibilities.

He added, “The ministry is underfunded. It’s not as funded as the NCC. So the ministry, each time, is unable to track all the people that are using services and those who are meant to pay on time.

“They don’t have appropriate software to do the tracking. So because of this, they’re unable to spend the money. We know that this ministry, outside of the agency, can actually generate much more revenue if we have the resources to follow up on those things.”

In his remarks, the Co-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Communication, Senator Shuaib Salisu, noted the contribution of the communication sector to the economic growth of the nation.

He stressed the need to review the 2025 proposed budget of the Ministry to enable it to deliver its mandate effectively and efficiently.

The committee, therefore, adopted a motion requesting the committees on Appropriation to consider an upward review of the ministry’s 2025 budget.