Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has clarified that the 50 per cent tariff increase approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for in the country was necessitated by inflation and rising operation costs.
 
Responding to questions at the 2025 budget defence session by the joint House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Communication, yesterday, the minister said 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.
 
He added that tariffs act as a sales tax, causing a one-off price increase rather than sustained inflation. Tijani further informed that the Federal Government was planning to invest N6 billion to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to expand the country’s capacity from 35,000 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 stated, “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 in Nigeria but become companies that will provide these services for neighbouring countries as well.
 
“We want our people to become the employees that will go out and do this work. 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.”
 
What most people, he added, do not pay attention to is that the country left investment in telecommunications infrastructure to private companies, which would only want to maximise profit. “They use a data set, which is called night-time satellite data, which will look down on the economy at night.”
 
The minister, however, informed the committee that the ministry was not adequately funded to discharge its responsibilities.
 
“They don’t have appropriate software to track those who are supposed to pay. We know that this ministry, outside of the agency, can generate much more revenue if we have the resources to chase up on those things,” he explained.
 
In his remarks, the Co-chairman, Senate Committee on Communication, Shuaib Salisu, highlighted the contribution of the communication sector to the economy. He stressed the need to review the 2025 budget of the ministry to enable it to deliver its mandate effectively.  The committee adopted a motion requesting the Committee on Appropriation to consider an upward review of the ministry’s 2025 budget.