Four months ago (in January 2025), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved a significant telecom tariff of 50%, which was implemented on 11th February, 2025. Some of the justifications given for the decision were due to rising inflation and foreign exchange volatility, resulting in higher operational costs for telecom operators. The objective of the approval of the increase is to ensure the sustainability of the industry. Accordingly, the NCC mandated that telecommunication companies (telcos) must improve their network quality within three months, with intensified scrutiny and heavier penalties for non-compliance. This condition was part of the tariff increase approval process. Consequently, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) insists that the “telecom tariff increase must result in significant service improvements”. Furthermore, the FCCPC and NCC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure robust consumer protection, fair competition, and the eradication of exploitative practices in the telecommunications sector.
Nigerians and other telco customers have accepted the increase in telecommunications tariffs on calls and data. This is despite initial resistance by a lot of Nigerians and also the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), who at one point threatened to go on strike if the telecommunication companies did not return to old tariffs.
However, while some of us were not against the increase in the telecommunications tariff, I believe that the very important issue of quality service delivery and actual value for money should have been the issue on the front burner. As it is, call drops, poor data connections, and incessant network downtime are continuing, without tangible sanctions or pay back to telco customers for call drops or data loss. Consequently, Nigerians lose Billions of Naira daily due to call drops, poor call or poor data network quality, and outright network downtimes without consequences. These are the critical issues that I expect the NLC and all telco customers to focus on and push back on because telecommunication companies are not taking responsibility for service failures. This should no longer be acceptable!
Nigerians should not be made to continue losing money without remediation or explanation by the service providers or the regulators as to why things should continue this way. This should no longer be acceptable, given the justification given to stakeholders in support of the increase in telco tariffs. If nothing is done by the relevant agencies of Government, i.e. Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCP), Nigerians will continue losing money with the attendant socio-economic impacts because life is almost now entirely dependent on telecommunication whether it is security economy, business, health, social activities, etc.
It is a fact that for about twelve years, the telecommunication companies did not increase their call and data tariffs. It is a fact that Nigerians have been facing brutal socioeconomic conditions, which have escalated in the last ten years. But suffice it to say that the latest increase in the tariff is huge. So, on one side, the telecommunication companies may say that the increase in tariffs is justifiable. However, the increase in the cost of living and the cost of doing business in Nigeria have affected all businesses, not just telcos. Of course, the cost of Diesel and other forms of alternative power, the cost of providing security to telecommunications base stations and other sites all add to the operational costs of telcos. However, the question is: “Over the years, have Nigerians been really getting actual value for the money they pay for the communication services (calls and data)? We all know that the service qualities we get from all the service providers, vis-à-vis the costs of data, are not up to par.
In my view, and most Nigerians will agree with me, the service providers are making a lot of money on data without an empirical commensurate value to customers in terms of the quality of service, and also in terms of the throughput that customers should get. For example, if a person or business pays for 1GB of data, will they get the actual value for the money they pay for 1GB of data? And/ or if there are incessant downtimes or poor quality of service, are there remediations to cover for the poor service delivery, apart from periodic apologies? Indeed, the service providers will not accept apologies for even 1 Kobo less of the money for whatever service they provide!
Therefore, NCC, FCCPC, the organized labor, civic society, consumer forums, and citizens should be more proactive in engaging the telecommunication companies to ensure that they provide services in Nigeria in line with best practices. So, I think there is a need to step up surveillance of service quality and consistent engagement to achieve best practices and outcomes. There is also a need for improved regulation enforcement. This is especially so given the fact that all the telecommunication companies have been making the highest revenue and profits in Nigeria, above and beyond other countries that they operate in on the entire African continent in the past 25 years. This is also even while taking cognizance of the income downturn they experienced last year or 2. Indeed, the over 20 years that they have been posting Billions of US Dollars in profit over-compensate the short-term losses. I therefore urge all the relevant regulatory institutions to do the needful, particularly in the area of the quality of service, and remediation upon failure. By the way, I wonder if we have empirical ways to determine that everybody is getting value for their money for the telecommunication services.
In fairness to the telcos, we know that they’ve been making losses recently due to increased cost of operations, as I mentioned earlier, but having been allowed to increase the tariffs, they have no excuse for providing sustained, inconsistent service quality. My advice to the NLC and other advocacy groups is that while the conversation is going on, the focus should be on the quality of service we are getting, on data, and on calls. Key areas to clarify should include: “What are the values we are getting for each service. I believe that remediations should be given by the service provider and/ or penalties should be imposed on the service provider for poor service, as some of the ways to ensure that customers get the best value for money. Customers have the right to challenge the telcos through the appropriate mechanisms/ channels if they don’t deliver value as promised. Customers also have the right to put the NCC and FCCPC on their toes to ensure that when we pay N100 Naira for a call or data we get value for our N20 Naira.
Credit:The Nation