Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has recently unveiled that it has approved a 50 per cent tariff increase in Nigeria’s telecommunications operators’ tariff which has brought a big change in the Nigeria telecommunications pricing model.
This decision has been made in what many have seen as a bid to address rising operation costs experienced by service providers even as it does not meet the industry’s demand for an over 100 percent hike.
It is Monday’s statement on the regulatory move that was aimed at successfully weighing the sustainability of the telecommunications business and consumers. The approved increase has been designed to keep within the 2013 tariff bands and will be applied in line with the ‘Commission’s 2024 Guidance on tariff simplification.
This adjustment derives its legal authority from Section 108 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 by which NCC functions to control and give approval to the tariff rates within the telecommunications industry. The approach used by the Commission shows their willingness to sustain an effective telecommunication industry as well as their consideration of service affordability to consumers.
Deciding to add this string, the NCC has stressed its further commitment to consumers’ protection and indicated that measures will be taken to ensure that prices will not go beyond the indicated increase. This balance plan seeks to offer an advanced solution to the various concerns of service providers especially those that have to do with running costs without having to make the product unreasonably expensive for the end user.
The introduction of such a tariff adjustment is rather appropriate at a time when telecommunications businesses in Nigeria as well as other emerging market economies have been experiencing a lot of operational hitches owed to various structural shifts in the economy and the business environment.
The decision is a major regulatory measure that seeks to guarantee the future viability of the telecommunications services in the country however without excluding consumers’ fair and affordable access to such services as may be required in the society.
The implication of this development could be realised in the fact that it may spur significant changes in the provision of service in the telecommunications service industry in Nigeria to a level that may affect both providers and or consumers of telecom services across the country.
Therefore, the attention paid to consumer protection alongside industry sustainability that has been centred by the NCC indicates continuous assessment and the possibility of modifying this newly adopted paradigm of pricing.
