By Felix Khanoba
A civil society organisation, Grassroots Centre for Rights & Civic Orientation, has called for immediate reversal of the 50per cent hike in telecom tariffs announced by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).
In a statement issued on Tuesday by its Executive Director, Armsfree Ajanaku, the organisation criticized the NCC’s decision, describing it as unjustified and urged the Commission to prioritize improving the quality of telecom services across the country.
“Grassroots Centre therefore calls for a reversal of telecoms tariff hike. We call on the NCC to immediately share with Nigerians a comprehensive framework for ensuring telcos deliver in terms of providing Nigerians with world class telecoms service.
” Only such a service-driven approach can birth a telecoms industry, which will serve Nigeria’s economic development, not the arbitrary profiteering of a few telecom giants,” the statement said.
The group expressed concern that the tariff increase was implemented without adequate consideration of the current economic challenges faced by Nigerians.
It further criticized the NCC for yielding to pressure from telecom operators, whose substandard services, characterized by frequent call drops, internet downtimes, and glitches, continue to frustrate users.
“From dropped calls to internet downtime and glitches, Nigerians have continued to endure terrible services, while the regulatory body turns a blind eye.
” Looking at the NCC’s argument justifying the tariff hike, the emphasis was on the notion that ‘the tariff rates have remained static since 2013, despite the increasing cost of operation faces by telecom operators.’ Any reasonable observer would have expected the focus of the NCC to be on the quality of service being provided by the telcos. The fundamental question is: does the current quality of service on offer justify any hike whatsoever?
” Even if the cost of inflation and the exchange rate volatility is considered, does a 50 percent rise in tariffs, not an overkill at a time Nigerians are groaning as a result of economic hardships. As a regulator, is the NCC’s role to help the telcos engage in price gouging or to ensure a telecoms industry with world class quality of service?
The organisation also pointed out that the factors cited by the NCC, such as inflation, exchange rate instability, and rising diesel and network maintenance costs, were consequences of government policies that had worsened economic conditions for ordinary Nigerians.
“Grassroots Centre notes that with this increase, Nigerians would now be paying as much as N16.50k per minute for call from N11 per minute. The cost of SMS is also project to rise to N6 from N4, while the cost of 1 gigabyte data will now most likely rise from N431.25k from N350. At the last count, citizens have been reeling under the effects of higher fuel cost, higher payments for electricity tariffs and now an arbitrary hike in telecoms services. As such, there can be no disputing the fact that the latest hike is extortionate and driven more by the profiteering of the telcos, and not ideal objective of addressing the abysmally poor quality of telecoms services, ” the statement added.
