The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has announced that there will be a hike in telecom tariffs, but it will not exceed 60 percent.

In an interview with Channels Television, the minister said, “I think they should only increase by not more than anywhere between 30 to 60 percent".

Tijani pointed out that approving a 100 percent tariff hike would be harmful to Nigerians, stressing that allowing such a significant increase would hinder the country’s growth.

“We’re asking difficult questions, like can we possibly increase the local content in that sector, meaning can we reduce the amount of imports that are coming into that sector, which means they have to look for foreign exchange, which is more expensive. We’ve declared all their infrastructure as critical national infrastructure, that’s something they’ve been looking for for years. President Tinubu did that last year.

The reason is that when people go and vandalise telecommunications equipment, it drops the quality of service that people get, but it also costs this company a lot to repair. We’re taking that away.

If you look at the tax reform, for instance, there are a number of things there to harmonise taxes that they pay to reduce it in a way that is good for the country, but also allows these companies to thrive.

We are, as a country, for instance, investing in that 90,000 kilometres that I mentioned. When we do the investment, it will allow these companies to be able to reach more people.

If we’re investing in towers in difficult-to-reach locations, in rural areas, it will give them the opportunity to increase the pool of customers that they have without making heavy investments,” he said.