Why Federal Government slashes data cost by 50 percent ─Minister

*The Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, through the NCC, will continue to ensure that consumers enjoy a price regime that supports fairness and is friendly to consumers –Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, Honourable Minister for Communications and Digital Economy

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

In line with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) directive aimed reducing the current cost of data significantly beyond the December 2020 projection, the Federal Government of Nigeria has said the price of data has been reduced by more than 50 per cent in the country.

ConsumerConnect reports that the price of 1GB data has been reduced from N1000 to little above N487 as of November 2020.

Nigerian mobile Internet consumers

Mr Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant to the Minister, in a statement Thursday, in Abuja, FCT, quoted Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, Honourable Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, to have stated that the measure was in line with the directive handed down to the telecommunication regulatory agency to put measures in place to reduce the average cost of data in Nigeria.

Dr. Pantami noted “the average cost of 1GB of data has reduced from the January 2020 cost of N1000 to N487.18 in November, 2020.

“This was based on a Report by the NCC submitted to the minister following the implementation of the directives.

“The minister had inaugurated a Committee that developed the National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) on December 16, 2019.”

The statement also revealed “the plan was unveiled and launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on   March 19, 2020.

“One of the goals of the plan is to reduce the average cost of 1GB of data to a maximum of N390 by 2025.

“With the January 2020 baseline of N1,000 per GB, the maximum projected steady decrease for the end of each year was as follows: 2020 (N925), 2021 (N850), 2022 (N775), 2023 (N700), 2024 (N545) and 2025 (N390).”

Adeluyi stated that “in line with Dr. Pantami’s commitment to under promise and over deliver, the measures have caused the current cost of data to reduce significantly beyond the December 2020 projection of N925.

“Based on the Report by NCC, the average cost of data as at November 2020 was N487.18, which amounts to 47.33 percent lower than the projected value.

“The report also indicates that the cost of data in November 2020 was less than 50% of the cost of data in January 2020.”

The statement added that the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, through the NCC, “will continue to ensure that consumers enjoy a price regime that supports fairness and is friendly to consumers.

“Policies are in place to ensure that operators adopt competitive pricing that eschews unjustifiable margins.

“The general public may also wish to note that complaints about rapid data depletion are also being investigated.

“For more enquiries, the minister has directed NCC to respond to all issues raised by our citizens and customers.”

All hands will remain on deck to achieve the goals of the Broadband Plan as the Ministry supervises its implementation in line with our National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria, said the Minister’s Technical Assistant.