FG okays tariff increase for telcos based on sustainability report from KPMG

The Federal Government said it has received an interim report on the sustainability of the telecommunications industry from KPMG and has thereby increased the tariff telcos operators in the country.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, disclosed the new development on Wednesday in Abuja.
In a December 2024 television interview, Tijani hinted at a sustainability report on the telecoms sector coming in early January 2025 and that it would improve the sector.
The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, equally told The Guardian that KPMG was working on a sustainability report.
Indeed, the sustainability report is expected to make recommendations on the raging issue of tariff review being clamoured by the telecom operators, which claimed that the industry’s sustainability faces a severe threat with the current tariff regime.
Accepting the interim report, Tijani said the government would strive to strike a balance between the sustainability of the telecom sector and the availability of connectivity for Nigerians.
“Today, I welcomed consultants from KPMG Nigeria and SimmonsCooper Partners as they shared an interim report on the sustainability of Nigeria’s Telecoms Sector.
“As a government, we are working to find a balance between the sector’s sustainability and ensuring the availability of meaningful connectivity for our people.
“This report is part of our commitment to ensure that we achieve our goal of providing internet access as a human right for all,” he said.
The minister had said that the government was looking at a medium to long-term solution in response to the request for a tariff increase by the telecom operators.
According to him, the study by KPMG was to identify issues around the sustainability of the telecom sector and what the government would need to do to support the industry.
He added that beyond the call for a tariff increase, there are a lot of other issues that need to be addressed by the government, and that was why the study was conducted.
Meanwhile, Minister Tijani met with representatives of telecommunications companies including MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Globacom, 9Mobile, including the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to discuss issues around increase in tariff.
According to the minister, very soon, the NCC will approve and make the new tariffs public to Nigerians.
“You have seen over the past weeks that some of these companies have been agitating to increase tariffs. They are requesting a 100 per cent tariff increase. But it will not be 100 per cent. The NCC will soon come up with a clear directive on how we will go about it,” the Minister said.
The Minister emphasised the need to ensure that the telecommunication sector gets its acts together to put the right regulations in place to ensure the growth of this sector.
“We want to strike the balance as a government, to protect our people, but also protect and ensure that these companies can continue to invest significantly,” he said.
The Minister also said that the Federal Government would no longer leave investments in infrastructure in the sector to private companies alone.
“As a country, over time, we have left these investments in the hands of the private sector. They typically invest where they can see returns in the short to medium term.
“We will not want this conversation to just be about tariff increase. What the world is talking about today is meaningful connectivity, people want to have access to quality service.
“A part of it that the consumers may not be aware of is the investment that needs to go into the infrastructure that is used to deliver these services,” he said.
Also speaking, the Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC), of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said the meeting with stakeholders was about the sustainability of the industry.
He said the regulators had looked at all of the factors in the industry and it is not likely that the Commission would approve a 100 per cent tariff increase just as stated by the Minister.
Acknowledging that Nigerians are agitated to hear the exact percentage approved, Maida said there are still other stakeholder engagements to be held, adding that the decisions would be communicated in one or two weeks’ time.
He said that the NCC had put a number of tools and instruments in place to ensure compliance to service quality.
He urged also the MNOs to adopt simplified templates to show Nigerians charges per minute for voice calls, SMS, and a megabyte of data.
“We are moving away from the regime where you will have a main rate, then you will now have a bonus which is at a different rate.
“It makes it often complicated and difficult for Nigerians to actually understand what they are being charged for. There is this agitation that the MNOs are stealing our data,” he said.