Nigerians disagree with FG over claims of 50% slash of mobile data cost

Nigerians have kicked following the Federal Government’s claim that the cost price of mobile network data has been reduced by 50 per cent in November 2020.

The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy had issued a statement on December 9, 2020, claiming that the cost of 1GB data has been reduced from N1000 to N487.18 in November 2020.

The statement which was signed by the Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Femi Adeluyi said the information was based on a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) submitted to the minister following the implementation of the directives.

“In line with the directives of the Honourable Minister of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, measures have been put in place to significantly reduce the average cost of data.

“The average cost of 1GB of data has reduced from the January 2020 cost of N1,000 to N487.18 in November 2020. This was based on a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) submitted to the honourable minister following the implementation of the directives.”

But when Tribune Online spoke with some Nigerians, they nothing has changed as far as the cost of mobile data in the country is concerned.

They said they have been using N1000 to purchase N1GB of data recently, as the supposed reduction had not been reflected.

Mr Shola Idris said: “I recently bought data of 1GB and it cost me 1,000 Naira, though I was given a bonus of 500MB in addition to that.”

He, however, suggests that government agency in charge of regulating the telecoms to dialogue with all the telecommunications company and find a way to sincerely reduce the cost of data.

Mr Idris said this move would benefit the country’s economy, education sector, in fact, all sectors in the country. “The current cost of data is too high and affect Nigerians negatively,” he noted.

Another mobile network user Bassey Efa said he was yet to witness any reductions of any kind.

“I subscribe MTN, Glo and Airtel. The charges for data are still the same, though there’s a additional data for night browsing by Glo and data bonus by MTN, all dependent on the amount you recharge.”

Ubah Chibuzor described the claims by the government is hilarious and laughable. “I just subscribed my 9mobile data and didn’t enjoy any new changes,” he said.

Furthermore, Iheanyichukwu Kelechi said “it is no longer news that the exorbitant rate at which the cost and manipulations of data in Nigeria had skyrocketed in the recent is alarming.

“I bought Etisalat for a thousand naira that was meant to carry me for a whole month but eventually got exhausted in three weeks. I have not experienced any change whatsoever.”

For Oklo Otache, he said he recently bought 1GB from 9mobile network for N1000, though he was given 24MB extra.

“But I noticed if you subscribe to that plan twice in a month, 500MB will be added upon your second subscription of N1000 for 1GB,”

The government said through the statement that “based the report by NCC, the average cost of data as at November 2020 was N487.18, which amounts to 47.33% 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 minister had inaugurated a committee that developed the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) on the 16th of December, 2019. The plan was unveiled and launched by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari on the 19th of March, 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).

“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.”

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