NCC increase call tariffs by 50% Nigerians to spend N16.50 per minutes on calls.

The Nigerian Communications Commission approved a 50 per cent tariff adjustment for telecommunications operators in response to increasing operational costs and prevailing market conditions.

According to a statement made on Monday by the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, the decision was made under the NCC’s regulatory powers as stipulated in Section 108 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003.

The approved adjustment falls significantly below the over 100 per cent increase initially requested by some network operators.

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Based on the 2023 national telephone traffic data, this hike could generate over N6.74tn in revenue for telecom operators in 2025 if call volumes remain stable. Hence, Nigerians may pay this amount to the firms.

However, this projection excludes the impact of free and discounted call promotions, which may alter actual revenue figures.

An analysis of data from the latest 2023 Subscriber/Network Performance Report by the NCC showed that in 2023, total outgoing telephone traffic was 205.3 billion minutes, while incoming traffic stood at 203.2 billion minutes.

The report read, “As of December 2023, total outgoing Local and National Traffic was 205,298,114,995.11 minutes while Total incoming Local and National Traffic203,187,588,876.00 minutes. MTN had the highest total outgoing and incoming traffic of 122,667,600,437.00 and 123,762,501,615.00 minutes, respectively, in 2023.”

This implies that Nigerians spent about 408.5 billion minutes making local calls in 2023.

Our analysis also excluded international calls, although Nigerians spent 1.5 billion minutes on international calls in 2023, according to the NCC.

However, the new pricing may affect consumer behaviour, as more Nigerians may shift towards over-the-top messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, which offer cost-free alternatives.

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