Nigeria’s biggest Mobile Network Operator (MNO) by subscriber base, MTN Nigeria has threatened to shut down its services in the country if the regulatory authorities failed to heed the current call by telecommunications companies for an upward review of the tariffs for calls and data.
The telco’s Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, gave this hint on Monday during a tour of MTN’s facilities by Fellows of the Media Innovation Programme in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
The industry expert explained that the telcos had been recording huge losses in operations as a result of the fiscal and monetary policy headwinds in the country, thereby necessitating the need for urgent review of the current tariff rates for voice and data services.
While emphasising the necessity for reforms in the industry, Toriola quipped: “We must return the industry to profitability.”
According to him, MTN Nigeria is currently operating on its reserves, which he described as unsustainable in the long run.
Earlier this year, the MNOs had renewed calls for a tariff hike in order to address rising operational costs and improve service quality, stressing that without such adjustments, financial viability and service standards will continue to decline.
Toriola listed some of the sector’s critical pressures as including escalating diesel prices which continued to increase the operations of the telco’s base transceiver stations.
He maintained: “There should be no delusion; if the tariff doesn’t go up, we will shut down,”
Toriola noted that MTN, once one of Nigeria’s top corporate taxpayers, had been remitting lower tax in recent months as a result of the financial challenges.
Speaking further, he also warned that MTN may suspend Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) banking services due to the N250 billion debt owed telcos by Nigerian banks, which despite the regulator’s intervention was yet to be fully paid.
Despite the inclement operating environment, Toriola expressed optimism that the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso, and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Aminu Maida, would intervene to help resolve the ongoing financial crisis being contended with by the MNOs
While stressing the critical roles the telecom industry is playing to boost Nigeria’s economic growth, the MTN chief urged the Federal Government and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as the industry regulator to act quickly to prevent the negative consequences the suspension of services by the telcos for the nation.
