The National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has indicated its plans to file a lawsuit against Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country over their moves to hike telecom services tariffs.
The President of the association, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, who gave this hint at the weekend rued the proposed 100% tariff hike by the telecom operators, describing it as excessive and unsustainable
Ogunbanjo, who expressed the association’s position on the planned tariff hike during a chat with The Punch newspaper, urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) not to approve the operators’ request based on what he termed its subscriber-unfriendliness.
According to him, initially, subscribers were looking at a marginal increase of five per cent to 10 per cent but the NCC considered a 40 per cent increase and now, the telcos are proposing 100 per cent, which is unacceptable to subscribers.
The NATCOMS President said that the proposed tariff hike would raise the cost of a voice call from N11.00 to N22.00 per minute, an SMS from N4.00 to N8.00 per message, and a 1GB data bundle from N1,000 to N2,000.
Ogunbanjo warned that NATCOMS was ready to challenge any approval by the NCC that is opposed to the subscriber in court, stressing that “this is a sector of national interest, and we will not hesitate to seek legal redress to protect subscribers’ rights.”
As an alternative step to improve their funding, he advised the MNOs to explore the capital market as an alternative to raising tariffs.
He said: “They can go to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise funds. Nigerians will buy their shares, and I am confident it will be oversubscribed. MTN has already done this successfully; other operators like Glo and Airtel should follow suit.
“If the operators cannot meet their financial needs after raising funds through the stock exchange, they can return to the table for discussions”, Ogunbanjo advised.
He argued that the proposed hike would disproportionately affect low-income subscribers and could hinder access to essential communication services.
It would be recalled that the chief executive officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Karl Toriola, had a few days ago confirmed that the telcos had submitted the tariff review proposals to the NCC for the 100 per cent tariff hike, describing the move as essential for the sustainability of the telecom sector.
He said: “We’ve put forward requests of approximately 100 per cent tariff increases to regulators. I doubt they’re going to approve that quantum of increases because they are very, very sensitive to the current economic situation in the country.”
