The federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari says data price has been reduced by more than 50 per cent following a directive that the Nigerian communications commission (NCC), should put in place measures to that effect.
This online news platform understands Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami disclosed this in a statement issued by his Technical Assistant, Femi Adeluyi in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Thursday, December 10.
Accordingly, the price of data of 1GB has been reduced from N1000 to N487.
The Minister of Communications and digital economy Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami who broke the news said it was in line with the directive he gave to the regulatory agency (NCC) to put measures in place to reduce the average cost of data in the country.
“This was based on a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) submitted to the Honourable Minister following the implementation of the directives,”
Adeluyi, who is Technical Assistant, Information and Technology, said: “The Honourable Minister had inaugurated a committee that developed the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) on the 16th of December, 2019.
“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).
“Based on 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 Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, through the NCC, will continue to ensure that consumers enjoy a price regime that supports fairness and is friendly to consumers.
“Policies are in place to ensure that operators adopt competitive pricing that eschews unjustifiable margins. The general public may also wish to note that complaints about rapid data depletion are also being investigated.
“For more enquiries, the Honourable Minister has directed NCC to respond to all issues raised by our citizens and customers.
“All hands will remain on deck to achieve the goals of the Broadband Plan as the Ministry supervises its implementation in line with our National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria.”
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