FG Crashes Data By 50 Percent.
The Federal government said on Thursday that the price of data has been reduced by more than 50 percent following a directive that the Nigerian Communications Commission [NCC], should put in place adequate measures to that effect.
Accordingly, the price of data of 1GB has been reduced from N1000 to N487 beginning from last November.
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 effective measures in place to reduce the average cost of data in the country.
In a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja, Dr Pantami’s Technical Assistant, Mr Femi Adeluyi stated that; ”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 Honorable Minister following the implementation of the directives”.
Continuing, he said; ”The Honorable 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, GCFR, 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 N1000 per GB, the maximum projected steady decrease for the end of each year was as follows; 2020 [N925], 2021 [N850], 2022 [775], 2023 [700], 2024 [545] and 2025 [N390].
”In line with Dr Patanmi’s commitment to under-promise and over-deliver, the measures have caused the current cost of data to reduce significantly beyond the December projection of N925. Based on the report by NCC, the average cost of data as at November 2020 was N487.18, which amounts to 47.33 percent lower than the projected value.
”The report also indicates that the cost of data in November 2020 was less than 50 percent 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 inquiries, the Honorable 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 out National Digital Economy policy for a Digital Nigeria”.
