The Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to compel telecommunications service providers to reduce the prices of data being offered subscribers.
Making the revelation, Personal Assistant to the Minister on New Media, Yusuf Abubakar, said Pantami gave the directives after he received a progress report on the implementation of Short-Term Performance Targets set for the NCC.
In the statement, Abubakar revealed that the minister was worried that Nigerians were paying so much for data without enjoying value for money spent.
He bemoaned a report from a UK-based price comparison website - Cable, noting that Nigeria is not among the top 10 African countries with a low average price of data.
The statement reads in part “The Minister also finds it unacceptable that with the prevailing high cost of data in Nigeria, the citizens still do not enjoy value for money as subscribers' battle daily with illegal deduction of data, poor quality of service, among others".
The ministerial aide further stressed that it's against this backdrop that the Minister directed the NCC, the telecom regulators, to immediately work hand in hand with the telecom operators and ensure a downward review of the price of data in Nigeria, improved quality of service provided and check the illegal deduction of subscribers’ data.”
Abubakar emphasized.
