TheCable

Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, says Nigerians are now paying less for data while enjoying access to the web.

This minister made this known in a statement signed by Femi Adeluyi, his technical assistant, on Wednesday.

Citing a report submitted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the minister noted that the average cost of 1GB of data has reduced from the January 2020 cost of N1,000 to N487.18 in November 2020.

He attributed the price decrease to some measures put in place to reduce prices in line with the Nigerian national broadband plan (2020-2025) commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 19.

“One of the goals of the plan is to reduce the average cost of one gigabyte (GB) 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),” the statement read.

“In line with Dr Pantami’s commitment to under-promise and over-deliver, the measures have caused the current cost of data to reduce significantly beyond the December 2020 projection of N925.

“Based on the report by NCC, the average cost of data as of 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.”

Pantami said the communications ministry will continue to work with the NCC in ensuring that Nigerians enjoy a price regime that supports fairness and is friendly to consumers.

He said 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,” it read.

“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.”

Before now, 1GB of data sold for N1,000 then it moved to 1.2GB for the same amount.

At present, 1.5GB of data is sold for N1,000.