BY Oluseyi Awojulugbe
Kayode Fayemi, the governor of Ekiti state, and Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, held a meeting on Thursday to discuss how to address the recent hike in increased right of way (RoW) charges.
Fayemi is the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum.
TheCable had previously reported that 14 states increased their RoW charges; contrary to the uniform charge of N145.00 per linear meter of fibre.
The RoW charge is the levy paid to state governments for laying of optic fibre on state roads.
The states are Lagos, Kano, Anambra, Ondo, Cross River, Kogi, Osun, Kaduna, Enugu, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Imo, Kebbi and Gombe.
In a January 14 statement, Pantami had asked the states to reverse their decisions explaining that telecommunications companies would be forced to transfer the costs to customers.
“It is disheartening to hear that some states have decided to disregard these resolutions and have, in some cases, increased the RoW charges by over 1,200%,” he said.
“This will, no doubt, impact negatively on the efforts being made by the federal government. It is established that there is a strong correlation between a country’s broadband penetration and its gross domestic product (GDP).
“We are therefore calling on all state governors, especially those that have made public their decisions to increase the RoW charges, to reconsider these decisions in the interest of Nigerians as well as for the socio-economic growth and development of the country.
“We also draw their attention to the fact that these decisions, if implemented, will result in an increase in the costs of operations of the telecoms operators which will naturally be passed to the consumers.”
Here are pictures from the meeting:
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