The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, has hinted that it’s members are considering raising the prices of their services in Nigeria.
Adebayo said the planned increase in data, call prizes was necessary due to the rise in the cost of operation.
He noted that there has been 40 per cent hike in electricity tariff by the Distribution Companies (DisCos) and an increase in the price of fuel which has affected the operations of the service providers.
ALTON comprises of MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa, Globacom, 9mobile, Spectranet, Smile and more.
He said the rising cost of operation was a burden on the network providers, and they need to pass the increase incurred from changes in electricity tariff and fuel price to the cost of their services, which includes airtime and data sales.
According to the ALTON chairman, the telecommunications companies are already in discussion with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to review the prices of their services.
“All these changes have had impacts on our industry. You know as an industry, these are parameters that affect the cost of the services we offer, I mean our production cost and when production costs go up, end user prices too go up,”
Adebayo said in a report by The Nation Newspaper on Tuesday.
“So, if it gets to that stage, naturally we will also respond to the trend of that issue expectedly because for the industry to be sustaining, prices have to reflect the cost of production,” he noted.
“For the sustainability of the industry, the tariff we charge the consumers will reflect the cost of production, in this case the cost of energy, cost of fuel, cost of diesel, cost of transport.
“So, expectedly, prices are meant to go up,” the chairman said, adding, “What we are doing at the moment is that we are working with the regulator to follow the guideline on tariff review.”