FG says Nigerians will pay 50% less for data in 2021

The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy says it has put in place measures to reduce the average cost of data by 50 per cent as from January 2021.

Dr Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant on Information Technology to Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy said this in a statement on Thursday, in Abuja.

Adeluyi said that the minister had on Dec. 16, 2019, inaugurated a committee that developed the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025).

“This was based on a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) submitted to the minister.

“The Plan was unveiled and launched by President Muhammadu Buhari, on the March 19, one of the goals of the Plan was to reduce the average cost of 1GB 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 is as follows: 2020 (N925), 2021 (N850), 2022 (N775), 2023 (N700), 2024 (N545) and 2025 (N390),” he said.

He said that in line with the Minister’s commitment to ensure reduction in date cost, 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 at November 2020 was N487.18, which amounts to 47.33 per cent lower than the projected value.

“The report also indicates that the cost of data in November 2020 was less than 50 per cent of the cost of data in January 2020.

“The ministry, 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,” he said.

Adeluyi said that complaints on rapid data depletion were also being investigated by the ministry.

He said that the minister had directed NCC to respond to all issues raised by citizens and customers.

He also said the Minister assured that efforts were being made to achieve the goals of the Broadband Plan as the Ministry supervise its implementation in line with National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria.