The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has said that the cost of internet data in Nigeria, has been reduced by 50 per cent.
The Minister, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said the reduction, was in line with the Nigerian National Broadband Plan which was launched in December 2019.
The aim of the Broadband plan was to reduce the average cost of 1GB of data to a maximum of N390 by 2025.
Subsequently, the minister directed the Nigerian Communications Commission, (NCC), to ensure telecom service providers slash the cost of internet data.
In compliance with the minister’s directive, the NCC said the average cost of 1GB of data has been reduced to N487.18 from N1,000.
“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 the Report by NCC, the average cost of data as at November 2020 was N487.18, which amounts to 47.33% lower than the projected value. The Report also indicates that the cost of data in November 2020 was less than 50% of the cost of data in January 2020.
“The Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, 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. The general public may also wish to note that complaints about rapid data depletion are also being investigated”, the Ministry said in a statement.