photo credits:Pinterest
In a recent interview on Arise TV while discussing the pillars of Nigeria’s digital economy, Nigeria’s minister for communication, innovation and digital economy, Mr Bosun Tijani says Nigeria’s data charge is the cheapest in the world.
However, the Personal Assistant to the Minister on New media 2020, Yusuf Abubakar reacted to this claim saying “Nigerians are paying so much for data without enjoying value for money spent”.
But to what extent is this statement accurate?
A study by Cable was conducted in 2019, ranking Nigeria as 44th in terms of its Global Mobile Data price with its cheapest 1GB mobile data costing USD 0.26 and its most expensive USD 13.79.
In 2023, a report by DQL showed that Nigeria now ranks 18th country out of 25 African countries that were surveyed in the index, following behind the top five countries with the most affordable internet – Angola, Zambia, DRC, Ethiopia, and Morrocco.
Also reacting on the issue, the CEO of EverydayMoney and Co-founder nHub, Mr Retnan Daser, expressed his agreement with the Minister in an interview with CRESTHUB,
“If you base the metric on Naira against the dollar, Bosun is right” said Mr Retnan
“Real life economic situations is that, the higher the dollar to naira ratio, the higher the barrier to earn Naira and by extension the lower the affordability. It will be better to compare 1GB data price for each country with respect to a bottle of coke. That will give a better understanding of the cost of data” he added.
Nigeria’s telecoms
Nigeria’s telecom services continue to hike the prices for internet subscriptions regardless of its poor internet connection.
Earlier this week, the internet for MTN ceased for a couple of days and was restored. Users around the country expressed their displeasure regarding this issue through their various social media platforms.
The telecoms MTN and Airtel were the first to announce the increase in data prices went upwards by 10%. The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) placed Nigeria amongst the countries with cheaper internet with the stats of 1GB of mobile data at 1.66% of monthly income. The climax is for 1GB to not exceed 2%.
Talking about the internet connection in Nigeria and particularly in Jos, Mr Retnan said “ I have better experience outside Jos, so it’s fair”.
Nigerians still struggle with data depletion and bad internet connection asides the hike in data prices as challenges with the telecoms in Nigeria.
Do Nigerians agree to the fact that data in Nigeria is affordable or better still efficient?
Let’s know your thoughts in the comment box.
