By Aliyu M. Aliyu
The Minister of communication and digital economy, Sheikh Isa Ali Pantami has directed a reduction in data prices by 50 per cent in 2020.
Sheikh Isa Pantami made this known in a statement issued and signed Thursday by his Technical Assistant on Information Technology, Mr. Femi Adeluyi.
It was titled, ‘Current Cost Of Data Reduced To Less Than 50% Of January 2020 Cost,”
It read, “The average cost of 1GB of data has reduced from the January 2020 cost of N1,000 to N487.18 in November 2020.
“This was based on a report submitted by the Nigerian Communications Commission to the minister (Pantami) following the implementation of the directives.”
The government had inaugurated a committee that developed the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) on December 16, 2019. The plan, which was launched by the President Muhammadu Buhari, in March 2020, aimed to reduce the average cost of 1GB data to a maximum of N390 by 2025.
The statement added, “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 statement added.