Following the recent call made by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria that the Central Bank of Nigeria should suspend implementation of the new cyber security levy or Nigerians would pay more on call and data tariff, telco subscribers have threatened to boycott their services if tariffs are increased.
This increase may be effected soon by the three leading telecommunication outfits, namely MTN, Glo and Airtel.
President, ATCON, Mr. Olusola Teniola, described the implementation of the new levy as ill-timed, considering the fact that the telecom operators are currently battling with multiple taxation, which has risen from 26 taxes in 2015 to 38 taxes under the current administration.
He said, “At this point, if the CBN decides to go ahead with the implementation, we will have no choice but to pass the cost to the subscribers. Nigerians should be ready to pay more for calls and data subscriptions.”
However, some of the customers have expressed their worries concerning the development, while talking with The Point.
An MTN subscriber, Mrs. Folake Adekanmbi, said that the telecommunication companies should look for a means to shuffle the cost in the company, rather than passing it to the subscribers.
She said, “Though customers will patronise them because some subscribers have no choice as most of them use internet for carrying out their daily activities, but some of us will boycott their services as the hike will affect us.”
Also, a customer who buys and shares data, Mr. Olatunbosun Emmanuel, said it would be a bit difficult for customers to adapt to the system because they might feel the pains of the extra charges being imposed on them.
He said, “Customers may not believe that we are not the one that imposed the extra charges by the time it is being imposed, though we don’t know how much they will increase the charges to; yet but we plead with the companies to be considerate, because the increase might affect a lot of people.”
