Mr. Adebayo Shittu, the Federal Minister of Communication, has revealed that the Federal Government never gave telecommunications operators any directive to increase Data tariff prices from the 1st of December as claimed.
Since the beginning of the week, there has been an uproar among Nigerians following the messages sent by telecom operators informing them of the increase in data prices as from Thursday 1st of December.
Network providers claimed they were ordered by the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to raise data tariffs.
A message from Etisalat read;
“Dear valued customer, effective 1st Dec 2016, we will review our data plans & prices in compliance with NCC directive.”
However, in an interview on RayPower FM, the Communications minister said he was not consulted before such announcement was made and stressed that the Federal Government did not authorize the action.
He assured Nigerians that the Federal Government was looking into the case and that their interest will be protected.
“I can tell you that I was never a party to it (data tariff hike). Government never gave any such instruction. This government believes in democratic process and we would continue to protect the interest of Nigerians. I can assure you we would do that (protect interest of Nigerians),” he said
Speaking also on the issue of getting unsolicited messages from Network providers, the minister said:
“I am also a victim of unsolicited messages from operators, but I promise government will take pragmatic steps to stop this.”