The Association of Telephone, Cable TV and Internet Subscribers of Nigeria (ATCIS) has commended the federal government for ordering the reduction of data price by 50 per cent.

The Association had earlier threatened to stage a protest against high data prices and poor quality of services offered by network operators in the country.

The association also criticised the service providers for refusing to slash prices of data in line with the directive from the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami.

ATCIS, in a statement signed by its National President, Omoba Amb. ‘Sina Bilesanmi, alleged that the service providers had been milking Nigerians using their services in diverse ways.

He said that Nigerians were paying for the operators’ inefficiency, poor facilities and systematic dilapidation of services that often times necessitated epileptic service provision, thereby making smooth communication impossible.

“Despite this, our people are charged heavily for dropped calls, paying for services not enjoyed in the case of cable subscriptions and several other methods deployed to force their charges down our throats with no form of compensations,” Bilesanmi had lamented.

The Federal government said on Thursday that the price of data has been reduced by more than 50 percent following a directive that the Nigerian Communications commission, NCC, should put in place measures to that effect.

Accordingly, the price of data of 1GB has been reduced from 1000 naira to 487 naira beginning from last November.

The Minister of Communications and digital economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami who broke the news, said it was in line with the directive he gave to the regulatory agency (NCC) to put measures in place to reduce the average cost of data in the country.

“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 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) submitted to the Honourable Minister following the implementation of the directives,” Dr Pantami’s Technical Assistant, Mr Femi Adeluyi said in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja.

Adeluyi who is Technical Assistant, Information and Technology said: “The Honourable Minister had inaugurated a Committee that developed the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) on the 16th of December, 2019.

“The Plan was unveiled and launched by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the 19th of March, 2020.

“One of the goals of the Plan is to reduce the average cost of 1GB of data to a maximum of N390 by 2025.

“With the January 2020 baseline of N1,000 per GB, the maximum projected steady decrease for the end of each year was as follows: 2020 (N925), 2021 (N850), 2022 (N775), 2023 (N700), 2024 (N545) and 2025 (N390).

“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 on 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.

“For more enquiries, the Honourable Minister has directed NCC to respond to all issues raised by our citizens and customers.

“All hands will remain on deck to achieve the goals of the Broadband Plan as the Ministry supervises its implementation in line with our National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, the subscribers’ association reiterated its support for the directive of the federal government compelling the telecommunications service providers to reduce the prices of data offered to subscribers in the country.

“We commend the move by the government to reduce the price of data as we have been advocating for this since last year. On December 24, 2019, the ATCIS, led by its national president, Sina Bilesanmi, staged a protests against the high price of data. Now, the federal government has heeded our plea. The association therefore thanks the federal government for supporting subscribers’ cry by slashing data price by 50 per cent,” the association said in a statement.