The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is optimistic that the cost of data is expected to fall very soon from N1000 per gigabyte of data to around N390.
Speaking to journalists in Kano on Saturday, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta disclosed that part of the plan was the new national broadband plan for the year 2020-2025, which says Nigeria must provide broadband connectivity, cover virtually all parts of the country and deploy 4G infrastructure also across the country.
According to him, the ministry was tasked to come up with a digital economy policy and strategies, adding that all the efforts put in place are intended to bring the cost of data down to N390 as against the N1,000 that Mobile Network Operators, MNOs, are charging. “Actually the cost has come down to N1,000/gigabyte of data, but the government is saying that we should be targeting N390 in the next 3 to 5 years.
To achieve subsidized data cost, according to Mr. Dambatta, the country must provide pervasive broadband data infrastructure.
We know some of the networks already offering N300 for 1GB data, but it is only meant for one day. Hopefully, the incoming low-cost data will come with a sufficient validity period.
