The federal government said Thursday that the price of data has been reduced by more than 50 per cent 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 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 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).