By Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) Nigeria has asked the Nigerian Government to consider increasing telecoms tariff in the light of the present economic crisis in the country.
Chief Executive Officer of the largest telecoms network in the country, Mr Karl Toriola told Channels Television in an interview during its breakfast program, SunRise Daily that it has written to the Government on the tariff issues, and that it is expecting the response of the Government.
In the interview, which was monitored by TechnologyMirror, he said: “I can’t tell you when, I can’t tell you exactly how much the government will authorise. Make no mistake, this is our request and our demand. It’s taken a while because the government is very sensitive to the plight and looking for every other solution to put in place.”
While expressing optimism about the tariff issues been resolved, he noted that “and I think we’re not going to see the volatility that we saw in foreign exchange rates. We’re back to stability.”
Toriola disclosed that MTN Nigeria is on the march to becoming the undisputable largest fibre-to-the-home operator in Nigeria adding that “our FinTech services are gaining traction, very competitive market in FinTech in Nigeria. But we think we have some unique offerings that’s going to make us really interesting to the consumer. I think 2025 is going to be much better than 2024.”
Responding to questions on the critical challenges of protecting telecoms infrastructure across Nigeria, he said getting on site to protect the critical assets is a big challenge stressing, “We have 18,000 base stations across the country. They can’t protect everything, but the ones that are most critical and high majority of the traffic, they’re always present.”
He however commended the security operatives particularly on the aspects of intelligence gathering saying that “they’ve been very constructive in working with us to prevent any disruptions. And then where there is like willful sabotage and damage, they fish out the perpetrators and hold them to task on this.”
And on how much cooperation goes on in the area of fighting insecurity in the country, the MTN CEO noted that SIM registration coupled with the NIN now enable the security agencies to identify the people who are responsible for whatever they might be investigating.
He also said the telecos provide them with all the support under the laws of the country, adding “ We follow the laws and the regulations of the country to the letter. And within that context, we provide all the support that is required. I don’t think coming from the private sector, I’m in a place to really speak to it much more than that.”
While commenting on the MTN Nigeria 5G achievements, Toriola said: .”And I think this industry, the telecoms industry, is probably, that’s maybe the banking industry are the two industries that are at par with the global best standards across the world. And our 5G quality is very good. Now, 5G, you don’t roll out ubiquitously across the nation at once because you don’t actually have that many handsets outside of the major urban areas.
“We have, I think, 10 times the coverage and capacity of our closest competitor when it comes to 5G. Focused on, first of all, geopolitical zones, second, the state capitals, and focused on where the terminals are present. And the opportunity exists from home broadband solutions on 5G.”
