By Nigeria’s telecom operators under the group Association of Licence Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ALTON) have reacted to the harsh economic environment under which they operate striving to meet their business obligation to their customers.
At the core of their grievances are: the unabated electricity power supply, multiple taxes from several government agencies and the aggressive FOREX policies of the Government which just survived a nationwide protest by Nigerians named: EndBadGovernance.
Chairman of ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo speaking for the Group revealed that the bad economic situation in Nigeria is making it difficult for ALTON members to meet their obligation to telecoms subscribers warning that telecoms operators may soon be unable service all their facilities at the same time.
Adebayo spoke at an event organised by finance company, Financial Derivatives Company(FDC) for the telecoms industry players stated: “The question to ask is why has government found it difficult to take advantage of different advocacies to sustain a healthy telecom sector despite these advocacies coming from verified data and indices?
According to him, the Government has renegaded on the 2001 telecoms services agreement which mandates the Government to provide 18 hours of electricity supply for the telecom’s operators adding that multiple taxation from different government and non-government agencies has remained a hydra-headed problem.
Adebayo while commenting on the banking sector debt to the telecoms operator noted that the non-payment of the debt has led to the poor state of infrastructure maintenance in the telecom sector.
The ALTON chairman revealed the emergence of an Association of Telecom Landlords whose primary aim is to fix rental charges for telecom facility deployments warning that is set to increase the current numbers of 40 different taxes and levies his members struggle with.
He warned that the present state of electricity supply in the country would result to his members providing unstable services across the country if the power authorities implement their load-shedding plan.
The chief executive officer of MTN Nigeria Plc., Mr Carl Toriola called on the Government take drastic steps to address the plight of the telecoms operators stressing that price increase has become imperative since the sector is an intensive care unit.
While lamenting the poor financial returns from the industry, he stated that the kind of inflationary environment and forex devaluation make it unrealistic to sustain one price for 11 years.
The Chief Executive Officer of MainOne Company, Funke Opeke, in her remark stated that the reality of the present situation is enough reason for Government intervention.
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