BY LEKAN SOTE
Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, the trade group of telecoms, has just written to Nigeria Communications Commission, its regulator, for permission to raise the tariff for Nigerians who use God’s own (free) air for voice calls, text messages and, now pervasive, use of data.
Those who love to argue may say God had given the power of the air to Lucifer, as Apostle Paul bore witness in Chapter 2, verse 2 of the Bible Book of Ephesians, which says, inter alia, “Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air…”
Okay, maybe it’s not that simplistic, to just claim that the air is a “free” gift from God, or of Satan, if you agree with Anton LaVey, who wrote “The Satanic Bible,” wherein he described Lucifer as “Lord of the Air.”
It certainly costs something, in terms of inputs, to trap the air and make it obey human instructions to deliver text, visual, audio and video messages. You have to pay for the overheads (the expensive personnel, infrastructure and supplies) necessary to run the telecoms profitably.
The telephone operators argue that the recent imposition of five per cent excise duty on their services and the 40 per cent spike in the cost of energy –electricity, diesel to power generators at base stations and petrol to fuel official vehicles, as the Ukrainian-Russian war rages on– has raised their cost of operations.
And so, the new realities have compelled them to ask for an increase in the tariff, if they are going to remain in business, and make a reasonable profit for their shareholders. Telecoms, as you know, are private organisations that receive no subsidies: They are no philanthropic Red Cross either.
And when inflation bites harder, those who work in the telecoms will be asking for a pay rise, further pushing the envelope of the increased cost of production. Somebody says what goes round comes round, and there may be no escape for poor Nigerians.
The telecoms are asking Nigeria Communications Commission to allow them to migrate the tariff for voice calls from N6.40 to N8.95 and that of text messages from N4 to N5.61. They are yet to reveal their upgraded tariff for the use of data.
“And presidential aspirants, especially of ruling All Progressives Congress, who are picking Expression of Interest and Presidential Nomination forms at a criminal sum of N100 million, are signaling that Nigerians should not look up to them for help
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There is a very good chance that the telecoms will have their wish, when you consider that the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission just retroactively approved an increase in electricity tariffs in favour of all the seven (disgracefully underperforming) Electricity Distribution Companies with effect from January 1, 2022.
The increase is informed by the hike in the cost of gas used to fire the thermal electricity generating plants, the high inflation rate and the untamable foreign exchange rate that continuously depreciates the value of the Naira.
Disco customers that use non-Maximum Demand meters and paid N56.16 per kilowatt in January 2022 are expected to pay N56.67 per kilowatt between February and December 2022. Those with Maximum Demand meters, who paid N56.64 per kilowatt in January 2022, will pay N59.64 per kilowatt from February to December 2022.
And those who use E-Maximum Demand 2 meters will pay N54.22 per kilowatt from February to December 2022, up from N50.72 in January 2022. What all these mean is that your electricity bill, from the end of May, will be padded with the difference that you “accrued” between January and April 2022.
Those of you who have pre-paid meters will begin to pay the arrears from the next time you recharge your meter. Like taxation and death, the two inevitables for any human being, no one is going to avoid the new electricity tariffs.
One can only hope that this is not a conspiracy of the political and business class to keep Nigerians poorer, contrary to the stated intention of President Muhammadu Buhari to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
Remember the insensitive increase of Value Added Tax from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent and the unconscionable plot by the Federal Government to appropriate Nigerians’ unclaimed dividends and monies in dormant accounts.
That policy was devised by the taciturn, nearly faceless, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, ostensibly to raise government revenue, most of which will be used to service debts that shouldn’t have been incurred in the first place, if not spent on the usual profligacy.
In case you haven’t yet figured it out, the implications of these hikes in telephone and electricity tariffs is NYSC, or Now Your Suffering Continues. There is absolutely no respite from the clutches of poverty for the suffering masses of the Nigerian nation.
And presidential aspirants, especially of the ruling All Progressives Congress, who are picking Expression of Interest and Presidential Nomination forms at a criminal sum of N100 million, are signaling that Nigerians should not look up to them for help. All that concerns them is to grab power in order to gain access to the inadequate commonwealth of the people.
As soon as these politicians assume the power that they would have bought with their money, their sole, or primary, objective will be to quickly recoup the money they had spent on their nominations. Nigerians should not expect much from them.
Nigerians, many of whom were compelled to work from home because of the lockdown as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, have now gotten so used to deploying the power of the air to transact their businesses. They have become dependent on telecoms.
No one is in any form of doubt that the Covid-19 lockdown compelled Nigeria, and indeed the world, to quickly adapt to the cashless society envisaged, indeed envisioned, by those who run the 21st Century digital economy.
Nearly everything that makes the world a “flat” global village, where information travels in nanosecond time, are now in place. And they are not going anywhere soon. This technology, as pervasive, disruptive and expensive as it is, is here to stay. It is a veritable cash cow for the telecoms.
The lockdown made Zoom, the technology that enables video calls among many individuals, which investors had earlier refused to touch even with an electric pole, suddenly became the darling of Wall Street, as its stunned inventors, enablers and promoters suddenly started to smile at the bank.
Fintech, or financial technology, that uses dedicated software to deliver financial services, like online banking, mobile payment apps or what is now described as cryptocurrency, is powered by digital technology which is in turn enabled by telecoms whose raw material is the air.
Whichever way you hack it, the expected hike in telecoms tariffs will make substantial inroads into the pockets of Nigerians who had thought that, by transacting a lot of their businesses online, they would be avoiding huge costs of logistics. Remember that the cost of diesel has a direct impact on haulage and logistics generally.
Interestingly, the dispatch or courier service industry that is ancillary to the digital economy is bludgeoning as it delivers physically on deals struck on the online platforms. Jumia and Amazon that operate online provide the site for online business transactions, while the courier services conclude the deals struck offline.
Anyway, the abysmal failure of the government to run the economy productively imposes an avoidable financial burden on telecoms customers.
