The Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, has confirmed that President Bola Tinubu has scrapped the 5 per cent excise duty on telecommunications services, a move expected to reduce costs for subscribers.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Maida said the levy, which had previously been suspended, has now been completely removed.
“The excise duty, it was the 5 per cent or so, that is no longer there,” Maida said. “Before it was suspended, but now the president has been magnanimous to remove it entirely. I was in a room when it was raised, and he said, ‘No, no, no, we cannot put this on Nigerians.’ I was very pleased when the bills came out and we saw his words were followed through.”
The 5 per cent excise duty was part of a broader tax reform initiative under the Nigeria Tax Act, which seeks to consolidate taxation laws on income, transactions, and instruments. The tax had faced opposition since its introduction in 2022 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, prompting its suspension in July 2023 over concerns about its impact on consumers and the economy.
Maida explained that removing the duty would ease financial pressure on subscribers and support the growth of Nigeria’s telecom sector, which is central to economic activity and digital inclusion. He also highlighted ongoing NCC reforms focused on transparency, accountability, and better consumer protection.
Among the initiatives, Maida said, is a public network performance map scheduled for release in September, showing independent data on download speeds, latency, and other quality indicators. Quarterly network performance reports based on user data will also hold both mobile operators and infrastructure providers accountable.
He added that corporate governance would be a key tool to strengthen the industry, aiming to create a wholly Nigerian-owned, globally competitive telecom company.
Maida cited reforms such as the completion of the NIN-SIM audit, resolution of USSD debt disputes, transition to end-user billing, and the launch of a Major Incident Reporting Portal as signs of progress. He stressed that the telecom policy of 2000, which liberalized the market and introduced competition, has served its purpose but requires updates to accommodate emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and augmented reality.
Competition, he noted, remains a factor in keeping call tariffs relatively low, with the most expensive call today costing about N18–N19 per minute compared to N50 in the early 2000s.
Addressing consumer concerns about failed electronic top-ups and data depletion, Maida said a joint NCC-CBN task force investigated operators’ billing systems and found no evidence of systemic manipulation, attributing issues to factors such as background app usage, device settings, and complex tariffs.
“We are not trying to punish anyone,” he said. “We want the industry to grow, so consumers are happier, operators perform better, and the government benefits from a broader tax base.”
Freda Bruce-Bennett, NCC Director of Consumer Affairs, offered practical tips to help Nigerians manage their data, including disabling autoplay on social media, limiting background data, deleting unused apps, enabling data-saving modes, and using Wi-Fi whenever possible. She noted that Nigeria currently has 172 million active telephone subscribers, including 141 million internet users and 105 million broadband users.
NCC Director of Public Affairs Nnenna Ukoha emphasized the media’s role in communicating regulatory efforts to the public. “You are the ones that transmit and convey our transformative policies to the people of Nigeria,” she said, inviting journalists to engage openly with the commission.
