MTN Should Reduce Data Charges For Nigerians, President Buhari Says

President Muhammadu Buhari has encouraged the MTN Group to provide top-of-the-line service at lower prices to its Nigerian clients.

On Friday, the president made the statement while receiving members of the MTN Group’s board of directors, led by its President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Mupita, at the State House in Abuja.

“I congratulate you on your appointment as MTN Group President,” Buhari stated. I wish you the best of luck.

“Nigeria is your most profitable market in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, accounting for a third of the MTN Group’s revenue.

“As a result, we urge you to provide Nigerians with high-quality, low-cost services.

“As we work to make internet more widely available and cheap, we ask MTN to continue to back us up by providing high-quality connectivity to Nigerians in unserved and underserved areas.”

Content created by indigenous people

The president also urged the organization to help the Nigerian telecommunications sector’s implementation of the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content.

“In the Nigerian telecommunications sector, I recently presented and inaugurated the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content.

“I urge MTN to support the implementation of this strategy by training and employing more Nigerians.

“In particular, given your significant market in Nigeria, we would urge you to continue to help our efforts by improving service quality and facilitating a downward pricing review of data and other services.

“We also urge you to strengthen your corporate social responsibility programs and invest in research and development to improve your services in Nigeria.”

Creating an enabling environment

He told his visitors that his administration was doing everything it could to make Nigeria more investor-friendly by resolving the issues that had been identified.

“We are putting in place a lot of policies and programs to guarantee that institutions like MTN have a favorable business climate in Nigeria.

“Our significant improvement in the Global Ease of Doing Business Ranking demonstrates that our efforts are paying off.

“We recognized and addressed the primary obstacles that hampered the digital economy’s expansion.

“I am pleased to report that right-of-way charges have been reduced to a maximum of N145 per linear metre.

“I issued guidelines for the protection of important national infrastructure, which addressed the issue of infrastructure vandalism.

“Service providers should always respect and not hinder government efforts,” he said.

Despite the global economic slump, Buhari expressed happiness that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector was performing well.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics data, the ICT industry was the fastest growing sector in both the fourth quarter and the entire year of 2020.

“The sector’s double-digit growth rate of 14.70 percent was critical in helping our country emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic-induced slump.

“The sector’s growth rate was four times that of the next fastest-growing sector in the fourth quarter of 2020, which grew at 3.42 percent. The president said, “This is absolutely commendable.” (NAN)