Nigeria is scrapping the 5% telecom tariff on calls and data
It's a signal that the government is trying to make digital access more affordable.
If you’ve been following telecom news in Nigeria over the past few years, you’ll know it almost always feels like bad news for your wallet. Whether it’s tariff hikes, new levies, or “network adjustments,” Nigerians have learned to brace themselves anytime telecom headlines make the rounds.
But this time, things are a little different. Instead of another price increase, the federal government has actually removed a tax that’s been hanging over the heads of millions of subscribers.
The tax in question is the 5% excise duty on telecom services. It wasn’t just a fee buried in paperwork; it was designed to apply to every call and data bundle. First introduced under the Buhari administration through the Finance Act, the levy immediately drew criticism from both operators and consumer rights groups, who argued it would worsen affordability in a country where mobile services are already expensive. Although the duty was later suspended, most notably in 2023 when Tinubu paused it through an Executive Order, talk of bringing it back never really went away.
Louis Eriakha
This uncertainty lingered even as some operators introduced a 50% tariff hike earlier this year, leaving subscribers anxious about the possibility of yet another hit to their wallets. It wasn’t until the latest Finance Act discussions that the government finally scrapped the tax outright, confirming it will not return.
In other words, a huge relief for the country’s 170-plus million active users, at least on paper. The thing is, the removal could slow down the pace of rising costs, especially for heavy data users who already spend a significant portion of their income staying connected. But as anyone who has lived through price changes in this sector knows, lower costs on paper don’t always translate to cheaper bundles in real life. Much depends on how operators adjust and whether they choose to pass the savings down.
On the industry side, operators now have a little more breathing space. Without the extra levy, they can direct resources toward expanding coverage, which means they could hopefully improve the quality of service, and maybe even meet Nigeria’s ambitious broadband goals, including the 70% penetration target by 2025. Regulators like the NCC are also tying the tax removal to broader reforms, including stricter service benchmarks and efforts to centralise billing systems for better transparency.
Either way, this is one telecom headline that doesn’t spell automatic price hikes for Nigerians. If anything, it’s a signal that the government is trying to make digital access more affordable, even if the road to seeing real change on the ground may take longer.
Louis Eriakha
