The Federal Government has announced a 50% reduction in the cost of data given the directives issued by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami.
It was gathered that measures have been put in place to significantly reduce the cost of data as the cost of 1GB of data has reduced from the January 2020 cost of N1,000 to N487.18 in November 2020.
According to Dr Femi Adeluyi, the Technical Assistant on Information Technology to the Minister of Communications, the reduction was based on a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) submitted to the Minister following the implementation of the directives.
Reduction In Cost Of Data
Adeluyi recalled that the Minister had inaugurated a committee that developed the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) on the 16th of December, 2019.
He added that the Plan was unveiled and launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 19th of March, 2020.
Adeluyi stressed that one of the goals of the Plan is to reduce the average cost of 1GB of data to a maximum of N390 by 2025.
However, with the January 2020 baseline of N1,000 per GB, the maximum projected steady decrease for the end of each year was as follows, 2020 (N925), 2021 (N850), 2022 (N775), 2023 (N700), 2024 (N545) and 2025 (N390).
