By Emmanuel Ogbodo<\/p>\n
MTN Nigeria\u2019s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Modupe Kadri, has warned that Nigeria’s telecommunications sector could face an investment decline similar to the oil industry if appropriate pricing isn’t ensured. Speaking at the 30th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) in Abuja, Kadri highlighted the challenges posed by rising inflation and foreign exchange issues, which are hindering the sector’s ability to function efficiently.<\/p>\n
Kadri pointed out that most of the telecom industry\u2019s products are imported, making it heavily reliant on foreign exchange. He emphasized that, unlike the petroleum and electricity sectors that have seen tariff hikes, the telecom sector has yet to receive approval for similar price increases. Kadri stressed the need for a level playing field to ensure the survival of telecom businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur business is mainly dependent on forex, so customers need to understand that for you to get the services that you desire, it costs money,\u201d Kadri said. He added, \u201cWhen people have to invest in the country and are not able to monetize their investment, it cannot work. The only way that this economy will thrive is if there is appropriate pricing such that investments in the sector are guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also warned, \u201cIf we are not careful, what happened to the oil industry, which led to a loss of investments, will happen to telecommunications, and the industry will come to a halt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Operators in Nigeria\u2019s telecommunications sector have been advocating for tariff increases, citing that they have not adjusted prices since 2013. The telecom industry remains one of the few sectors that has not revised its pricing despite the significant rise in inflation and economic pressures.<\/p>\n
The sector faces multiple challenges, including high operational costs due to forex rates, multiple taxation and regulations, Right of Way (RoW) charges, inadequate power supply, and frequent vandalism of infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Prominent economist Bismarck Rewane has supported the call for tariff increases, arguing that this is essential to guarantee the sustainability of telecom businesses. He pointed out that the current pricing limits the operators\u2019 ability to invest in infrastructure, which has negatively impacted service quality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Emmanuel Ogbodo MTN Nigeria\u2019s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Modupe Kadri, has warned that Nigeria’s telecommunications sector could face an investment decline similar to the oil industry if appropriate pricing isn’t ensured. Speaking at the 30th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) in Abuja, Kadri highlighted the challenges posed by rising inflation and foreign exchange issues, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52342,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52341\/revisions\/52342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}