NCC sued over 50% telecom tariffs hike

For approving a 50 percent hike in telecom tariffs as the regulatory body, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has hauled up the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) before the law court.

The suit, filed on January 26, 2025, at the Federal High Court in Abuja by SERAP’s lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), is challenging the increase recently authorized by the NCC.

According to a statement by SERAP Deputy Director, Mr. Kolawole Oluwadare, a lawyer, and obtained by Persecondnews, SERAP described the decision by the NCC is arbitrary, unconstitutional, and unlawful, violating citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information.

No date has been fixed for hearing.

The new tariff structure raises the average cost of calls from N11 to N16.5 per minute, the price of 1GB of data from N287.5 to N431.25, and SMS charges from N4 to N6.

SERAP is among others is asking the court to declare the NCC’s approval of the tariff hike unconstitutional and to stop its implementation.

It also contended that the decision violated several legal provisions, including the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

SERAP stated that the NCC’s decision is unfair and unreasonable, particularly given Nigeria’s ongoing economic difficulties, including widespread poverty and the cost-of-living crisis.

It claimed that the tariff increase fails to meet the required consultation process with stakeholders and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the primary agency for consumer protection.

It called for a review of the NCC’s actions, citing that the price hike comes at a time when millions of Nigerians are struggling to make ends meet, exacerbating an already dire economic situation.

SERAP demanded an interim injunction to halt the enforcement of the hike and seeks a court order declaring the increase unconstitutional and in violation of consumer rights and international human rights standards.

The statement said: “The demands of legality impose clear duties of fairness and reasonableness on the NCC in the exercise of its powers to authorise the telecom tariff hike by 50 per cent, which is the subject-matter of this suit.

“The NCC is required under the legal provisions on consumers’ rights and constitutional and international standards on freedom of expression and access to information to base its decision on reasonable interpretations of its enabling statutes and guidelines and other relevant legal frameworks, and to follow due process.

“The exercise of the statutory powers of the NCC in approving the telecom tariff hike is a grave violation of the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.

“These legal and constitutional provisions and international human rights standards recognise that every individual has the right to an equal opportunity to receive, seek and impart information through any communication medium without discrimination.

“The constitutional and democratic anomalies complained of by SERAP is more apparent when the said unilateral decision of the NCC approving a 50 per cent increase in telecommunication tariffs is juxtaposed with the apparent procedural breaches of the condition-precedent for any approval of increase.

“The NCC is the statutory agency charged with the responsibility of promoting and implementing the national communications or telecommunications policy in Nigeria.

“The latest patently unconstitutional and unlawful increase in telecommunication tariffs is coming on the heels of a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which shows that some 133 million Nigerians are poor.

“The NBS report also shows that over half of the population of Nigeria are multi-dimensionally poor and cook with dung, wood or charcoal, rather than cleaner energy.

“The increase in telecommunication tariffs is a fundamental breach of due process of law, as the purported approval by the NCC failed to meet the high threshold of consultation with key stakeholders, especially the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, which is the primary consumer protection agency in Nigeria.

“The increase in telecommunication tariffs is coming at a time when Nigerians are deeply burdened by the cost of living crisis. The cost of living crisis has resulted in low quality of life, unemployment and deaths, as many socially and economically vulnerable people scramble for free food in public and religious gatherings.

“The present-day economic realities in Nigeria include chronic poverty amongst a high percentage of citizens and the growing inability of several state governments to pay salary and pensions of workers, especially as the country still suffers from the removal of fuel subsidy, electricity tariff hike and inflated cost of food in the market.”

SERAP is therefore asking the court for the following reliefs:

1. A DECLARATION that the unilateral decision of the NCC approving the increase of telecommunications tariff by 50 percent is arbitrary, unfair, unreasonable, and a deliberate attempt to stifle the constitutional and international human rights of citizens to freely express themselves and share information, and breach of sections 104 and 127 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 [as amended] and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.

2. AN ORDER setting aside the unilateral decision of the NCC approving the increase of telecommunications tariff by 50 percent contained in a press statement published by the NCC on 20th January 2025 for being arbitrary, unfair, extortive, unreasonable, unconstitutional and a breach of the provisions of Sections 104 and 127 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 [as amended], Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.

3. AN ORDER restraining the NCC, its agents, assigns, privies and or representatives or such other persons acting on its behalf, and all telecommunication companies in Nigeria from implementing and/or enforcing the unilateral decision of the NCC approving the increase of telecommunications tariff by 50 percent as contained in a press statement published by the NCC on 20th January 2025.

4. AND FOR SUCH FURTHER ORDER(S) that the Honorable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance of this suit.