President Bola Tinubu has scrapped the 5% Telecom levy under Nigeria’s new tax laws, a move expected to ease cost pressures on millions of subscribers, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Tinubu Ends 5% Telecom Levy to Ease Consumer Burden
The Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, confirmed the development during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday. He explained that the levy, which had been suspended earlier, has now been completely removed.
“The excise duty, it was the 5 per cent or so, that is no longer there,” Maida said. “Before it was suspended, but now the president has been magnanimous to remove it entirely. I was in a room when it was raised, and he said, No, no, no, we cannot put this on Nigerians. I was very pleased when the bills came out and we saw his words were followed through.”
The 5% telecom levy was originally part of a broader tax reform under the “Nigeria Tax Act,” introduced in 2022 during the Buhari administration. However, it faced strong opposition from industry stakeholders and the public, who feared higher costs for mobile users. Tinubu suspended the duty in July 2023, citing concerns about its negative impact on consumers and the economy.
NCC: Reform to Boost Telecom Sector Growth
With Nigeria’s telecom sector serving as the backbone of digital inclusion and economic activity, the NCC boss said the removal of the levy would bring relief to subscribers while encouraging growth in the industry.
He stressed that reforms would focus on transparency, accountability, and consumer protection. The regulator, according to Maida, is adopting new approaches like behavioral economics to ensure better disclosure of information that allows both consumers and operators to make smarter decisions.
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As part of these reforms, the NCC plans to release a public map of network performance in September, showing independent data on download speeds, latency, and other quality indicators. “There will also be a quarterly network performance report based on user data,” Maida added, noting that accountability would extend beyond mobile operators to infrastructure providers.
Consumer Protection, Billing, and Data Use
Maida highlighted efforts to strengthen corporate governance in telecom companies, pointing out that “transparent, well-governed companies attract investment and perform better.”
He also referenced reforms such as:
- The conclusion of the NIN-SIM audit
- Settlement of USSD debt disputes
- Transition to end-user billing
- Launch of a Major Incident Reporting Portal
On consumer concerns, he disclosed that the NCC, working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has designed a new operational framework to improve electronic recharge processes. Independent audits of billing systems by Tier-1 firms showed no deliberate manipulation of data, but revealed factors such as background app usage and device settings contribute to complaints of fast data depletion.
“We are not trying to punish anyone,” Maida said. “We want the industry to grow, so consumers are happier, operators perform better, and the government benefits from a broader tax base.”
NCC Advises Nigerians on Managing Data
The NCC’s Director of Consumer Affairs Bureau, Freda Bruce-Bennett, gave subscribers practical tips to stretch their data usage. She advised Nigerians to disable autoplay on social media, limit background app activity, delete unused apps, activate data-saving modes, and use Wi-Fi whenever possible.
She revealed that Nigeria has 172 million active telephone subscribers, with 141 million internet users (81.9% of total) and 105 million broadband subscribers.
NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Nnenna Ukoha, also urged the media to play an active role in educating Nigerians about the Commission’s reforms. “You are the ones that transmit and convey our transformative policies to the people of Nigeria,” she said. “Therefore, I invite you to be open and talk to us freely. We are here to collaborate with you.”
