MTN Nigeria’s 50% tariff adjustments, implemented on Monday, affected only four of the 18 internet plans offered by the network. Subscribers criticized the telco’s internet price adjustment, noting some of the internet plans were raised more than the 50% threshold approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
However, a data pricing document reviewed by TechCabal showed that the 50% increase affected only four out of the 18 internet plans on the network. The changes included replacing the 2GB hourly bundle (previously priced at N200) with a 400MB hourly plan for N100—an effective price increase of 156%. The 400GB three-month plan, which was previously available for ₦50,000, was adjusted to 480GB for three months at a new price of ₦120,000, reflecting a 100% increase.
The 2.5GB digital channels-only bundle—meant to support digital-only businesses—got a 50% increase with the price rising from ₦500 to ₦750. The biggest increase was on the 15GB Digital channels-only bundle previously sold at ₦2,000. It was adjusted to a 15GB PGW Weekly bundle and sold for ₦6,000 representing a 200% increase.
An MTN Nigeria spokesperson told TechCabal that the bundles that had more than a 100% increase were heavily discounted previously to support a segment of subscribers for a specified period. MTN Nigeria dropped the price of internet calls by 14 kobo instead of the standard 24 kobo the market demanded.
“What we have done now is to price the bundle properly since the period for the discounted price ended a long time ago. We then added the 50% tariff increase on the standard market price,” the spokesperson said.
Out of the 18 internet plans listed on the document, 13 received less than a 40% increase. The biggest increase in this group is the 25GB monthly plan which was increased from ₦6,500 to ₦9,000.
