Tag: Okoh Aihe

A simmering broadcast news recently has been the story of Multichoice Nigeria jacking up subscription rates on its various packages in order to remain in business in Nigeria. Coming on the heels of other similar developments like the 50 percent hike in telecoms tariff, and the stratospheric increase in electricity tariffs last year, Nigerians were outraged, understandably.

Their cries got to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, which immediately asked Multichoice to stay action while proper investigations were being carried out. I would probably have said while a determination was being made.

March 1, 2025 as per the notice sent to subscribers, and like words cast in stone, Multichoice carried out increases between 20 percent and 25 percent. No diplomacy at all to try and sweet-talk FCCPC into a position where nobody would feel humiliated.

I have always wondered why the tangle wasn’t between Multichoice and the regulator of the broadcast industry, the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC. It would probably have been a straight fight. There may be a reason for this. I have been looking at the broadcast books, like the NBC Act CAP N11, 2004, and the the Nigeria Broadcast Code and can’t remember any area where a price determination was ever suggested, except the Code which forbids broadcast operators from engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.

Could it have been superfluous if the NBC inserted the opportunity to have a say in the determination of prices and tariffs of products and services in the industry it superintends? Perhaps  this may yet be done through some amendments that could be introduced the Act and the Code.

Don’t get me wrong at all. I stand for the dictates of the free market where the business owner can fix prices, especially in a challenging economy that is humbling everybody. That is the reason I put my head on the chopping board to advocate for telecoms tariff hike. This should also indicate where I stand on the Multichoice matter. However, things should be done reasonably and in order with respect to the various laws of the land and even constituted authorities. But the case is going through the court motions and we should all shut up like the unlearned people we are!

Once Multichoice initiated the increases, the FCCPC immediately went to the courts to file proceedings against the pay TV service provider and its Chief Executive, John Ugbe, over alleged violations of regulatory directives and obstruction of ongoing inquiry.

Nobody would blame FCCPC which carries the expectations of the people on its shoulders and should be seen to be taking actions to alleviate their burden at this time. One would pray here that at some point, the organisation should create some time to look at the atrocities of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, which, in a most shameful way, albeit boastfully on its part, has been trying to share 6003 megawatts of electricity among over 220 million Nigerians. Afterall, Nigerians feel even more pained by the near absence of electricity supply.

Following an exparte motion filed by its lawyers, Multichoice, March 3, 2025, had its prayers answered as it secured an interim injunction restraining FCCPC and its officers from carrying out the threatened prosecution of Multichoice pending the hearing and determination of the motion of an interlocutory injunction.

Oh! Things getting more interesting and getting more muddled up? This is not a review of the court proceedings, as I am the least competent to do so, being unlearned. I also do not want to speculate about the outcome of this case which is as sure as tomorrow happening or as sure as the painful reality that there will be no electricity supply to about three quarters of the population of Nigeria today or even a larger percentage not having food on the table. However, quite a number of things have come up on the side, so loud that they drown reason and common sense.

One. There is a strong demand that the NBC should be involved in the fixing of subscription prices. This is understandable in the sense that only in 2023, Multichoice raised subscription twice, one in April and the other in November. And then this increase, March 2025. But as it is now, such demand is not possible. The market is deregulated and the operators have a right to operate without threatening inhibitions from the regulator.

Two. It has been sugggested that the regulator should break the monopoly of Multichoice. It will stop the operator’s arbitrariness concerning subscription. This is more of wishful thinking. Did the NBC deliberately create a monopoly in Multichoice? I don’t think so. Monopoly can grow from market distortions created by an unpredictable economy, including cost of money, unwarranted feeling of entitlement mentality by some licencees,  presumptive feeling of market understanding even when a proper feasibility has not been done, and especially for pay TV the lack of patience or capacity to build to build attractive and marketable channels.

The regulator will have to do something extraordinary and, in fact, go beyond regulation to achieve a different result and meet the yearnings and prayers of pay TV subscribers. That will not happen immediately, not by waving a magic wand, even if this obvious truth can prove painful to some people.

To be honest, I believe the pay TV sector needs a reset, a recreation of the entire ecosystem in order to deracinate some latent booby traps that will continue to abort efforts invested in the sector. All efforts to create competition in the sector have failed not because there is a monopoly that swallows up competitions but because of some obtuse realities not sensed at the early stages of licensing. Time has come for the regulator to interrogate the process and take some urgent decisions.

There is something else that has to be done. There is a failing that cannot be swept under the carpet, if you accommodate this cliche. The regulator must quickly revisit the Digital Switchover, DSO, process, ensure thorough re-examination and reactivation of the process and do everything possible to bring it to conclusion. Concluding the process can do a lot of good for the entire broadcast industry. So much monies will change hands, jobs will be created and technology will be upscaled as there will be more channels to be filled with new contents.

Competition in the pay TV cannot be legislated, no matter how you may feel about some developments. But it is not too early or late to address a problem that may well last into the future. The onus rests on the NCC to act.

The responses to the tariff adjustment for telecom operators on January 20, 2025, by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), clearly demonstrate that Nigerians are not a conquered people yet. That in spite of how the socio-economic conditions have impacted them harshly to endure subhuman living, they can still find their voices from the ruins of such chaotic existence. Thank God for democracy no matter how very obtuse.

The operators wanted a hundred percent hike. The regulator granted 50 percent. The subscribers see the development as an overkill, one load too many. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) is rallying its members for a nationwide protest. The National Civil Society Council of Nigeria (NCSCN) has asked the NLC to reconsider its position because of industry facts released to them by the regulator.

Quite a number of people are speaking on the subject with quite a sizeable number pleading emotions as their very strong point. “The Leadership of NCSCN, having clearly conducted a forensic analysis of the facts and figures available on this burning national issue, sincerely sympathises with the NCC in the dilemma they find themselves, cut between a Nigerian People that have been pushed into the walls owing to biting economic hardship, and Telecom Service Providers whose businesses are equally endangered as a result of same inflationary factors and unfavourable environmental conditions,” the organisation stated.

Quite a flurry of frenetic activities, not because of the increase in the prices of foodstuff or the hike in electricity tariffs, now denominated in bands, or the cost of petrol or diesel, but telecoms. They say the operators don’t want us to be able to communicate any more. As I write this material on Monday night, words came in that the Nigerian Government just had a high profile meeting with NLC, prompting the latter to backpedal on proposed protest. Some decisions had also been reached on the way forward.

The meeting was at the instance of the Government. “So, the summary of it is that Labour and the Nigerian Labour Congress specifically and the delegation of the federal government have set up a committee of five each. We are going to meet here continuously for the next two weeks. And at the end of the second week, we will now come up with a recommendation that we will give to the government and the organised Labour for final consideration,” a government statement said.

In the ensuing bedlam, the regulator quietly released the latest industry statistics on the Commission’s website. The figures are quite revealing and should trouble everyone who wants to continue to use telecom services in an industry that should by now have earned maturity status. The site was last updated on January 30, 2025. The statistics reveal some discomforting market positions and movements and, in plain summary, an industry in a clear state of hibernation needing serious motion to untangle it from that freeze. Since the Govenment and Labour will be meeting for the next two weeks on a regulatory decision by the NCC, I find it relevant that the statistics are served here with some annotations. By December 2024, total active lines stood at 164,926,599 while the teledensity is 70.08 on a projected population of 216m after rebasing from a previous figure of 150m.

The stats per operator are as follows: Airtel – 56,619,381 (34.39 per cent), 9MOBILE – 3,283,270 (1.99 per cent), Globacom – 20,139,951 (12.23 per cent), and MTN – 84,607,831 (51.39). Look at the figures closely. 9MOBILE that had over 23m in 2015 has nearly disappeared from the industry radar, thus complicating the activities and operations of the other operators.

The organisation is not dreaming expansion at this time but it’s unable to even maintain its network infrastructure. It is a devastating minus for an industry that should be building for the future. Globacom is doing over 20m lines after it lost a significant number recently from an action by the NCC. This writer is

aware that the organisation is clawing its way back. After all, it has a network might, including an undersea cable from Europe, so it stands in a good position to withstand every vicissitude. The place of Globacom retains a significant value in the industry.

From the stats, MTN maintains a clear lead with Airtel running a distant second. The interesting thing is that both of them are running at a loss as stated in their annual reports previously. My concern then is, if the big players suffer losses, what happens to the smaller operators and the ones offering ancillary services, including tower operators? The telecoms backbone consists of the following: 41.59 per cent of 2G, 8.75 per cent of 3G, 4G at 47.20 per cent, and 5G, for which two operators – MTN and Mafab – paid $273.6m each in 2022, before Airtel paid another $316.7m in 2023, has hardly added much to the telecoms echo system. Rollout has been slow because of paucity of investment funds perhaps, and uptake is even slower.

Here are my observations. There is hardly a growth on the telecommunications network, instead there is considerable shrinkage. It means that transition to a robust digital economy based on state-of-the-art telecom facility rollout, will remain a mirage. There must be considerable efforts to grow the 4G network while it must be stated here that there are some operations that only 5G can enable.

But 5G rollout is cost intensive and operators who are struggling to return to profit may not be in such financial health to engage in service expansion or new facility rollout. Before a concluding analysis, some industry facts may be necessary here for further appreciation of the unfolding situation, and I state only two. One. Operational costs for telecommunication operators have gone up by over 300% in most cases. Given microeconomic challenges, and the cost of FX, they have it tough to purchase new equipment and upgrade their services. Two. Adjustments will remain within the tariff bands outlined in the 2013 NCC Cost Study and must comply with the recently issued NCC Guidance on Tariffs Simplification (2024).

What is the picture arising from the foregoing? Let me make the following observations. The industry is not in a good place and may not be able to power the sort of digital economy that the present administration is pushing to build. Nearly all the facilities are subpar designed only for voice communication. The NCC Cost Study on which the tariff adjustment was made was done in 2013. Since then things have really gone downhill, taking a fall that has been difficult to break.

In 2013, inflation was 8.50 per cent, the Naira was 160 to a US Dollar, and a litre of diesel cost about N165. Today, inflation stands at 34 per cent, the US Dollar has climbed up to N1600 while a litre of diesel sells for N1200. The metrics are frightening. The Committee has to carefully consider everything in the basket, the good, the bad and the very depressing.

The members have a cardinal responsibility to build hope where hope is in serious deficit. It is a choice between the past and the future, between reality and emotions, while also taking into consideration that a regulatory decision has been taken which the government must handle with tact in order to retain confidence in the sector and not break the spine of the regulator as was done under the last administration.

If that decision suffers a setback, potential investors will think more than twice before considering Nigeria for future investments. While I make an appeal that emotions be confined to where they belong, I want to point out that how we treat investors in Nigeria today may decide the transformational development of the country in the future. No country ever grows alone no matter the depth of patriotism.