The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola has stated that telecommunication industries cannot survive without the increase in Tariff.
Karl explained that industries in the telecommunication system often spend more funds than they generate, and that most industries are necessitated to increase their tariff rate so as to avoid collapse.
He clarified that the major reason why there would be an increase is as a result of the general cost of things in Nigeria.
He disclosed this during an interview with Nigeria Info Fm 99.3 on Thursday January 30.
He said: “The thing is, the Telecommunication industries cannot survive without the Tarrif increase, it’s called maybe more complex sustainability, but honestly it’s just about survival.
“Everyone in the Telecommunication industry is probably spending more than they’re earning, and this can only go on for so long before the companies and the network connectivity systems starts to collapse,so that’s why it’s an absolute necessity.
“Why has this happened? Because everything in Nigeria in terms of cost to the telecommunication industry has gone up multiple folds, generally between three and five times to what it was before. So while our top line revenue is growing at approximately 30% in 2024, our cost has increased to 96%.
“How are those cost driven, cost of diesel is one of them,cost of diesel for the last two to three years has gone from N200/N300 per litre to N1,200 per litre, that’s one of our biggest cost elements.
“We have a lot of other of our expenditures that has gone up, the equipment that we buy, install and the maintenance agreements are denominated in dollars.”
Source: The nation
