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Nigerian Students Protest as Airtel, MTN Hike Prices

February 18, 2025

Nigerian Students Protest as Airtel, MTN Hike Prices

Making a significant change in its data price structure, the second-largest telecommunications company in the country joined others in the exercise.

According to the revised scheme, newly introduced changes, which have recently come into effect, are the result of much-increased operational costs across the company.

The new pricing structure, which has received mixed reactions from subscribers, was confirmed through an examination of the *312# USSD code and the company site.

Among daily plans include N50 for 40MB (valid for 1 day), N100 for 100MB (valid for 1 day), N200 for 200MB (valid for 3 days), and N350 for 1GB (valid for 1 day). These plans were further listed on their site. While for the week’s plan, it is now N350 for 350MB (valid for 7 days), N500 for 750MB+1GB YouTube Night and 200MB YouTube Music/Spotify (valid for 7 days), N500 for 1GB+1GB YouTube Night with 50MB Socials (valid for 7 days), and N500 for 2GB (valid for 2 days).

Changes to the monthly plan include N2,000 for 3GB (previously 1.5GB at N1,200), N2,500 for 4GB (previously 3GB at N1,500), and N3,000 for 8GB (previously 4.5GB at N2,000). Other changes include 10GB at N4,000 (previously 6GB at N2,500), 13GB at N5,000 (from 10GB at N3,000), 18GB at N6,000 (previously 15GB at N4,000), and 25GB at N8,000 (from 18GB at N5,000).

Airtel’s call rate increased to 25 kobo per second from about 18 kobo per second. Airtel, like MTN, has left some tariff plans untouched. Thus the 5GB plan/week for N1,500 remains unchanged.

News came in the wake of such tariff increases that recorded almost 50-percent increases-internationally charged by MTN Nigeria under new terms of Federal Government just under a week after implementation.

The commission’s approval, as earlier approached and obtained by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is the regulatory body that oversees the telecom industry and accordingly sets tariff changes.