JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Mobile network operators in Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe announced various tariff hikes expected to impact consumer spending.
In Nigeria, mobile operator MTN Nigeria announced it may increase its tariffs in the near future in an effort to recover pre-tax losses of roughly US$2.4 million. The move flies in the face of consumers who have been pressing network operators to drop tariffs and make mobile communications more affordable for the average Nigerian.
In Kenya, mobile network operators Safricom and Kencell announced consumers would pay more for their mobile-phone use as the government implemented a 5-percent airtime tax.
However, Safaricom General Manager Michael Joseph said the cost of voice mail retrieval and short message service (SMS) would not increase, and the company had attempted to absorb some of the costs. Safricom’s tariffs will increase by US$0.06 and US$0.25 per minute.
KenCell announced its subscribers will pay between US$0.12 and US$0.25 additional for each minute of airtime. KenCell Chief Executive Philippe Van de Brouck said the company will appeal the finance minister’s imposition of the airtime tax.
In Zimbabwe, state-owned mobile company NetOne announced it will increase its tariffs by an estimated 45 percent effective from the start of August. The increase is the second in less than six months, when the company hiked tariffs by 100 percent. Local mobile-to-mobile charges will now be at US$0.30 instead of the previous tariff of US$0.20.
The reason for the increase has been cited as the increased cost of international bandwidth.
