The Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida, has confirmed that President Bola Tinubu has removed the five per cent excise duty on telecommunications services in the new tax laws.
Maida made the disclosure on Tuesday during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, saying the levy, which had been suspended, has now been completely scrapped.
“The excise duty, it was the five per cent or so, that is no longer there,” he said. “Before it was suspended, but now the president has been magnanimous to remove it entirely.”
The excise duty formed part of a broader tax reform initiative under a bill titled “A Bill for an Act to Repeal Certain Acts on Taxation and Consolidate the Legal Frameworks Relating to Taxation and Enact the Nigeria Tax Act to Provide for Taxation of Income, Transactions, and Instruments, and Related Matters.”
The proposed tax faced strong opposition since its introduction in 2022 during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, prompting its suspension in July 2023 by President Tinubu over concerns about consumer and economic impact.
Maida noted that Nigeria’s telecom sector, central to economic activity and digital inclusion, would benefit from the removal of the duty. He said the commission is pursuing reforms anchored on transparency, accountability, and consumer protection, including behavioural economics approaches to inform users and operators.
He highlighted upcoming initiatives, such as a public map of network performance to be released in September, and quarterly network performance reports based on user data. He said these measures would extend accountability to mobile operators and infrastructure providers.
Maida further stressed the importance of corporate governance, citing reforms including the NIN-SIM audit, settlement of USSD debt disputes, transition to end-user billing, and the launch of a Major Incident Reporting Portal.
He called for a revision of the 2000 telecom policy, which focused on breaking monopolies, noting that today’s landscape emphasizes internet connectivity and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and augmented reality.
On consumer complaints, he said a joint NCC-CBN task force developed a standardised recharge framework and engaged Tier-1 audit firms to investigate billing systems. He assured that no systemic manipulation of consumer data was found.
NCC Director of Consumer Affairs, Freda Bruce-Bennett, advised subscribers on managing data efficiently, including disabling autoplay on social media, limiting background data, and using Wi-Fi. She said Nigeria currently has 172 million active telephone subscribers, of whom 141 million use the internet and 105 million access broadband services.
NCC Director of Public Affairs, Nnenna Ukoha, urged the media to relay regulatory efforts to the public, describing journalists as partners in communicating transformative policies.
