Telecommunications companies in Nigeria will from September 1, 2022, begin to earn more from calls terminating on their network from outside the country.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has set $0.10 as the new fixed International Termination Rate (ITR).
The ITR, which is the rate paid to local telecom operators by international operators to terminate calls in Nigeria, was increased from the $0.045 initially presented in December last year as a floor price to $0.10.
The Commission added that international operators were mandated to pay local operations in dollars.
On the reason for backtracking on the floor price to a fixed price, the NCC noted: “While the determination had set a floor price at $0.045 and gives the MNOs room to negotiate on commercial terms with carriers, there were related indications that MNOs took advantage of this latitude to engage in discriminatory pricing that favours their related international carrier partners to the detriment of the Nigerian transit/IDA operators.”
To check the incidence of such anticompetitive disposition, it was agreed by all parties at the meetings that a fixed rate should be adopted by the Commission, in place of the floor rate which had provided a platform for negotiations with various carriers at a rate above the floor.
”It was further agreed that the present Determination should be amended to include this new fixed rate. This position was further underscored by the fact that the floor price of $0.045 while being the lowest in Africa, does not support predictability and monitoring, with a little positive impact on a healthy national balance of payment position.”
While noting that a fixed rate would ensure transparency in pricing by all, and support the Commission’s effort to monitor compliance by all operators, the Commission added that:
“To give effect to this, representatives of MNOs and IDAs had initially proposed a fixed ITR at $0.08 and $0.15 respectively, for Commission’s consideration. However, after a thorough evaluation, the Commission resolved to peg the rate at $0.10.”
