NLC to embark on strike Feb 4 to protest 50% telecom services tariff hike

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Wednesday announced that Nigerian workers would February 4, 2025, embark on a nationwide protest against the 50 percent telecommunications services tariff hike in the country.

 

This disclosure, contained in a statement, came as the Nigerian Communications Commission on January 20, 2025, announced the approval for telecom companies to hike services tariffs by 50 percent.

 

The approval has sparked a wide tide of rejection by Nigerians, including the NLC.

 

In an update to press home their opposition against the telecom tariff hike, the NLC vowed to shut down the country through a nationwide protest.

 

This is part of its mobilisation against the planned 50 percent telecom tariff hike.

 

The nationwide protest was agreed on at the ongoing National Administrative Council (NAC) of the labour Union.

 

The protest aims at sounding a note of warning to the government that workers would resist the planned hike as it would worsen the poverty level across the country.

 

The NLC had on January 22, rejected the 50 percent telecommunication tariffs hike approved by the Federal Government through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

 

The Congress said that the 50 percent tariff hike approval, at a time Nigerian workers and the masses were grappling with unprecedented economic hardship, was a clear assault on their welfare and an abandonment of the people to corporate fat cats.

 

Read the statement by NLC president, Joe Ajaero partly: “This decision, coming at a time when Nigerian workers and the masses are grappling with unprecedented economic hardship, is a clear assault on their welfare and an abandonment of the people to corporate fat cats”.

 

Earlier, Nigerians under the aegis of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers vowed to drag the Nigerian government and telcos to court over the 50 percent telecoms service tariff hike.

 

Meanwhile, the government had repeatedly justified the latest telecom tariff hike on rising inflation which stood at 34.80 percent in December.