Students lament: Telecom tariff hike’ll hinder learning, research

Some students, on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, appealed for the reversal of the 50 per cent hike in tariff in telecommunication services, citing economic hardship in the country.

The students were of the view that telecommunication services, such as internet data service, have enhanced learning and research work, making its usage indispensable to all students.

They made this known while reacting to the telecom tariff hike in Enugu, the Enugu State capital.

A student of the Department of Environmental Management in the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus (UNEC), Divine Eze, urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecom companies to consider the financial struggle of students and their parents.

Eze said currently, most students cannot easily cope with the high cost of textbooks and other educational materials, which have increased in the past few years.

“The only relief we have for now is the telecommunication services that had helped students to manage; thus, reducing need for travels, time doing research and writing same research work and essential social media communication,” he said.

Speaking, a student of the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Chiamaka Dike, called on NCC and telecom companies not to increase data service as it impacted negatively on learning and education the more.

Dike, a student of the Department of Banking and Finance, said: “Usage of data has made me manage the N2,000 that my parents usually give to me monthly for GSM services.

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“Many other students I know go through such strict conditions by using only data only when necessary.”

Corroborating, a student of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Chidiebere Chimdobe, noted that NCC and telecom companies failed to consult and carry all telecom stakeholders along in pushing for the hike.

Chimdobe said telecommunication services drove millions of soft jobs or e-jobs which students and fresh graduates engaged in within the past 10 years.

According to him, NCC and telecom companies are thoroughly insensitive to the hardship, daily struggles, and difficult plights of Nigerian youths, with the majority being students.

“If they go ahead with the hike, it will further compound hardship and will increase social vices as well,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Students Movement (PSM), a pan-African students movement, has given an ultimatum of 72 hours to NCC and telecom companies to reverse the 50 per cent hike in tariff.

The PSM President, Bestman Okereafor, called for the review and reversal in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday.

Okereafor noted that the 50 per cent increment at this time is “unjustifiable, untimely, and insensitive; hence the total rejection of this anti-masses increment.”

The Star