Paul Omoruyi
One way Nigerians in the diaspora stay in touch with family and friends at home is by making frequent phones calls. Some years ago, it cost a fortune for Nigerians to make phone calls from the United States to Nigeria. As telecommunication technology advances, the cost of making calls to Nigeria decreased. Some international call service providers have also claimed that the rate to Nigeria reduced when Nigerian customer base increased.
Over the last seven to ten years, Nigeria Information and Communication Technology industry has seen tremendous growth with penetration rate as much as 107% according to an online telecommunication research site. With these growth and number of customers, one would expect that Nigerians and those calling Nigeria from abroad should be paying less for mobile call services. But that appears not to be the case.
Today, in order to avoid spending so much money on call cards (money they can sent back to families in Nigeria!), many Nigerian diaspora have resorted to using available social media platforms to communicate with their loved ones. But others are not so lucky because they have parents and relatives still living in remote places where there is little or no access to the internet. As a result, they have to make frequent traditional phone calls to Nigeria.
In the last four weeks, many Nigerians in the United States have been complaining about the sudden astronomical increase in the rates to call Nigeria. Some of the service providers are notifying their Nigerian customers about the increment.
On their website (https://www.bossrevolution.com/en-us/country/nigeria/international-calling), one of the largest call card service provider in the United States had this message for their Nigerian customers:
“September 30, 2016
Dear Clients and Partners,
BOSS Revolution was founded to provide our customers with a service that offers value, transparency and trust. All of our decisions are made with this in mind.
As you may have noticed, on September 26th, 2016, the price for calling Nigeria increased substantially.
Our decision to increase the price was difficult but necessary as Nigerian mobile operators increased the cost of calls to Nigeria by approximately 600%.
As an immigrant myself, I know from personal experience that higher rates to call back home can impose a real hardship.
I’m extremely grateful to the many Nigerians who use BOSS Revolution to connect home, and I can assure you that we are committed to providing you with the best possible rates and services. That is why we’ll soon have a new BOSS Revolution mobile app with peer-to-peer calling and messaging.
Also, during October, no fees will be charged on any remittance to Nigeria made from any BOSS Revolution Money Transfer store, bossrevolution.com or the BOSS Revolution app. In addition, each time you send money, you’ll automatically receive 30 minutes of FREE calling to Nigeria on BOSS Revolution.
Thank you for your loyalty and understanding. ”
While so many Nigerians are now seeking alternatives, they are inquisitive to know the reason for this ungodly increase. The questions they are asking is why would Nigeria Mobile Operators increase the cost of calls to Nigeria by a whopping 600%? Is it because of the recession in Nigeria? Is this a temporary increase for infrastructural development or this is the new normal?
Nigerians in the US would like the Nigerian Communications Commission to address the situation and provide some answers. We are calling on the Nigerian Communications Commission to please provide answers to the Nigerian people as soon as possible!
God bless Nigerians and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Paul Omoruyi
blog @ www.diasporascope.com
