MTN Ghana has increased both mobile data and voice tariffs across board and its starts Tuesday, February 7, 2023.
A statement from the company said the review accounts for the 2.5% statutory adjustment of VAT from 12.5% to 15%, plus the planned mobile data prices increases MTN announced in November 2022, but suspended for further consultations.
The company said VAT increase will affect both Prepaid and Postpaid (voice and data) customers across board, while the 15% mobile data tariffs will impact both Pay Monthly and Pay-As-You-Go data users.
“The review in mobile data bundle offers cover products available on the short codes 138 & 170, as well as on purchases through Electronic Voucher Distribution (EVD), MTN Pulse, and Data Zone except for XtraTime. The data tariff increases DO NOT apply to Fiber Broadband and Fixed Wireless Access (4G Router/TurboNet) customers,” the company said.
With this review, voice users will receive less airtime due to the VAT implementation, and mobile data customers will receive less data bundle allocations for the same price purchased before the tariff increase was made.
The Chief Commercial Officer for MTN, Mr. Noel Kojo-Ganson, explained that following the review, a GHS3 airtime purchase before the VAT increase, which previously gave customers 24.4 minutes will now give customers 23.9 minutes, whilst a GHS3 data bundle which previously gave customers 471 MBs will now give customers 401 MBs.
Explaining the reason for the upward review of the Data Bundle prices, Mr. Noel Kojo-Ganson said the review was necessitated by the recent economic shifts leading to increasing cost of operations largely due to continuous increase in inflation.
“These economic shifts have impacted us directly and for us to ensure we have the right balance for sustaining growth and investments into the network, we have had to consider price increases in various segments of our business,” he stated.
Mr. Kojo-Ganson added, “MTN recognises that we are in very tough times and would like to assure our customers that we will continue to offer them the convenience and flexibility in the purchase of data bundles at their desired price points via the MTN Flexi and Non-Expiry Bundles. Also, customers will continue to enjoy the 50% bonus incentive on mobile data purchases via MyMTN App & MoMo (valid for 7 days) for 4G customers”.
MTN remains committed to investing US$1 Billion by 2025 to continue its network expansion and improve the network experience for customers. In line with our Ambition 2025 strategy, our purpose is to lead digital solutions for Africa’s progress.
Meanwhile, some customers have already started complaining that MTN is compounding the economic hardship for its customers with the increase in mobile data prices. But analysts also argue that in the face of a 50% inflation level at the close of Q4 2022, a 15% increase in mobile data prices is actually a discount.
