This opinion piece was put together by Okoh Aihe for Opinion Nigeria
I love the deregulated sector where the operators are free to apply their business ingenuity to gain market advantage knowing that there are rules of engagement to promote robust competition. Rules of engagement abhor the shifting of goal posts which is our forte in this part of the world. We like cutting corners to demonstrate our smartness and that hasn’t helped anybody, not even the individual and his country.
I love the deregulated sector and this I have demonstrated by following the broadcast and the telecommunications industries unrepentantly for decades; I am not about to swap my love for them with anything.
So, I can smell trouble in the sector miles away and often wish that it doesn’t happen. But sometimes wishes hardly become reality and, quite ironically, some of these troubles are needed to test the laws that bind the industry together. This may serve as a little tapestry for the tangle between Multichoice NIgeria Limited and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council over a subscription increase which runs foul of the position of the latter.
I have written loads of materials in support of the operators, arguing that government should allow them run their businesses without encumbrances, even when it comes to raising prices or tariffs because of the challenges of the country’s business environment which has also not been helped by a currency that is hardly stable. But I also know that, at some point, the operator could raise tariffs beyond the customers and then something will give.
Are we there yet? Oh, remember the saying of my people about the blind man’s garri being laced with too much sand; even without sight, he will find out there is something wrong with his meal which is very tempting with cold water.
Here are the strands of the unfolding scenario before us. PayTV behemoth, Multichoice, announced tariff increase on all its platforms beginning May 1, 2024. This wasn’t an April Fool’s prank. It was the third time in just over a year. It means, therefore, that each time there was an unpredictable shift in the value of the Naira, Multichoice would bump rates. Remember in quarter three of 2023, Multichoice reported a loss of $72m in its financial statement. The organisation seems to be searching for buffers all over the place.
But that is the nature of business, so not everybody seems to have sympathy for the organisation as they were no partakers of its good times.
Towards the end of April, Festus Onifade through his counsel Ejiro Awaritoma, ran to a Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal, CCPT, sitting in Abuja, with an ex-parte motion to restrain Multichoice from executing the planned increase on May 1. An interim injunction was granted by the three-member panel presided over by Saratu Shaffi. Both parties are to maintain the status quo and return to the Tribunal on May 7, 2024, by 10am.
Normal thing to do in a civilised society. I am sure Onifade is a subscriber and just needed the protection of the law instead of seeking self-help to mobilise in an uncivil way. The tribunal saw his plight.
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