Beginning February 7, 2023, all services and products of the telecommunications giant, MTN-Ghana, will go up.
Management of the company in a statement on Monday, February 6, 2023, said the decision to review tariffs upwards has been influenced by two major considerations.
The first reason, they cited, had to do with the implementation of the 2.5% statutory adjustment of VAT from 12.5% to 15% across all services.
Additionally, the statement said, the company is proceeding with a 15% average upward review of its mobile data tariffs which was originally announced in November 2022 and was subsequently put on hold.
Attached below is a copy of the statement;
Accra, February 06, 2023 – Scancom PLC (MTN Ghana) has announced an upward review of the tariffs of its products and services effective February 07, 2023.
The review is as result of two changes. Firstly, the implementation of the 2.5% statutory adjustment of VAT from 12.5% to 15% across all services.
This will impact both Prepaid and Postpaid customers.
Secondly, MTN Ghana is proceeding with a 15% average upward review of its mobile data tariffs which was originally announced in November 2022 and was subsequently put on hold.
The increase in mobile data tariffs will impact both Pay Monthly and Pay-As-You-Go users.
The review in mobile data bundle offers cover products available on the shortcodes 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.
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 the impact by giving an example of how the new pricing will work. He said, following the review, a three cedis airtime purchase before the VAT increase, which previously gave customers 24.4 minutes will now give customers 23.9 minutes, whilst a three cedis 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.”
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 USD1 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.