Popular Pay TV provider, Multichoice Nigeria, has ignored court ruling prohibiting the company from implementing the new 25% increase rates.
On April 24, the company announced that it would increase its price for its DStv and GOtv cable services, beginning from the first of May.
Meanwhile, a competition and consumer protection tribunal (CCPT) in Abuja ruled that the firm should not increase its prices as scheduled for May 1.
A three-member tribunal led by Saratu Shafii gave the interim order following an ex-parte motion moved by Ejiro Awaritoma, counsel to Festus Onifade, the applicant.
Despite the court ruling, the firm has proceeded with the tariff increase as earlier proposed.
On its official website, the new prices are now being displayed and implemented.
For DStv Premium subscribers, the price has moved from N29,500 to N37,000. Also, the price for Compact Plus has also soared from 19,800 to 25,000.
Compact rate has moved from N12,500 to 15,700 while Confam and Yanga subscribers will now pay N9,300 and N5,100 respectively from their previous rates of N7,400 and N4,200.
Similarly, GOtv subscribers will pay the new tariff increase as the prices have also changed on their official websites.
The elite subscribers (Supa+ and Supa) will now pay N15,700 and N9,600 respectively as against the previous rates of N12,500 and N7,600 before.
In addition, the Max and Jolli subscribers are now expected to pay N7,200 and N4,850 respectively. The former rates were N5,700 and N3,950.
On average, Multichoice increased the prices by 25%.
Reason for price hike
According to the Acting Chairman of the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Adamu Abdullahi, Multichoice wrote a four-page letter to the commission explaining the reason behind the upward price review.
In the letter, Abdullahi stated that the company identified issues such as foreign exchange crunch, high electricity tariff and cost of running generators as some of the reasons why the rates were reviewed.
“We got a four-page letter from Multichoice, telling us the reason that led to this price increase.
“At a glance, we saw things like the cost of electricity, running generators, the cost of dollars for spare parts and so on. We’ll go through these items individually and find out how they have affected their operations,” Abdullahi said.
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