A deep dive into how scrapped bonus tariffs, a 50 % NCC-approved price hike, 5 G roll-outs, SIM-NIN linkage and the 2023 Data Protection Act are rewriting the rules of Nigeria’s data economy—and what it means for operators, innovators and 220 million consumers.

For more than a decade “recharge and get 8 × bonus” jingles defined Nigerian telecom marketing. MTN’s BetaTalk—launched in 2012—offered 250 % airtime and 250 % data bonuses on every recharge, making it the default plan for price-sensitive users. But in February 2025 MTN sent SMS notices saying the plan would be “decommissioned on 30 March 2025.” Online forums lit up and a Nairaland thread confirmed the shut-down. Nairaland

“The margins we made on voice no longer subsidise those bonuses,” an MTN product manager told Punch on background.

Instead, MTN introduced BetaGist, a simpler prepaid package: flat 30 kobo / s to all networks and “talk 6 min, get 3 min free.” (MTN Nigeria) The generous airtime and micro-data add-ons are gone.

Airtel followed by quietly withdrawing OverJara/SmartConnect 4.0 —its 8 × recharge-bonus starter SIM—and dropping voice bonuses across legacy Smart plans. (Nairaland X (formerly Twitter)) Glo trimmed bonuses on its Berekete plan and raised call rates. (Legit.ng - Nigeria news.)

Table 1 – Old vs. new MTN flagship prepaid plans

Why operators killed the bonus era (such as BetaTalk)

Three forces converged:

• Currency and energy shocks. Diesel prices, tower-lease fees and a naira that lost 62 % against the US dollar since mid-2023 pushed operating costs up double-digits.
• Regulatory green light. In January 2025 the NCC approved the first industry-wide tariff adjustment since 2013, allowing up to 50 % hikes. SatellitePro ME Reuters
• Data, not voice, now drives ARPU. Voice minutes fell 18 % YoY while data traffic jumped 46 % in 2024, according to NCC statistics. Operators decided to channel scarce spectrum and capex toward data networks rather than subsidising voice bonuses.

The unavoidable price reset

By February 2025 all four GSM operators had rolled out new, pricier data catalogues. MTN’s weekly 15 GB bundle jumped from ₦2,000 to ₦6,000, a 200 % leap that triggered a public apology. (Punch) Airtel and Glo applied similar 40–50 % upward revisions. (Punch PM News Nigeria)

Labour unions cried foul, planning a nationwide protest for 4 February. (Reuters) Yet NCC insisted the hike was “necessary to sustain quality of service” after years of suppressed tariffs.

Behind the scenes: network economics

Even before the hike, Nigerian mobile data averaged $0.39 / GB—the third-cheapest in sub-Saharan Africa—but profitability lagged South Africa and Kenya, markets with two to three times higher ARPU. Sharing infrastructure is one escape hatch: in March 2025 MTN and Airtel signed an agreement to share radio-access and fibre assets in Nigeria. (Reuters)

5 G, FWA And The Race For Capacity

MTN’s 5 G pilot in 2022 has scaled to 11.3 % population coverage and 4 million active 5 G SIMs by December 2024. (GSMA Nairametrics) Mafab Communications has launched in six cities, and Airtel’s 5 G launch is imminent. (NCC Connecting Africa)

Fixed-Wireless Access (FWA) is booming: start-ups such as Smile and Tizeti bundle 5 G routers with unlimited plans targeting SMEs priced out of fibre. Expect the new tariff regime to push heavy users toward FWA subscriptions, easing congestion on mobile macro cells.

SIM + NIN: security meets churn

The government’s National Identity Number (NIN)-SIM linkage campaign reached 96 % compliance by September 2024, but not before 66 million lines were barred and the active SIM base fell 30 %. (Techpoint Africa ThisDayLive) Many of the barred lines belonged to multi-SIM bargain hunters, accelerating the collapse of bonus-driven plans.

Privacy finally gets teeth

While telcos wrestled with cost, regulators rewired data governance. The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 established the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) and introduced GDPR-style principles, legitimate-interest processing and mandatory DPIAs for high-risk projects. (KPMG Hogan Lovells) Telcos—classified as “data controllers of major importance”—have six months to register compliance programmes or face fines up to 2 % of annual gross revenue.

This shifts operator focus from mere connectivity to trust. Expect privacy dashboards, granular consent for value-added services and tighter third-party data-sharing contracts.

Open Banking And The Data Dividend

At the same time the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is prioritising full Open Banking rollout in 2025 to deepen inclusion and standardise APIs. (Paypers Open Banking Nigeria) For telcos eyeing mobile-money licences, harmonised customer-data sharing offers new revenue. MTN’s MoMo PSB and Airtel’s SmartCash can, in theory, plug into bank APIs to offer credit scoring powered by airtime-top-up data—if privacy consents are handled correctly under the new Act.

The Smartphone Surge

Smartphone penetration is on track to hit 60 % by 2025, fuelled by sub-$100 Transsion handsets; urban areas are already at 59 %. (Business Day Commercium Africa) GSMA notes 94 % of Nigeria’s active SIMs are now 3 G, 4 G or 5 G. (DataReportal – Global Digital Insights) The appetite for high-bandwidth apps—TikTok, Showmax Pro, Premier League streams—makes cost-reflective data pricing inevitable.

Winners, losers, and consumer hacks

• Winners
• Low-mid usage subscribers: Flat 30 kobo / s on BetaGist is cheaper than BetaTalk’s first minute.
• Fixed-wireless ISPs: Price-shocked heavy users are defecting to unlimited 5 G routers.
• Fintechs: With open banking and NDPC guidance, telco data-as-a-service gains legitimacy.
• Losers
• Bonus hunters: The disappearance of recharge multipliers removes arbitrage.
• Feature-phone users: Voice remains affordable but scratch-card denominations have shrunk, forcing more frequent recharges at a higher real cost.

How Nigerians are coping

What Operators Must Do Next

1. Precision pricing: Tiered QoS (premium 5 G vs. economy 4 G) can defend margins without blanket hikes.
2. Edge caching: With data costs higher, latency-saving caches reduce bandwidth needs; content providers can co-fund.
3. Trust-by-design: NDPC compliance is an opportunity—zero-data leakage becomes a selling point.
4. Rural coverage via infra-share: The MTN-Airtel deal should expand to fibre backhaul, slashing duplicate capex.
5. Digital literacy: Help users understand fair-use—transparent usage meters inside self-care apps build goodwill.

Policy Playbook For Abuja

• Targeted USO subsidies: Instead of blanket cheap tariffs, subsidise rural sites and school connectivity.
• Spectrum roadmap: Auction low-band 700 MHz for deep-coverage 5 G and enforce “use-it-or-lose-it”.
• Local content incentives: Tax breaks for CDN nodes, data centres and OTT studios keep traffic (and CAPEX) onshore.
• Consumer-rights enforcement: NDPC and NCC should coordinate so privacy fines do not duplicate telecom penalties.

Beyond 2025: A Data-Powered Economy

Connectivity is no longer the bottleneck— affordability and trust are. If tariffs had remained frozen, Nigeria risked quality collapse. The painful price correction, paired with stronger data-governance rules, sets the stage for 5 G-enabled health-tech, precision agriculture and AI-ready data sets.

The end of “jara” is not the end of inclusion; it’s the beginning of sustainable connectivity.