It is no secret that the cost of operations in the country is shooting daily and that no significant changes have been made concerning mobile service providers. It is conspicuous that mobile service providers have contributed immensely to the development of the country.

It is pertinent to state that if things continue to wallow in this fashion and nothing is done in terms of increasing the tariff on calls and data, there is a tendency for mobile service providers to scale down on their services or reduce the number of staff.

As the dollar continues to skyrocket coupled with the global economic downturn, the telecommunication sector will not survive if they are left unattended. It will suddenly affect investment and employment that the people of Sierra Leone are badly in need of.

The Minister of Information and Communication, Honorable Abdul Rahman Swaray, confirms on Epic Radio that the cost of production for network service providers has gone up considerably.

He added that the network service providers have blamed the Ministry of Information and Communications for not allowing them to increase the cost of tariffs and data. He further shares fun that even some service providers have threatened to switch to the Ministry of Trade, claiming that, when the cost of petroleum products increased the Ministry of Trade will also increase the cost of transport fares for drivers.

“I also buy data, I know it is difficult. the economic climate for everyone,” stating, further that he is happy that common sense has prevailed that the price of data was reversed when it was suddenly increased.

He further argues that he is well aware that the telecommunication sector is a business and sometime in the future, if the global economic downturn does not improve, definitely the prices of tariff will be increased, but it will be done together with all stakeholders in the telecommunication sector including the consumers.