Business News
Mixed reactions as court stops DSTV from price hike
Court orders DSTV to not increase subscription prices.
Published
3 years agoon

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja,yesterday granted an interim injunction halting the hike in DSTV subscription by MultiChoice Nigeria Limited.
The order was granted in Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/894/2018 Federal Republic of Nigeria v. MultiChoice Nigeria Limited on Monday, August 20.
Following the court’s injunction, Nigerians have come out en masse reacting to the news.
As some expressed gratitude to the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), a regulatory body that challenged the DSTV’s subscription hike, others sounded a note of caution.
@ChukaTheBoss tweeted, “Would you look at that, which regulatory body has multichoice within their purview? price hikes have to go through them. Reasons for any increment must be made public, at least! Thank you to Tunde Irukera and the CPC. Now we know someone has our backs”
Would you look at that, which regulatory body has multichoice within their purview? price hikes have to go through them. Reasons for any increment must be made public, at least! Thank you to Tunde Irukera and the CPC. Now we know someone has our backs
— Chuka Arinze (@ChukaThaBoss) August 21, 2018
@Andrewfootie tweeted, “Nigerians complain about DSTV prices and not cement prices that affect the basic necessity which is housing. We just hate foreigners. We complain about DSTV while paying the most expensive prices for cement. DSTV is not a right and it can be sold for 100,000.”
https://twitter.com/andrewfootie/status/1031517608145813505
@KingAurthur9ja tweeted, “Pay TV Operators in this “Monopolistic” market – Consat TV, African Cable Television ACTV, DStv, GoTV, Startimes, CTL, Metro Digital, Montage Cable Network, Mytv, MultiTV, Daarsat, TSTV and Trendtv. Just find one that suits your pocket.”
Pay TV Operators in this "Monopolistic" market – Consat TV, African Cable Television ACTV, DStv, GoTV, Startimes, CTL, Metro Digital, Montage Cable Network, Mytv, MultiTV, Daarsat, TSTV and Trendtv. Just find one that suits your pocket.
— King Arthur (@KingArthur9ja) August 20, 2018
According to a Twitter user, @llsaAida who made a thread on the DSTV saga, there are allegations of possible unfair trade practices that make it possible for DSTV to have exclusivity on contents, gain market dominance and fix price as it likes.
The Twitter user revealed that while these allegations were yet to be given proper address and solved, DSTV ignored government’s request for critical documents.
On this DSTV thing, I suppose I should share my UNDERSTANDING of what led to the order gotten from court today.
A THREAD
It appears the Consumer Protection Council has been investigating DSTV for allegations of unfairness and exploitation in its pricing and biling systems.
— ilsa aida (@IlsaAida) August 20, 2018
Addressing the issue, CPC Director General, Babatunde Irukera said the Pay TV preempted investigations and acted in bad faith by agreeing to a consent order to hold terms and conditions in 24 months, but increased prices on the eve of signing Consent Order to undermine regulatory process.
MultiChoice had earlier announced the increase of prices on its digital satellite platform, DSTV from August 1, 2018.
The subscribers on DStv Premium package was expected to see a price increase from N14,700 to N15,800; Compact Plus from N9,900 to N10,650; Compact from N6,300 to N6,800; Family from N3,800 to N4,000 and on Access, N1,900 to N2,000.
The increase, according to the company, was due to the spike in inflation rates.
Multichoice has a history of increasing prices arbitrarily. Between 2009 and 2017, prices have increased eight times, averaging a change in their prices every two years.
A timeline of past price hikes
- The first increase was in September 2009 which coincided with the introduction of a low-cost bouquet, DStv Access at N1,500 and an increase in the prices of DStv Compact and Premium.
- In April 2011, prices went up again. DStv premium went from N9,500 to N10,300 as well as other bouquets except for Access which was left unchanged at N1,500.
- August 2012 saw a 10% increase in all its bouquets. DStv Premium was increased from N10,000 to N11,000. Access was again left unchanged at N1,500. The increase was attributed to the rise in inflation and operational costs.
- August 2015, witnessed a 20% increase in all its bouquets. DStv went from N11,650 to N13,980. DStv Access subscribers now had to pay N1,800 as against the previous rate of N1,500.
- A careful look at the increase shows DStv Premium has increased by 55% in eight years from N9,000 in 2009 to N13,980 in 2017.
- DStv Access has gone up by 26% from its inception in 2009.
Famuyiwa Damilare is a trained journalist. He holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mass Communication at the prestigious Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ).Damilare is an innovative and transformational leader with broad-based expertise in journalism and media practice at large. He has explored his proven ability in the areas of reporting, curating and generating contents, creatively establishing social media engagements, and mobile editing of videos. It is safe to say he’s a multimedia journalist.


Business News
Heavy sell-off in Guinness shares leads to N6.9 billion market value loss in a single day
Shares of Guinness Nigeria Plc suffered a 9.89% loss today.
Published
4 hours agoon
April 21, 2021
Guinness Nigeria Plc suffered a 9.89% loss today following a heavy sell-off in the shares of the brewer. This triggered a market value loss amounting to about N6.9 billion at the close of trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, as investors scaled-down stakes in the brewer.
Data tracked at the close of the market today revealed that the shares of GUINNESS declined from N31.85 per share at the market open, to N28.70 per share at the close of the market today, to print a loss of 9.89%.
This decline saw the market capitalization of the leading maker of beer and spirits fall from N69.75 billion to N62.86 billion at the close of trading activities today, putting the total market value loss at N6.89 billion.
The shares of Guinness at the close of the market today cleared at N28.70 per share, 9.89% lower than the closing price of N31.85 per share yesterday.
At the current price, Guinness shares are currently trading 20.27% lower than their 52-week high of N36.00 per share. However, the shares of the company have returned about 120.8% gains for investors who bought them at their 52-week low trading price of N13.00 per share last week.
During trading hours on the Exchange today, about 159,380 ordinary shares of Guinness Nigeria Plc worth about N4.57 million, were exchanged in 27 executed deals.
The shares of Nigerian Breweries Plc and Golden Guinea Breweries Plc closed flat at N50.1 per share and N0.81 per share respectively, while the shares of International Breweries Plc shed 0.88% to close low today at N5.65 per share.
What you should know
- At the close of trading activities today, the NSE All-Share Index and market capitalization appreciated by 0.29% to close higher at 39,128.34 index points and N20.477 trillion respectively.
- The NSE Consumer Goods Index, an investable benchmark designed to track the performance of the shares of consumer goods companies like Guinness Nigeria Plc, depreciated by -0.35% to close the day lower at 553.26 index points.
Business News
NAICOM revokes operational licence of UNIC Insurance, appoints Receiver/Liquidator
NAICOM stated that it had appointed Hadiza Baba Gimba as the Receiver/Liquidator to wind up the affairs of the company.

Published
5 hours agoon
April 21, 2021
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on Wednesday announced the withdrawal of the operational licence issued to UNIC Insurance Plc.
Although no official reason has been provided for the revocation of the insurance firm’s operating license, NAICOM, however, stated that the decision of the regulator was in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by the enabling laws.
According to a report from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), this disclosure is contained in a notice which was issued by the commission in Lagos to the general public and policyholders, where it noted that the revocation of the operational license, RIC 043, is with effect from March 25.
NAICOM, thereafter stated that it had appointed Hadiza Baba Gimba as the Receiver/Liquidator to wind up the affairs of the company.
NAICOM in its statement said, “The general public/policyholders are by this notice required to direct all inquiries and correspondence regarding UNIC Insurance to the receiver/liquidator.
The receiver/liquidator will be dealing with the company’s liabilities in accordance with the provision of Insurance Act 2003.’’
What you should know
- It can be recalled that NAICOM, for the third time in June 2020, gave insurance firms in the country a one-year extension to meet the recapitalisation obligation that was recently set for them apparently due to the coronavirus pandemic which had disrupted the activities of most insurance companies.
- Some insurance companies had been going through some bad patches with a good number of them struggling to meet up with their obligations and the recapitalization requirements.
- The recapitalisation programme requires life insurance firms to meet a minimum paid-up capital of N8.0 billion, up from N2.0 billion previously. In the same vein, general insurance companies are required to raise their minimum paid-up capital to N10.0 billion from N3.0 billion previously.
- The regulatory capital for composite insurance was raised to N18.0 billion from N5.0 billion previously while reinsurance businesses are now required to have a minimum capital of N20.0 billion from a previous N10.0 billion.
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