Social Media Tax Might Get To Nigeria Earlier Than You Think

Social Media Tax Might Get To Nigeria Earlier Than You Think

Just when we thought the social media bill has gone down the drain with the Ugandan government. Zambia’s government alerted its citizens that it plans to introduce daily tax charges for the use of internet call services such as WhatsApp calls and Skype in a bid to protect telcos from lost revenue.

People are making use of WhatsApp calls, skype calls, Viber etc. at the expense of traditional calls and this threatens the telecom industry and the jobs at Airtel, MTN and Zamtel.

The cabinet has approved an executive order that would see the introduction of N10 ($0.03) daily tariff charged on Internet calls. “Jobs such as call centre workers, talk time sellers, conventional call technicians will reduce drastically if more Zambians migrate to internet calls and create jobs in America and elsewhere … said Zambia government.

The government claims over 80% of the country mobile subscribers are using internet calls, and thus the need to tax the growing trend.

You’ll recall that about Uganda initiated this move imposing a tax of $0.05 daily on the users of “over-the-top” platform.

Gradually the move to regulate social media is extending to other African country and we don’t know which country is next but this must never cross to Nigeria.