He stated that citizens are struggling under the weight of escalating communication costs.
“The Minister of Information, Communication Technology and Postal Services, Ateny Wek Ateny, has requested MTN to provide a technical explanation for why their tariffs are too high,” partly reads a statement on the ICT official page.
Minister Ateny made the comments on Wednesday while meeting friends, relatives, and telecommunications executives who visited his office to congratulate him on his appointment.
In a separate engagement with the MTN CEO and the Huawei Country Representative, Ateny said he will soon convene a formal technical meeting with MTN to interrogate the reasons behind the tariff hikes.
“The Ministry will sit with MTN soon to have more technical discussion around the issue of the tariff to find a way on how MTN could bring down these charges,” Ateny noted.
He stressed that internet and data services in South Sudan remain among the most expensive in the region, limiting access to communication and digital services.
He emphasised that reducing the cost of communication will be a key priority as he sets the direction for the Ministry of ICT and Postal Services.
Comparatively, a one-minute call in Kenya costs around 4.87 Kenya Shillings (≈ $0.037 USD), and in Uganda, about 240 Uganda Shillings (≈ $0.065 USD).
Meanwhile, in South Sudan, data is dramatically pricier: 1 GB now costs roughly 7.00 USD, compared with about 0.84 USD in Kenya.
Illustration by 211 check
These huge differences have triggered public anger, with many saying that communication — once taken for granted — is becoming a luxury.
The claim of “0.4 cents per minute” for South Sudan seems to come from a government statement during a period of tariff reviews — but external monitoring had repeatedly contradicted it, showing that real-world costs are much higher.
In 2024, telecom operators in South Sudan implemented a three-phase tariff increase (on voice and data) following official exchange-rate adjustments.
After these increases, many users and media outlets argue that South Sudan’s call and data costs are among the highest in East Africa, which undermines the “0.4 cents/minute” figure.
