The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has said that the ongoing amendments to two major regulatory instruments of the Commission will help in strengthening and ensuring a fair and competitive telecoms market in the country.
The two regulatory instruments are the Annual Operating Levy Regulations (AOL) and the Frequency Spectrum (Fees and Pricing, etc.)
According to the proposed amendments, the AOL will ensure that all licensees are properly and equitably assessed for the annual levy as well as conform to both statutory and regulatory expectations. The planned review is expected to bring the Regulations in line with current realities and sustain the enviable contributions of the communications sector to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The second instrument on frequency spectrum fee and pricing enables the Commission to meet its sole and exclusive mandate in Section 21 of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003 by assigning the spectrum in an equitable manner. It also ensures that frequency spectrum are assigned and managed in a way that ensures fair pricing and efficient deployment of attendant services.
Speaking during the event, the EVC said the public inquiry not only reflected the Commission’s strategic mission and vision to ensure regulatory excellence through effective regulatory processes but also hallmarked the Commission’s consultative approach to all its regulatory initiatives.
Danbatta pointed out that the public inquiry was a precursor to the Commission’s current drive to ensure efficiency in spectrum management and the unveiling of next generation services through varied enablers, adding that it is based on this that the Commission issued a Spectrum Trading Guidelines (STG) in 2018, to ensure frequency Spectrum is readily available to licensees through an effective process.
He clarified: “Furthermore, the Commission has commenced the process of deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) technology in Nigeria and is driving the provision of such ubiquitous services on making frequency Spectrum available to the licensees. The efficacy and reliability of the initiatives will be hinged on proper market valuation of the frequency spectrum and fair assessment of levies.”
According to the industry regulator, with the explosion in technologies there has also been an attendant secondary reliance on different approaches to drive the best out of different frequency spectrum, thereby necessitating the need for designation of several bands of frequency spectrum for communications services and a key illustration is the recent identification of some Spectrum frequencies for 5G deployment.
The EVC said the Commission was conscious of the expectations and the need to ensure that all regulatory instruments are made ready to meet these challenges, stressing that this has made the reviews which the Commission is conducting an important milestone as the public inquiry in pushing the country to the front queue of this global efforts.
He charged: “Hence, we must be prepared on both ends of the industry to prepare the country for these remarkable changes; while the licensees continue to invest in deployment, the Commission will sustain its drive by ensuring regulatory efficiency and excellence.”
This is even as he also noted that the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP), 2020-2025, the National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy (NDEPS), 2020-2030 were all tailored to ensure that the Commission deploys new initiatives, build regulatory efficiency and ensure market stability.
Danbatta further explained that the policy documents highlighted the central nature of frequency spectrum in meeting most of their baseline objectives, noting that “this has made the ongoing review not just necessary but inevitable to facilitate the attainments of these objectives.”
