The Federal Government has commended the leadership of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the commission’s transformational initiatives that earned the nation international reputation and positioned the telecom regulator in the forefront of the nation’s quest for futuristic national development.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. William Alo, gave this commendation when received the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, accompanied by two executive commissioners and directors, during an official visit to brief him after his recent appointment to the ministry.
He said: “So far so good. The entire country, and beyond, is fully aware of the strategic importance of the NCC as a regulating institution of the telecommunications industry in Nigeria. And, of course, we are aware today that between oil and communications, the latter is gradually taking over in the provision of revenue for the country as the nation strives to diversify the economy.”
Alo also noted that the quality of service has improved tremendously over the past few years now and that the Commission deserves a pat on the back for what it has done in that direction.
The Permanent Secretary urged the leadership of the Commission to continue the good work and also strive to mind and bridge the infrastructure gap that may create a gap between the served and under-served communities in the country.
Danbatta, who briefed him on the achievements of the commission and its efforts toward addressing emerging challenges in the sector, updated the Permanent Secretary on the key focus and targets of the Commission through the launch of the Strategic Vision (Implementation) Plan SVP 2021 – 2025, which took into consideration the provisions of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy 2020-2030, and National Broadband Plan 2020-2025.
According to him, the SVP, which streamlines all policies for a robust sectoral lifting and relevance, has five focus areas, namely operational efficiency and regulatory excellence; facilitation of infrastructure provision for the digital economy; promotion of fair competition, inclusive growth and investment; improvement of quality of serve and quality of experience; and facilitation of strategic collaboration and partnership.
Danbatta also recalled the achievements recorded since 2015 in key areas of teledensity, broadband penetration, and significant contribution of the industry to the gross domestic product (GDP) which grew from 8.5 percent in Q4 2015 to 12.61 in Q4 2021 while the sector also attracted over $2 billion in foreign direct investments (FDIs) over the period.
In addition, the EVC listed other key achievements of the commission as including the recent auction of 3.5GHz spectrum for 5G services, licensing of 7 fibre optics infrastructure providers, and adding up to 38,296 kilometers of fibre optic in the country.
He noted that access gap clusters in the country had been reduced from 217 to 114 to enable 15 million Nigerians have access to telecommunications services, and increase of fibre optics deployments from 47,000 kilometers to 54,725 kilometers.
Danbatta also explained that the 3G and 4G Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) in the country increased from less than 30,000 in 2015 to 53,460 while 7 VSAT gateway earth stations were licensed to boost broadband penetration in the country.
Also, he told the Permanent Secretary that the Commission also remitted N463 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund from 2015 to April 2022, just as it issued landing permits to 53 Geo Satellite Orbits space stations and 923 non-GSO space stations.
