The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reported that it had remitted N463 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund through consistent efforts from 2015 to April 2022.
According to a statement issued by the commission’s director of Public Affairs, Reuben Mouka, executive vice chairman of the commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, stated this when he led the commission’s management team to pay a visit to the new permanent secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, William Alo, in Abuja recently.
The NCC also stated that it has begun the process of evaluating five regulatory instruments designed to address the issues of the telecoms industry, while reiterating the country’s increased internet penetration.
Prof. Danbatta made this statement in his opening remarks at a Public Inquiry on five major regulatory instruments being examined across all sectors/segments of the telecommunications industry, which began in Abuja.
Danbatta also informed the permanent secretary that, among other things, the commission has awarded landing permissions to 53 Geo Satellite Orbits space stations and 923 non-GSO space stations.
He highlighted that the country’s 3G and 4G Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) have expanded from fewer than 30,000 in 2005 to 53,460 in 2016, and that 7VSAT gateway earth stations have been permitted to increase internet penetration in the country.
He presented a detailed briefing on the Commission’s accomplishments and attempts to solve all of the industry’s difficulties, and he informed Alo of the Commission’s primary emphasis and targets through the recently announced Strategic Vision (Implementation) Plan SVP 2021 – 2025. This was done in accordance with the provisions of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy 2020-2030, as well as the National Broadband Plan 2020-2025.
According to him, the SVP has five focus areas: 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 service and quality of experience; and facilitation of strategic collaboration.
The NCC CEO, who led a team of two executive commissioners and Commission directors to the briefing, cited successes in teledensity, broadband penetration, and the industry’s significant contribution to GDP, which increased from 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 to 12.61 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, as the sector also attracted over $2 billion in foreign direct investment over the period.
Other notable successes of the NCC under his leadership include the recent successful auction of 3.5GHz spectrum for 5G, the licensing of 7 fiber optic infrastructure providers, and the addition of 38, 296 kilometers of fiber optic throughout the country.
He stated that the country’s access gap clusters have been decreased from 217 to 114, allowing 15 million Nigerians access to telecoms services, and that fiber optics deployments have increased from 47,000 kilometers to 54, 725 kilometers.
In his remarks, Alo praised the NCC’s leadership for the agency’s amazing advances, which have won Nigeria a great international reputation and placed the telecom regulator at the vanguard of the nation’s ambition for forward-thinking national economic progress.
Meanwhile, Danbatta stated that the Type Approval Regulations are the first instrument to be reviewed, followed by Guidelines on Short Code Operation in Nigeria, Guidelines on Technical Specifications for the Deployment of Communications Infrastructure, Guidelines on Advertisements and Promotions, and the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations.
