The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian
\nCommunications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta at the
\nweekend hosted an interactive session with senior media chiefs from the
\nmainstream and online media community where he gave impressive accounts
\nof his stewardship as the Chief Telecoms Regulator in the last five
\nyears.<\/p>\n
The event, held at the NCC’s Communications and Digital Economy Complex,
\nMbora, Abuja, was attended by the top-notch of the fourth estate of the
\nrealm both physically and virtually, as well as the senior management of
\nthe Commission, including the Executive Commissioner Stakeholder
\nManagement, Adeleke Adewolu.<\/p>\n
Addressing the forum, Danbatta, who was recently reappointed for another
\nfive years in office following the expiration of his first term in
\nAugust 2015, eloquently enunciated his major policy initiatives that
\nhave produced record broadband penetration and enhanced the growth in
\nthe telecoms sector, especially in the contribution to the nation’s
\nGross Domestic Product (GDP).<\/p>\n
He also reeled out NCC’s regulatory priority areas for the next five
\nyears to include facilitating the attainment of 70 percent broadband
\npenetration by 2025; consumer protection and empowerment; and
\nconsolidation of spectrum trading to ensure maximum and efficient usage
\nof available frequencies.<\/p>\n
Other areas of focus, according to him, will include continuous SIM
\nregistration audit to provide security and curtail incidences of
\nbanditry, kidnapping, and armed robbery; creation of Emergency
\nCommunications Centres (ECCs) in more states of the federation; and
\nexecution of the counterpart funding agreements with the licensed
\nInfrastructure companies (InfraCos) to facilitate the digital
\ntransformation of the economy.<\/p>\n
Speaking on his achievements in the last five years, Danbatta said that
\nthe diligent implementation of NCC’s Strategic Vision Plan (SVP), which
\nfocused on the 8-Point Agenda, has helped to lift broadband penetration
\nfrom 6 percent in 2015 to 42.02 percent by July 2020. The sector’s
\ncontribution to GDP increased from 8.50 percent in 2015 to 14.30 percent
\nin the second quarter of 2020. In financial terms, Danbatta said the Q2
\n2020 contribution translates to N2.272 trillion.<\/p>\n
He noted that when he came on board five years ago, 217 access gap
\nclusters were identified in the country affecting 40 million Nigerians
\nwithout access to telecoms services. “But today, we have reduced the
\naccess gap clusters to 114 with 15 million of the 40 million digitally
\nexcluded Nigerians now having access to telecoms services. We are
\ncommitted to addressing the remaining access gap clusters, which are
\nareas outside the frontier of economic viability to ensure the remaining
\n25 million Nigerians have access,” he said.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Danbatta said on assumption of office, there were 47,000
\nkilometers of fiber optic cables laid across the country. However, five
\nyears after, as a result of regulatory focus, there are now 54,725
\nkilometers of fiber cables laid across the country through the efforts
\nof some private companies in the sector.<\/p>\n
“In line with the Federal Government’s target, an additional 120,000
\nkilometers of fiber are being planned over the next four years. In this
\nregard, the NCC is working on last-mile connectivity to different parts
\nof the country through leveraging the 40 terabyte capacity of five
\nsubmarine cables on the coastal shores of Nigeria,” he said.<\/p>\n
Danbatta pointed out that the licensing of six Infrastructure Companies
\n(InfraCos) to deploy fibre infrastructure across the six-geo political
\nzones will also help to galvanise increased connectivity. “This will
\nalso bring about a reduction in the cost of data from N1000, per
\ngigabyte of data to around N390 with broadband penetration target of 70
\npercent to cover 90 percent of the population within the next five years
\nas contained in the new Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025),”
\nthe EVC said.<\/p>\n
Danbatta, however, noted that “we cannot have pervasive broadband with
\nonly 37,000 4G-enabled Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) of the total
\n50,000 BTS currently in the country. We need more next-generation
\ntechnologies as we work through addressing infrastructure deficit
\noccasioned by the spike in data usage in the country.”<\/p>\n
In this regard, the EVC said the 5G trial conducted by the NCC in 2019
\nand its eventual safe deployment in the country will increase data speed
\nand boost efficiency in-service experience for the consumers.<\/p>\n
On capital importation, the EVC said in 2015, Foreign Direct Investment
\n(FDI) in the telecom sector stood at $1 billion but declined to $212
\nmillion by 2018. He, however, noted that through regulatory efforts, the
\nFDI in the sector has picked up again reaching $930 million according to
\nrecent figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).<\/p>\n
Danbatta also talked about the various consumer-centric initiatives his
\nleadership has put in place to strengthen consumer protection and
\nempowerment in the last five years. These include the declaration of
\n2017 as the Year of the Consumer, the introduction of the Do-Not-Disturb
\n(DND) 2442 Short Code, the introduction of the NCC toll-free Number 622;
\nthe stringent provisions of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM)
\nRegistration Guidelines, issuance of direction on forceful subscription
\nand data roll-over, among others.<\/p>\n
Such initiatives, According to Danbatta, also include the constitution
\nof a multi-sectoral committee on e-fraud, revision of the consumer
\ncomplaints, and service level agreements (CC\/SLA) for prompt resolution
\nof consumer complaints by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).<\/p>\n
He reiterated NCC’s commitment towards delivering on its mandate of
\nensuring the quality of service to the consumers, driving investment,
\nand boosting healthy competition in the industry as enshrined in the
\nNigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003.<\/p>\n
Danbatta lauded the role of the media in the reportage of the telecom
\nsector over the years and urged the practitioners to continue to be
\nobjective and constructive in their coverage of the activities of the
\nCommission and that of its licensees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta at the weekend hosted an interactive session with senior media chiefs from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n