That telecommunications
services have gained traction in Nigeria can only be evidenced by the
encouraging figures coming out of the industry. Apart from the monthly reports
of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which put subscription figures
at 226,426,215 connected lines for the month of July, 2016, 150, 262,066 active
lines, 92,181,178 internet subscribers and a teledensity of 107.33 per cent
within the same period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also recently
ascribed huge growth rate to the sector.
According to the NBS
figures, the telecommunications sector of the Nigerian economy contributed
N1.580trillion to gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2016,
or 9.8 per cent, which represents an increase of 1.0 per cent points relative
to the previous quarter.
The industry has thus been
hailed for remaining very strong and ready to continue to churn out positive growth
in very difficult moments as a testament to the possibilities that exist in the
country, possibilities that will always remain attractive to the rest of the
world if properly harnessed, packaged and projected.
Then enters Prof UmarGarbaDanbatta,
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). His
vision is to take the telecommunications industry to new heights by undertaking
constructive engagements with key stakeholders whose activities are quite
capable of sustaining growth and promoting an industry that is primed to play a
positively determinant role in making Nigeria a connected country.
This demands lots of
movements and negotiations and, in fact, deep appreciation of each other’s
relevance and importance in the build-out of a modern telecommunications
ecosystem.
The foregoing forms the
concourse of Prof Danbatta’s 8-Point Agenda which include: Facilitate Broadband
Penetration, Improve Quality of Service, Optimize Usage and Benefits of
Spectrum, Promote ICT Innovation and Investment Opportunities, Facilitate
Strategic Collaboration and Partnership, Protect and Empower Consumers, Promote
Fair Competition and Inclusive growth and Ensure Regulatory Excellence and
Operational Efficiency.
An interesting part of the
Agenda is that the various strands are quite measurable. They are also
intricately linked in the way they impact on the industry. It is quite possible
to look at the ground covered and the progress recorded within a defined
period. Fortuitously, neither Danbatta nor the NCC which he heads is scared of
being measured. It should be considered relevant here to note that the world has
measured us since 2001 at the dawn of a new industry and has marked Nigeria as
the country with one of the fastest growing telecommunications market in the
world.
Instead the EVC has galvanized
the Commission into reaching out to the various stakeholders with the assurance
that an industry that enjoys harmony is more useful to everybody than a
fractious one where stakeholders tend to contend for a little by way of tax. He
is preaching the gospel of the big picture which provides a cover for all
instead of a contentious few.
Danbatta has stated quite
eloquently that “the regulator is not supposed to just sit down in an
air-conditioned office. There is the need for him to go out from time to time and
be seen to be discharging responsibilities diligently as the regulator of the
telecommunications industry in all ramifications.”
At the Governors Forum the
Commission made an impassioned presentation to explain how their actions
constitute the non-technical factors that conspire to degrade quality of network
and stem process of growth which in turn create clusters of service gaps. The
Commission pointed the attention of the Governors to the existence of a
National Economic Council Document which stipulates charges that should be paid
whenever ICT infrastructure are being built. The document states that Telcos
should pay N145 for a metre length of fibre rollout and another N20 of
maintenance of the same infrastructure annually. But quite unfortunately some
states charge as much as N8, 000 per metre of fibre rollout.
Regretfully, Danbatta
observed that “there is no adherence to the provision of the NEC document and
we are concerned about this indiscriminate regime of taxation that
telecommunication companies experience, especially those that are involved in
deployment of telecommunications infrastructure. These charges will obviously
make it impossible for massive deployment of telecommunications infrastructure.
So, this is what most people refer to as right-of-way issues. Big issues, on
Right-of-Way, denial of access to sites and locations for deployment of
telecommunications infrastructure. And the main issue is this very astronomical
taxes that telcos are been subjected to and these are different amounts for
different locations in the country,” he submitted.
Plus the meeting with the
Governors Forum, the Commission is reaching out to the Governors individually
to make exclusive presentations to them and also to tackle other sundry issues
that exact on the industry negatively. To date the Commission has visited three
Governors, namely: Mallam Nasir e—Rufai of Kaduna State, Alhaji Abubakar
Ganduje of Kano Sate, and Governor IbinkuleAmosun of Ogun State. Arrangements
are being put in place to reach out to other Governors.
The visits are a
continuation of the Commission’s efforts to build bridges with the various
stakeholders and other development partners to explain how our various
activities conspire to knock down the efforts of the operators and how they
inadvertently create clusters that deny their people telecommunications services.
There is also a pitch: the
readiness of the Commission to make intervention in helping to take services to
these clusters through a special budgetary provision of the Universal Service
Provision Fund (USPF). Danbatta projects that about 40million people are
domiciled in these clusters of service gaps which the Commission through the
USPF will address progressively. He frowned at the development where people
would have to migrate to some locations in order to make a phone.
“Such development,” he
said, “flies in the face of our resolve, consistent with the 8-Point Agenda, to
ensure availability, accessibility and affordability of telecommunications
services to the Nigerian people wherever their places of abode in the country.”
Danbatta is excited at the
results already generated by the efforts of the Commission. In Kaduna State,
Governor el-Rufai informed that the State has harmonized taxes which telcos
will be charged for deployment of fibre; you will be paying the same amount of
money irrespective of which part of the State you are rolling out services.
After listening to a
compelling presentation by the Commission, Governor Amosun of Ogun State
unsealed the 47 base stations that had been sealed by a particular ministry and
magnanimously reduced the ground rent owned on them from N370m to N120m.
Danbatta is grateful to the Governors for their understanding and readiness to
embark on decisions that will accelerate deployment of telecommunications
services to their people, and is further poised to ensure that such
conversation is taken to any state of the country where there are issues.
“We intend to continue
with this advocacy now that we have seen the benefits and we will continue to
inform Nigerians about the progress we are making,” he said.
One of the cardinal
programmes of government is to hit 30 per cent broadband rollout target by
2018. Danbatta’s gospel is that the telecommunications industry needs to have
an unencumbered peace for the rollout to happen and for services to be
available for Nigerians build an ICT compliant society.
Okoh Aihe, Head, Online
and Special Publications of the Nigerian Communications Commission, wrote from
Abuja
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