REMARKS
BY THE EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, PROF
UMAR GARBA DANBATTA AT THE NITRA PROGRAMME HOLDING IN LAGOS ON SEPTEMBER 16,
2016
PROTOCOLS
I want to thank the
Nigerian Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) for the
opportunity to make some comments at this auspicious occasion. I salute your
vision which transcends daily information dissemination through your various
platforms to providing a much needed platform to enrich the discourse on the
health of the telecommunications industry.
The theme of your
programme, The Impact of over Regulation
of the Telecommunications Industry on Service Quality provides a haunting
concern for us as regulators and for industry operators. You have said the
Nigerian Communications Commission should look at the regulatory perspective of
this subject of discourse.
We are encouraged by your
concern because we can see that apart from the primary stakeholders of the
industry there are so many people that are concerned with the health of the
sector. Your fears are genuine as anything contrary to the good figures coming
out of the industry will spell doom for a very promising sector.
The Nigerian Communications
Act 2003 in Chapter 2, Part 1, says “There is established Commission to be
known as the Nigerian Communications Commission with responsibility for the
regulation of the communications sector in Nigeria.”
The full powers of the
Commission to regulate the industry, promote competition, grant and renew
licenses, facilitate investment and protect the interests of consumers, among
others, are domiciled in the Act which today forms the major bedrock holding up
the growth of the industry.
The operating word in your
theme, over-regulation, connotes something dangerous and harmful to the
telecommunications industry. It’s either we are too strict with what we are
doing at the Commission to the extent that we are impacting negatively on the
industry we are created to protect or there are other bodies whose incursion
into the Commission’s terrain is creating too much discomfort for those
operating in the sector.
Point number One: We are
serious with our job at the NCC. But we also know the reason for our existence;
to create and nurture an industry that serves the needs of our people. That
thought is uppermost in our minds as we strive to create accessible and
affordable telecommunication services across the country.
Point number Two: We do
also agree that some sister agencies tend to be over zealous in trying to help
us do our job and in the process create unnecessary difficulties for our
operators. However, this is being addressed at the various levels of government
and I can promise that the story will be much better very soon.
In spite of a seeming
convolution of activities which affect the health of the industry, we stand
here to acknowledge that there is always a good story to tell about the sector.
As experienced reporters of the industry before being organizers of this event
you are the ones who help tell most of the stories.
Early this month the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that Telecoms contributed N1.58trn
to GDP in the Second Quarter. Please permit us to quote from one report.
“The telecommunications
sector of the Nigerian economy contributed N1.580 trillion to gross domestic
product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2016, or 9.8 per cent, which represents
an increase of 1.0 point relative to the previous quarter.
“According to a new data
just released by National Bureau of Statistics, this is the largest contribution
to GDP made from this sector in the rebased period, which emphasizes that
growth in telecommunications has remained robust when compared to total GDP.”
In addition, our monthly
data collection shows that the industry remains quite strong and defiant in the
face of very challenging times. For instance, while the connected lines stood
at 226,426,215 for the month of July, 2016, the active lines hovered on
150,262, 066 lines within the same period with 107.33. Internet subscriptions
for the month of June 2016 stood at 92, 181, 178, down from 93, 600,505
recorded in the month of February, 2016. This shows perhaps, that at the moment
people are concerned with voice communications than commitment to data.
But are we in a state of
nirvana because our industry is able to withstand the times? Quite honestly, I
will say an emphatic no, and this position is supported by what I have to say
next.
Recall that early in the
year we released an 8-Point Agenda which we hope would form a comprehensive
roadmap to help rejuvenate the telecommunications industry and help bring more
life and investment to the sector.
The 8-Point Agenda,
followed by vision and strategy for implementation, which will help drive the
Commission’s vision for the next five years are listed as follows:
1. Facilitate
Broadband Penetration,
2. Improve
Quality of Service
3. Optimize
Usage and Benefits of Spectrum
4. Promote
ICT Innovation and Investment Opportunities
5. Facilitate
Strategic Collaboration and Partnership
6. Protect
and Empower Consumers
7. Promote
Fair Competition and Inclusive growth
8. Ensure
Regulatory Excellence and Operational Efficiency
Concise as the foregoing
may be and quite penetrative to the needs of the industry, what is actually
quite fascinating albeit very encouraging is the process of implementation
which at the moment is yielding some results. We are going to create time very
soon to talk about this but let us pullout three items from the list and try to
explain what we have been doing about them; and in fact how inexorably, they
are linked to one another. The explanation may help throw light on what we are
doing in respect of the theme under discussion.
The three items are:
Facilitate Broadband Penetration, Improve Quality of Service and Facilitate
Strategic Collaboration and Partnership.
I will start from the
last, Facilitate Strategic Collaboration and Partnership and you will see how
this forms a rope that ties everything together. For over a decade, some of the
most intractable problems of the industry were the discordant relationship
among government agencies, and the relationship between the industry and the
various governments and environments where they operate.
Taking a dispassionate
look at the situation, the Commission under the new management decided to reach
out to other agencies and the state governors with the view to convince them to
take another look at the industry and create environments that will favour operators
and thus be able to contribute more in terms of investment, employment and
taxes. This course of action,which we will want to describe as quiet diplomacy,
is helping to bring some needed stability to the sector.
We have met with their
Excellencies under the Governors Forum. We have told them about the existence
of a document put together by the National Economic Council which spells out
charges on telco infrastructure rollout. This document stipulates charges of
N145 per metre of fibre and another N20 for maintenance. There are some states
where they charge as much as N8, 000 per metre length of fibre!
We are reaching out to their
Excellencies, the Governors, individually to drive home our point of view and
we are happy to announce here that the states we have visited understand our
story. We were in Kaduna State where, His Excellency, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai who
in other times has done so much for the telecommunications industry, is in
strategic alliance with us to improve the fortunes of the industry, and by
extension that of the State. We were in Kano State; and also recently visited
Ogun State. In these States we noticed infrastructure gaps where the Commission
can make intervention through some budgetary provisions, and highlighted issues
that trouble the industry. Some of the issues are right of way, double taxation
or even some kind of environmental charges resulting in closure of base
stations. They have all promised to work with us.
Ogun State presented and
interesting story. Before our visit to His Excellency, Governor Ibikunle
Amosun, about 47 base transceiver stations had been shut down by the Ministry
of Urban and Regional Planning. Once the implications of such closure were
explained to the His Excellency, and a strong intervention made by the
Commission, he immediately directed the Commissioner in charge to take action
and reopen them.
One of the operators was
owing N370m on ground rent for those base stations. The Governor was magnanimous
enough to slice it to N120m. Such is the result that our quiet diplomacy is
yielding.
But you look at it. There
are various actions that result in over-regulation. What we are not careful to
study sometimes is how those actions negate the efforts of the operators and
degrade the quality of the networks.
One of our focus areas is
to facilitate Broadband penetration and be able to meet the nation’s 30 per
cent Broadband rollout target by 2018. This can only happen in a harmonious
environment where the operators are encouraged to rollout, where the regulator
and other important relevant stakeholders are not encumbered with unnecessary
distractions.
We want to create a
win-win situation for the telecommunications industry and the host communities
of service providers but over-regulation will continue to be a barrier. My
charge to you today as reporters and valued stakeholders of the industry is not
to begrudge anybody for their actions but to use your knowledge of the industry
to explain why certain actions should not be taken. It is in our collective
interest for the industry to continue to post strong figures attesting to the impact
of the telecom sector in our social and economic development.
I thank you for your
attention.
Prof
Umar Garba Danbatta,
Lagos,
September 16, 2016
Tags
Business