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 the
mainstream and online media community where he gave impressive accounts
of his stewardship as the Chief Telecoms Regulator in the last five
years.
The event, held at the NCC’s Communications and Digital Economy Complex,
Mbora, Abuja, was attended by the top-notch of the fourth estate of the
realm both physically and virtually, as well as the senior management of
the Commission, including the Executive Commissioner Stakeholder
Management, Adeleke Adewolu.
Addressing the forum, Danbatta, who was recently reappointed for another
five years in office following the expiration of his first term in
August 2015, eloquently enunciated his major policy initiatives that
have produced record broadband penetration and enhanced the growth in
the telecoms sector, especially in the contribution to the nation’s
Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He also reeled out NCC’s regulatory priority areas for the next five
years to include facilitating the attainment of 70 percent broadband
penetration by 2025; consumer protection and empowerment; and
consolidation of spectrum trading to ensure maximum and efficient usage
of available frequencies.
Other areas of focus, according to him, will include continuous SIM
registration audit to provide security and curtail incidences of
banditry, kidnapping, and armed robbery; creation of Emergency
Communications Centres (ECCs) in more states of the federation; and
execution of the counterpart funding agreements with the licensed
Infrastructure companies (InfraCos) to facilitate the digital
transformation of the economy.
Speaking on his achievements in the last five years, Danbatta said that
the diligent implementation of NCC’s Strategic Vision Plan (SVP), which
focused on the 8-Point Agenda, has helped to lift broadband penetration
from 6 percent in 2015 to 42.02 percent by July 2020. The sector’s
contribution to GDP increased from 8.50 percent in 2015 to 14.30 percent
in the second quarter of 2020. In financial terms, Danbatta said the Q2
2020 contribution translates to N2.272 trillion.
He noted that when he came on board five years ago, 217 access gap
clusters were identified in the country affecting 40 million Nigerians
without access to telecoms services. “But today, we have reduced the
access gap clusters to 114 with 15 million of the 40 million digitally
excluded Nigerians now having access to telecoms services. We are
committed to addressing the remaining access gap clusters, which are
areas outside the frontier of economic viability to ensure the remaining
25 million Nigerians have access,” he said.
Similarly, Danbatta said on assumption of office, there were 47,000
kilometers of fiber optic cables laid across the country. However, five
years after, as a result of regulatory focus, there are now 54,725
kilometers of fiber cables laid across the country through the efforts
of some private companies in the sector.
“In line with the Federal Government’s target, an additional 120,000
kilometers of fiber are being planned over the next four years. In this
regard, the NCC is working on last-mile connectivity to different parts
of the country through leveraging the 40 terabyte capacity of five
submarine cables on the coastal shores of Nigeria,” he said.
Danbatta pointed out that the licensing of six Infrastructure Companies
(InfraCos) to deploy fibre infrastructure across the six-geo political
zones will also help to galvanise increased connectivity. “This will
also bring about a reduction in the cost of data from N1000, per
gigabyte of data to around N390 with broadband penetration target of 70
percent to cover 90 percent of the population within the next five years
as contained in the new Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025),”
the EVC said.
Danbatta, however, noted that “we cannot have pervasive broadband with
only 37,000 4G-enabled Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) of the total
50,000 BTS currently in the country. We need more next-generation
technologies as we work through addressing infrastructure deficit
occasioned by the spike in data usage in the country.”
In this regard, the EVC said the 5G trial conducted by the NCC in 2019
and its eventual safe deployment in the country will increase data speed
and boost efficiency in-service experience for the consumers.
On capital importation, the EVC said in 2015, Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) in the telecom sector stood at $1 billion but declined to $212
million by 2018. He, however, noted that through regulatory efforts, the
FDI in the sector has picked up again reaching $930 million according to
recent figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Danbatta also talked about the various consumer-centric initiatives his
leadership has put in place to strengthen consumer protection and
empowerment in the last five years. These include the declaration of
2017 as the Year of the Consumer, the introduction of the Do-Not-Disturb
(DND) 2442 Short Code, the introduction of the NCC toll-free Number 622;
the stringent provisions of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM)
Registration Guidelines, issuance of direction on forceful subscription
and data roll-over, among others.
Such initiatives, According to Danbatta, also include the constitution
of a multi-sectoral committee on e-fraud, revision of the consumer
complaints, and service level agreements (CC/SLA) for prompt resolution
of consumer complaints by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
He reiterated NCC’s commitment towards delivering on its mandate of
ensuring the quality of service to the consumers, driving investment,
and boosting healthy competition in the industry as enshrined in the
Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003.
Danbatta lauded the role of the media in the reportage of the telecom
sector over the years and urged the practitioners to continue to be
objective and constructive in their coverage of the activities of the
Commission and that of its licensees.
