As the government calls on telecoms companies to reduce the high cost of data in Nigeria which it says is the highest in Africa to enable more Nigerians take advantage of the digital sphere to create the right environment for growth and development, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is riding on the crest of its mandate to connect Nigeria and create an information-rich society where businesses blossom. This according to the Commission will be achieved through deliberate and sustained efforts in driving major initiatives, programmes and necessary regulatory interventions. The Commission says it has been able to deepen access to telecommunications services – voice and data – across the country which has helped in positively impacting other sectors of the economy.

According to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC)/Chief Executive of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, all these efforts are because the role of information technology in economic growth cannot be overemphasised. Quoting the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased to 13.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2019. This compares with the 8.8 per cent GDP contribution by oil and gas in second quarter. In 2015, the contribution stood at about 8 per cent.

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Also, because of its huge impact on the nation’s GDP, developing broadband infrastructure to deepen penetration among individual and corporate consumers of telecoms services has been the focus of the Commission. Based on the understanding by the Commission that telecoms breaks barrier and can act in its own right as an enabler of socio-economic transformation, growth, development and modernisation across all sectors of the economy, the NCC Management has deliberately embarked on initiatives, serving as digital fulcrum and catalyst that propel the inter-sectoral implementation of the socio-economic transformation agenda of the current government.

One of such initiatives is the licensing of infrastructure companies (InfraCos) to provide additional robust broadband infrastructure across the geo-political zones in the country. Six of the InfraColicences have been issued to five geo-political zones and Lagos carved out as the sixth zone because of its commercial centrality, while the last and seventh licence for the North Central region is being worked on by the Commission. This is in addition to several other strategic initiatives being embarked upon by the NCC to address sundry challenges confronting telecoms infrastructure deployment by the existing licensees.

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In reality, the results of the continuous implementation of the initiatives are obvious. Currently, broadband penetration, which stood at less than 10 per cent in 2015 when the new Board of NCC was put in place, has significantly increased to 33.72 per cent indicating that 64,366,778 Nigerians now access high-speed Internet on 3G and 4G networks. General Internet subscriptions have also increased from 95 million to over 122.6 million presently while voice subscriptions rose from 150 million to 175 million.

Investment which stood at $62 billion has impressively grown to over $70 billion at present, just as the NCC continues to drive policies and initiatives to make the sector more investment-friendly to local and foreign investors. According to Hon. Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, said he would ensure that all agencies under his ministry including the NCC leverage ICT and telecoms to support the government’s communications agenda. In this regard, the Minister has thrown his weight behind the NCC’s InfraCo project in what he described as the correlation it has to propel the attainments of the Next Level agenda through accelerating increased digital access to Nigerians across the country.

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Similarly, the Chairman, Governing Board of NCC, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye has stressed the resolve of the NCC Board to provide directions that will help the NCC to make ICT more accessible to Nigerians to harness their creativity and productivity. “We also understand that telecoms infrastructure is prominently recognized as critical element to the Next Level agenda, especially in the area of achieving 120,000 kilometres of fibre to be laid across the country. NCC will be working with necessary Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and private other stakeholders to ensure we achieve this target in order to build resilient telecoms infrastructure to support the realization of the President’s Next Level agenda.”

According to Danbatta, with the impending commercial deployment of 5G technology globally by 2020, the Commission has started planning, in earnest, to ensure Nigeria is not lagging behind in the area of 5G deployment. “With 5G, the NCC is looking at three usage scenarios, which include: the enhanced mobile broadband applications, the ultra-reliable low latency applications and the Machine to Machine (M2M) applications. Hence, 5G will be characterized by high speed, M2M explosion and low latency, all of which will require reliable broadband infrastructure, which is one of the pre-occupations of the Commission,” the EVC said.

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Danbatta has drawn correlation between 5G networks and effective telecoms infrastructure. Expectedly, 5G will offer higher Internet speed and low latency and machine to machine (M2M) exposition, all of which will run on robust broadband infrastructure, which the Commission is currently driving and will ultimately support the digitisation of the Nigerian economy . He has assured that the Commission is committed to providing the enabling environment to attract the investment to expand 5G deployment while ensuring efficiency of existing technologies from 2G, to 3G and 4G towards providing the needed consistent digital impetus to the realisation of government’s economic growth agenda.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.