Picture shows, during the visit, (L-R), Abraham Oshadami, Executive Commissioner Technical Services, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC; Tony Emoekpere, President, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, ATCON; Dr Aminu Maida, Executive Vice-Chairman/CEO, NCC; Rimini Makama, Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management, NCC; Muhammed Rudman, Vice President, ATCON/ CEO IXPN.

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The post PHOTO NEWS: ATCON team visits NCC headquarters appeared first on Frontpageng.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, stated this in a keynote address delivered at the annual Telecom Executives and Regulators Forum, TERF, hosted by the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, in Lagos on Thursday.

According to Danbatta, from a 14.13 per cent contribution in the first quarter of 2023, and up from the hitherto 15 per cent all-time-high record contributed in the second quarter of 2022, the telecommunications sector added 16 per cent to the national GDP in the second quarter of 2023 to set a new record.

Danbatta, while speaking on the theme: “Success Factors and Barriers to National Broadband and Digital Economy Aspirations”, took the audience, promising executives of telecom companies and other industry stakeholders, through the giant strides being made by the commission.

From about 8 per cent contribution to GDP in 2015, when Danbatta came on board as the EVC of NCC, he said quarterly GDP had increased significantly to reach its current threshold of 16 per cent and that that had continued to positively impact all aspects of the economy.

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“Through sustained regulatory excellence and operational efficiency by the commission, the industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the past two decades and this has impacted on all other sectors of the economy. The effective regulatory regime emplaced by the NCC and with the support from all stakeholders has been our major success factor as an industry,” Danbatta said.

The EVC stated that while there were barriers to broadband deployment in the country, ranging from the issue of right of way (RoW), fibre cuts, high capital requirement for deployment, multiple taxations and regulations, among other challenges, the NCC was navigating regulatory complexities, digital divide and literacy, security concerns with firmness and increased collaborations with necessary stakeholders such as ATCON to create measures towards tackling the challenges.

On the RoW challenge, the EVC said there were about 46 different taxes directed at the telecom sector at the moment.

Such charges and levels, coming in various names, were imposed on telecom operators by some agencies and tiers of government, especially at the state and local levels.

Danbatta said the challenge translated into greater economic burdens on telecom subscribers in the country.

Speaking about connectivity, Danbatta said, “Over the years, we have identified some clusters of access gaps all over the country but we have recorded a significant drop in the number of access gaps, as we continue to drive initiatives that boost access to telecommunications services.”

He stated that the commission did that by enlisting government’s commitment to a digital economy with robust policy frameworks, promotion of investment and funding, stimulation of infrastructure development, digital inclusion and literacy, promotion of competition and market liberalization, effective allocation of spectrum, as well as driving the e-government ecosystem.

Danbatta said with various ongoing regulatory efforts, “The NCC is confident that we are going to reach 50 per cent broadband penetration threshold by the end of 2023 and by 2025, we would have met and possibly surpassed the 70 per cent broadband penetration target, as contained in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP), 2020-2025.”

The EVC particularly commended ATCON and its members for being partners in progress and for constantly engaging the commission in constructive ways towards finding solutions to the myriad of challenges confronting the industry.

The EVC said a national broadband network and a thriving digital economy were not without their challenges.

“However, these challenges can be overcome through determination, innovation, and strategic planning. By focusing on the success factors and addressing the barriers, we can create a future where every Nigerian have access to the opportunities that the digital world offers,” he added.

Danbatta also stated that the success of the nation’s digital aspirations was beyond technological advancements but also about transforming lives, driving economic growth, and ensuring that a nation remained competitive on the global stage.

“As we work together to navigate this path, I enjoin all our stakeholders in the public and private sectors to remain committed to building a brighter and more connected future for our country,” he said.

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The EVC listed the measures in a presentation delivered during the Nigeria e-Government Summit 2021 recently held in Lagos titled, “e-Government: Opportunities and Challenges”, in which he focused on how government agencies and parastatals can take advantage of advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve service delivery to Nigerians.

Represented by the Commission’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, Danbatta stated that the NCC had been working assiduously with all stakeholders to deepen penetration of broadband infrastructure and services which support the growth of e-Governance and other critical digital economy objectives throughout Nigeria.

The EVC of NCC said the commission recently unveiled its second Strategic Vision Plan (SVP)- 2021-2025, which enables it to effectively align with efforts of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030; the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025, and other digital economy polices and global best practices.

“Leveraging on the successes we achieved under our previous SVP, we are repositioning both the commission and the entire industry to facilitate the availability of solid infrastructure and to proliferate digital platforms that effectively and efficiently enable digital inclusion throughout Nigeria,” he said.

Highlighting some of the activities of the commission geared towards ensuring accessibility to efficient and affordable network infrastructure to power e-Government and other digital economy initiatives in the country, Danbatta, pointed out that, following the presidential approval of the Fifth Generation (5G) Policy, the NCC had developed a 5G Deployment Plan for Nigeria’s digital economy.

Danbatta said the commission had set up a committee to auction the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) band for 5G deployment in Nigeria, and the details would be announced in due course.

Prof. Danbatta also disclosed that the regulator was currently updating the National Frequency Allocation Table (NFAT) to achieve more efficient spectrum allocation and usage to reflect World Radio Communications Conference (WRC)-19 recommendations.

He declared that the update of the spectrum allocation table was among several other initiatives being implemented by NCC to ensure efficient use of spectrum resource in the country.

Meanwhile, the EVC has said the task of attracting investments into the broadband infrastructure space was a collective responsibility.

Thus, he called for increased collaboration of all stakeholders in order to remove barriers to investment which included multiple taxation and regulation, arbitrary pricing of bottleneck resources such as Right-of-Way (RoW), time-consuming and unfriendly approval processes.

“These factors discourage investments in digital infrastructure and reduce the speed at which we provide our people with access to seamless digital service infrastructure for e-Governance and other services,” Danbatta emphasised.

The summit was organised by DigiServe Network Services Limited, in partnership with NCC, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, and the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, ALTON.

Earlier, Executive Chairman, DigiServe Network Services, Lanre Ajayi, in his opening address, said with the advent of democracy, expectations of citizens from governments are higher because citizens rate their governments largely on how efficient and effective government services are delivered to them.

“Hence, e-Government, which is essentially about the deployment of technologies in government processes and service delivery to citizens, provides immense opportunities for governments to deliver services to citizens most effectively and efficiently,” he said.

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The Award was presented to the EVC in his office in Abuja on Wednesday by ATCON president, Olusola Teniola, in company of the association’s Executive Secretary, Ajibola Olude.

Teniola said the award was in appreciation of the laudable contribution of the EVC of NCC towards the successful hosting of ATCON’s virtual national dialogue held for the industry on August 6, 2020.

According to Teniola, ATCON was recognising and appreciating the EVC “for being a panel discussant on ‘Meeting the Interests of the Government, Consumers, Telecoms and ICT Companies in the Era of COVID-19 and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Cum Digital Era’ dated August 2020.”

Responding, the EVC appreciated ATCON for the gesture and for the critical role the association is playing in the overall development of the telecoms and ICT industry as a whole.

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