This declaration was made on Tuesday by the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida.

The NCC boss who delivered a welcome address at the stakeholder engagement forum on unclaimed recharges held on Tuesday virtually said the occasion presented an opportunity to explore practical solutions on the subject matter.

He said the outcome of the discussion would help in refining NCC’s policies and ensuring that its regulatory approach aligned with the dynamic nature of the market.

“As we deliberate, I encourage open and constructive engagement, as your insights will be invaluable in shaping a framework that balances the interests of all stakeholders,” Maida said.

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The NCC boss stated earlier that the telecommunications industry had long been a pillar of economic growth, financial inclusion, and digital transformation.

According to him, with the widespread reliance on mobile services, prepaid plans had provided millions of Nigerians with flexibility and affordability.

He said, however, as the sector evolved, and in line with NCC’s commitment to ensuring Quality of Experience for telecom consumers, there was need to address emerging challenges especially those that might compromise consumer rights.

“One of such is the fate of prepaid balances when accounts become inactive,” he stated.

“The Quality-of-Service Business Rules 2024 stipulates that a prepaid line without a Revenue Generating Event for six months must be deactivated, and if inactivity persists for another six months, the line may be recycled. Subscribers have the right to reclaim their unused credit within one year, provided they can demonstrate ownership.

“However, the broader debate remains—should operators be required to refund unused airtime, or should the principle of ‘use it or lose it’ prevail? Our goal is to arrive at a framework that protects consumers while ensuring the continued efficiency and competitiveness of the industry. The Commission remains committed to fostering a fair, transparent, and consumer-centric telecommunications landscape,” Maida said.

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Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who addressed a gathering of senior management staff of NSCDC in the South West Zone, at an exclusive workshop organised by the commission, hailed the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, sealed between the agency and the commission, for which the gathering was to explore how the Corps will deploy enabling laws, subsidiary legislations, and extant guidelines to arrest any form of criminality in the sector.

Danbatta, who was represented at the workshop by the Director, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement at the Commission, Ephraim Nwokonneya, said, over the years, the NCC had been working with relevant law enforcement agencies, and in particular the NSCDC, towards protecting telecom sector from all kinds of criminal behaviour.

“Through despicable activities that are criminal and totally at variance with national security concerns of government, the deviant elements in our midst have been acting to undermine efforts put in place to consolidate the gains of the sector,” the EVC said.

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Danbatta declared that “These criminal activities include theft and vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure, the illegal use of fraudulently-registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards, operating without license, illegal call masking, and so on.”

He said while the NSCDC officers had been of tremendous assistance, the objective of the workshop was to constantly engage and update them on new trends and existing regulations, requiring concerted efforts for their implementation towards enhancing sanity in the telecom sector.

Danbatta said the NSCDC and other agencies had done very well with the assistance of their personnel in carrying out raid exercises and mopping up fraudulently-registered SIM cards found in circulation, as well as in raising the banner of awareness on the need to protect critical national telecom infrastructure.

Some of the topical issues discussed at the workshop covered the activities of the commission as presented by the relevant departments in the context of laws and other regulations, and in relation to the roles of NSCDC, as depicted in the presentation made by the NCC’s Head of Enforcement, Salisu Abdu, during the workshop.

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These were parts of industry growth data reeled out by the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, at a briefing for new Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Engr. Festus Yusuf Daudu, on the functions and regulatory activities of the Commission in Abuja on Tuesday.

In the comprehensive briefing, the EVC spoke on NCC’s enabling laws, mandates of NCC, structure of NCC, implementation approach of its mandates and methodology, key focus and targets, scorecards, the new soon-to-be-unveiled Strategic Management Vision, SVP, NCC’s contributions to the economy, various regulatory frameworks aimed at improving service delivery, challenges confronting the sector and proposed solutions, among others.

According to Danbatta, the effective regulatory regime emplaced by the leadership of the Commission had resulted in increased deployment of  infrastructure by telecoms operators, which in turn, helped to improve broadband penetration and other related service delivery in the telecoms industry.

“The BTS, fibre optic cables and other related infrastructure are central to the provision of improved service experience for Nigerians by their respective telecoms service providers,” he said, adding that the licensed Infrastructure Companies, InfraCos, are also expected to add 38,296km to optic fibre cables when they commence fully operations.

According to the EVC, as at November 2020, active telephony subscribers stood at 208 million with teledensity standing at 108.92 per cent while active Internet subscriptions were 154.9 million and a broadband penetration of 45.07 per cent, among others.

He also talked on various initiatives undertaken by the Commission to ensure consumer protection and empowerment.

According to him, they included the Declaration of 2017 as Year of the Telecom Consumer, introduction of the 622 Toll Free Line for lodging and resolving consumer complaints and the provision of the 112 Emergency number and activation of 19 Emergency Communications Centre (ECCs).

Other such consumer-centric regulatory measures intervention, according to the EVC, included issuance of various directions to mobile network operators, MNOs, to protect the consumers from being short-changed, ensuring smooth transition of Etisalat to 9Mobile, consumer outreach programmes, introduction and enforcement of mobile number portability, MNP, as well as introduction of the Do-Not-Disturb, DND, 2442 to check cases of unsolicited text messages.

The EVC disclosed that the number of subscriptions to DND service has hit over 30 million as the service empowers Nigerians to be able to protect themselves from the menace of unsolicited text messages.

In recognition of the tremendous economic growth opportunities afforded by the deployment of broadband and its associated technologies, Danbatta said the Commission had positioned itself in government’s drive for a digital Nigeria, as contained in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020 – 2025), the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020 – 2030) and the Strategic Management Plan (2020 – 2024) of the Commission.

“The Commission will continue to put in its best in the discharge of its mandates, especially in facilitating the deployment of broadband, which is central to diversifying the Nigerian economy and national development. Also, it is our belief that the communications industry, under the leadership of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, will experience more quantum leaps and retain its current leadership role in the telecommunications space,” he said.

In his reaction, the Permanent Secretary commended the leadership of the commission, acknowledging the upward growth attributed to the effective regulatory regime, the central role NCC is playing in the digital transformation of the Nigerian economy as well as the impressive contribution of the sector to the country’s Gross Domestic (GDP).

“I want to thank NCC for its contribution to the Nigerian economy so far. I am not exaggerating about the achievements of NCC, in terms of contribution to GDP and how NCC’s effective regulatory role has been helping the economy in so many ways,” he said, adding that NCC leadership also contributed to his success as the chairman of the World Radio Conference in 2015.

Engr. Daudu urged the commission on the need for increased collaboration and teamwork with the ministry, other agencies and industry stakeholders towards achieving the federal government’s objective of a digital economy.

He also promised to support the Commission in whatever ways possible towards achieving its regulatory mandates.

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Prof. Danbatta made this assertion in his presentation to Course 29 participants at the National Defence College, Nigeria, recently.

Speaking on a theme, “The Telecommunications Industry and National Development in Nigeria: The Roles of the NCC in Promoting Digital Economy,” he said, telecoms sector is the life-wire that will drive the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) of the Federal Government.”

He noted that the sector played a dual role of contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and being an enabler to other sectors of the economy.

“Telecommunications is key to the diversification of the Nigerian economy, as the telecom sector played a dual role of contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and being an enabler to other sectors of the economy,” he said.

The EVC informed that the commission remitted over N362.34 billion as revenue in five (5) years to the Federal Government’s consolidated revenue account.

He listed fixed broadband Infrastructure gap, Right of Way (RoW), Foreign Exchange, Vandalism of telecoms infrastructure, Electric Power Supply, Multiple Taxations and regulations as some of the challenges bedeviling the industry.

On fixed broadband infrastructure gap, he said, the commission will bolster the exiting fibre optic infrastructure across the country by 38,296 km through the Infrastructure Companies (InfraCo) project Initiative.

On Row, the NCC boss said, the engagement with the Nigeria Governors Forum on adoption of N145/m as RoW fees has yielded results in Kaduna, Katsina, Imo, Ekiti and Plateau State.

He urged other states governments to key into the success of the digital economy drive by reducing RoW fees and other charges targeting telecom service providers.

Danbatta’s paper delved into a range of issues, including the correlation between broadband and GDP, telecom contribution to national development, telecom investment trend in Nigeria, telecom contribution to digital economy, conceptualisation of digital economy, among others.

In his remarks, the Commandant of the National Defence College, Rear Admiral Mackson Kadiri, appreciated the EVC, describing his paper as in-depth, incisive and timely, giving the pivotal role the telecom sector played in ensuring national security and national development.

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This is as the commission expressed its commitment to the creation of an enabling environment for competition among operators in the industry to ensure the provision of qualitative and efficient telecoms services as stipulated in Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003.

According to NCC’s Director, Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, in a statement issued on Tuesday, the policy document, “Determination on the Implementation of an Accounting Separation Framework for the Nigerian Telecoms Industry”, which was developed via a consultative process in 2015, ha undergone a comprehensive review by the regulator in collaboration with telecoms licensees and other critical industry stakeholders.

He said with the commencement of the implementation of the framework, telecoms licensees were, henceforth, obligated to submit their Regulatory Financial Statement (RFS) to the commission in line with the new ASF, within seven months after the end of the licensees’ financial year.

He said Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC expressed optimism about the framework noting that “the new ASF will promote an industry environment that fosters open and transparent financial reporting, while ensuring that charges for telecom services are cost-based and non-discriminatory.”

The commission, however, stated that submission of RFS in line with the new framework, was currently limited to and mandatory for only six telecom licensees, adding that that would subsist for an initial period of two years after which the regulator might review the list to include other operators.

The six licensees include Airtel Nigeria, MTN Nigeria, Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Limited (9Mobile), Globacom Nigeria, Main One Cable Company Limited and IHS Nigeria.

Adducing reasons for limiting compliance to six operators for now, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said the decision was taken to ensure necessary structure was in place for reviewing and analysing the accounts before applying the new framework to all licensees in the industry.

Danbatta, however, stated that any other licensee willing to prepare its financial statements in line with the new framework was allowed to voluntarily do so, just as he said the commission might exercise its discretion to demand that a licensee should prepare and submit separated account where it was determined that the activities of such a service provider were deemed critical to the overall well-being of the Nigerian telecoms industry.

Therefore, for full and effective implementation of the Framework, every operator under the ambit of accounting separation is required to prepare an Operator-specific Accounting Separation Manual, OASM, containing policies, principles, methodologies and procedures for accounting and cost allocation, which must be submitted to the commission on or before October 30, 2020 for regulatory approval.

Licensees, the commission said, shall also be required to prepare their financial and non-financial reports in line with the guidelines for the ASF while reports shall be furnished by the licensees for every account year beginning from the 2020 financial year end.

Also, as part of operators’ licensing conditions, the commission requires licensees to prepare, in respect of each complete financial year or of such lesser periods as may be specified, separated accounting statements for all their activities.

According to Danbatta, the commission considered the Accounting Separation Framework “as an effective, least evasive and less costly solution to implement to meet its regulatory objectives,” adding that the implementation of the Framework was also a key deliverable for the Commission in the new National Broadband Plan (NBP), 2020-2025.”

The EVC added that the commission took into consideration the inputs from industry stakeholders and had provided capacity-building for operators and for relevant staff of the Commission to ensure seamless implementation of the Framework.

Danbatta further reiterated the commitment of the commission towards continually developing policies, initiatives and programmes aimed at boosting healthy competition among telecoms operators in the country to ensure that consumers continued to enjoy efficient and affordable telecom services.

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