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What NCC is doing to be up to date with developments –Danbatta

Oyindamola Akanni
Oyindamola Akanni
AI will play a major role in shaping Africa’s digital future -Danbatta
Danbatta

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has put some measures in place in order to keep up to date with developments in the communication industry.

The executive vice chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, made this known on Thursday in his keynote speech at the Talk-To-The-Regulator forum held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

The measures, Danbatta said, were to improve regulations to accommodate the rapid and continuous developments in the industry.

Some of the interventions and responses of the commission, he said, included facilitating the Roll-Out of 5G Service provision, and introduction of Mobile Virtual Network Operator, MVNO, licence to bridge the gap between unserved and underserved areas.

The measures, he added, also included the commission’s review of the scope and structure of its existing licenses to make them more robust and to accommodate some of the identified new industry trends.

He stated too that in line with the Nigeria National Broadband Plan (NNBP 2020 – 2025), the NCC was providing industry leadership to facilitate the achievement of 90% broadband penetration by year 2025, and well above 50% at the end of 2023.

According to him, at the moment, I50 million Nigerians had access to internet, while over 80 million could access high speed internet.

Danbatta, speaking on the event, pointed out that the NCC, in keeping with its mandate, created opportunities to interact with its licensees on industry issues and new trends via stakeholder fora, with a view to gathering relevant information that would further advance the development of the industry, while improving regulations and service delivery to telecom consumers.

He said the TTTR Forum in Yenagoa was originally scheduled to hold in 2022 but was postponed due to the dreadful flood disaster that hit Bayelsa and some other states in the year.

“The commission, therefore, seize this opportunity to commiserate with the people of Bayelsa State and the entire nation on the worst flood disaster recorded in the history of the nation. We pray that such natural disaster shall not plaque our dear nation again, and equally believe that the state has made adequate preparations for any future occurrences,” he said.

Welcoming stakeholders, he expressed hope that during the two-day-session, “we would discuss and identify the measures necessary to improve investment and service delivery.”

He added: “I therefore appeal to you all to feel free to ask questions, provide feedback and proffer possible solutions that would address the concerns that might be raised during the interactive sessions.”

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