Chinenye Anuforo
The Government of Edo State and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have reaffirmed their commitment to work together to improve access to telecoms infrastructure and provide citizens of Edo State with world class telecoms and ICT facilities.
This was disclosed recently during a meeting between the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki and the NCC, led by its Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management, Mr Sunday Dare.
In his welcome remarks, Dare commended the forward-looking policies of the Governor and assured him of NCC’s readiness to support achievement of the ICT aspirations of the State through the deployment of fiber infrastructure under the Commission’s InfraCo project and interventions by the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF).
He noted that the NCC was aggressively driving accessibility to telecoms networks at all nooks and crannies of the Federation. He, however, regretted that multiple taxation and regulation in some States of the federation have become counter-productive for some states because they end up losing substantial revenues and developmental opportunities which could have been stimulated with the presence of telecoms infrastructure. He assured the governor that NCC was keen to partner Edo State to achieve a win-win situation in the overall interests of the people of Edo State.
In his remarks, the Governor noted that the government was focused on exploring non-oil resources and has therefore articulated developmental priorities focusing on creating a sense of order (participative, accountable and open governance); and a sense of security, safety and stability necessary to attract requisite investments to develop the state. “Since its developmental goals relies on the seamless availability of telecoms/ICT infrastructure, Edo State is passionate about the need to attract robust telecoms infrastructure to drive manufacturing, education and other socio-economic activities,” he stated. As an example of the state’s forward-looking approach, the governor noted that Edo State has always made provision for shared fiber ducts in its road projects and looks forward to engaging with NCC and operators to agree on fiber deployment projects and routes as necessary.