Chinenye Anuforo
The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Umar Garba Danbatta has said that the commission is intervening to ensure forex support from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to Danbatta, who said this in Lagos at the Telecom Executives and Regulator Forum organised by the Association of Telecommunications companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the NCC had a joint technical committee with the CBN where the issues of funding was addressed but unfortunately they have not gotten any request from industry players.
His words: “We are intervening in so many ways to see that our licensees have the necessary support from the CBN, for forex to be given at the prevailing rate. For the Universal Service Provision Funds(USPF), the money sought by the industry is so huge that the USPF cannot carter for it’’.
The NCC boss explained that the issues of funding was critical to the industry and cannot come from government but private sector.
According to him, what government does is to provide an enabling environment for ease of doing business.
During the presentation of his keynote speech titled ‘Enhancing the Nigerian Telecom Sector Through Investment and Formulation of Policy and Regulations on Emerging Services: Opportunities & Threats’, he explained that the $68 billion investment already in Telecom’s sector in Nigeria is huge, but it is by no means adequate for one of the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world.
He said that the capital intensity of the industry, the need for service providers to increase their infrastructure deployment to satisfy, the ever-increasing demand, create room for double the size of this investment in the next ten years.
Represented by Mr. Mohammed Babajika, Director Policy Competition and Economic Analysis, the NCC boss said, “We have about 40 million Nigerians yet to be reached with basic infrastructure and services. The NCC roadmap for broadband has created new frontiers for investment. The quest for data and social media as well as the increasing value added services create new frontiers for investments.”