Business Briefs
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DESPITE more than $32 billion investment in the telecommunications sector in Nigeria, more than 33.7 million Nigerians have no access to telecoms services. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, who spoke at a session of the Universal Service Provision Fund, USPF, which was organised by the Focused Industry Stakeholders Forum and Hackathon Award, with the theme, ‘Universal Access: Eliminating the Inclusion Barriers’, said these number of Nigerians are still being underserved and un-served.
According to him, efforts are being channelled from different angles in the industry to bridge the gap. He said, “We are working hard to ensure that the number of underserved and unserved people is drastically reduced from 33.7 million.”
Based on the Access Gap study, and using 150 million population benchmark, Danbatta said, “The un-served population in Nigeria was reduced from 36.8 million (24.5 per cent) in 2013 to 33.7 million (22.5 per cent) in 2015.”
He added that with effective partnerships, the NCC could achieve more in the coming years. Meanwhile, the NCC executive vice chairman said that Nigeria’s parlous state of infrastructure had limited telecoms development, saying that the country ranked 134 out of 144 countries with readied infrastructure for growth. “Therefore, all hands must be on deck to improve on the state of our infrastructure if we must compete favourably well,” he said.
Danbatta appealed to the federal government to review its fiscal and monetary policies, especially as it relates to foreign exchange acquisition. He said that there was an urgent need to review the fiscal and monetary policies because operators were finding it difficult to have access to foreign exchange for their operations. “I think government should revisit its position as regards the fiscal and monetary policies, especially around foreign exchange for telecoms operators,” he said.
Ayuba Shuaibu, secretary, USPF, said USPF was established to promote widespread availability of telecommunications services across the country, stressing that the fund existed to enable operators to deploy services in areas considered not viable.
Presenting a paper entitled, ‘Universal Access: The inevitable bridge for inclusive development’, Jinmi Olanuiga, a member of the National Broadband Council, said that USPF existed in over 60 countries globally, “with largest funds found in India, Brazil and Malaysia; while huge success is reported in Pakistan.”
— May 9, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT
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