Politics
By Benprince Ezeh
UMAR Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, says that the commission has an impressive 42.02% in broadband penetration as of July 2020, compared to 2015, when broadband penetration in Nigeria was less than 6%.
He disclosed this at the interactive session with the media chiefs and news editors on Friday, September 4, 2020, in Abuja, saying that this achievement was as a result of key policy initiatives to improve broadband penetration embarked upon by the Commission.
“These include increasing the number of licensed Infrastructure Companies, InfraCo to six across the geo-political zones, spectrum reforming, spectrum re-planning, spectrum auctions, and administrative spectrum assignments, among others.
“The Commission is presently in the process of finalizing the six Infraco’s counterpart funding agreement to ensure the full rollout of broadband infrastructure on an Open Access Model, OAM and this will ensure there is Point of Access in each of the 774 local governments in the country,” he said.
According to him, the increase in broadband penetration has enabled the growth of the subscriber base, which was 199,307,796 as at June 2020. “Teledensity has risen to 104.41, while the percentage contribution to GDP in Q2 of 2020 was 14.2%.
“NCC is working with the Nigeria Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council (Critical Infrastructure Sub Committee) under the auspices of the Vice President, Yemi Osibanjo, on various initiatives towards improving Broadband penetration.
“To underscore the importance of the sector to the economy, in June 2020, the Federal Government designated telecoms facilities as Critical National Infrastructure, CNI. The Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, and all security agencies have since been notified of Mr. President’s directive to that effect,” Dambatta said.
– Sept. 10, 2020 @ 18:35 GMT |
Tags: NCC has improved in Broadband Penetration - Dambatta
