Nigeria Generates $18bn From Telecom Revolution – NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday said the telecom revolution in Nigeria had generated about 18 billion dollars (N1.79 trillion) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah disclosed this in Lagos at the 8th anniversary of Telecom Consumers Parliament (TCP) and 10 years of telecom revolution in Nigeria.

Juwah said that the fallout from this has increased the revenue generation to the federation account and mass direct employment of Nigerians by the service providers.

“The NCC in fulfilment of the mandate by Nigerian Telecommunications Act, 2003 has ensured that Nigerians have access to telephone services at affordable prices and with the best quality possible.

“We are not unaware of the challenges which such rapid growth has visited in the industry.

“The good news is that the commission is providing regulatory intervention to curtail such challenges,” Juwah said.

He said that the main challenges had been that of quality of service which had not reached the envisaged level of efficiency.

The NCC chief said that erratic power supply, vandalism of telecom infrastructure and lack of basic infrastructure were some of the challenges.

He listed others to include high level of insecurity, multiple taxation and militancy.

Juwah said that these had collectively affected the expected performance from the industry.

Dr Ernest Ndukwe, former Chief Executive of the commission, said that Nigeria still needed to grow its teledensity from the current level of about 66 per cent to 100 per cent to achieve the vision 20:2020

Ndukwe said that the USPF would have critical role to play in extending services to rural communities

According to him, Nigeria must reach all parts of the country with both voice and data carrying infrastructure.

He said that over 70 countries in the world have passed the 100 per cent teledensity level.