NCC Issues Two New Licences To Service Providers , Soon

The Nigerian Commu
nications Commission (NCC) says it has concluded arrangements to issue two new licences to telecoms infrastructure providers.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos last Friday, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, said the commission was already behind schedule on its plans to accelerate the processes that would eventually  dovetail to cheap, fast reliable and ubiquitous broadband.
Juwah said the new broadband would provide service to every nook and cranny of the country pursuant to the realisation of the ambitious goals of the National Broadband Plan, stressing that the  commission’s inability to complete the process on schedule was as a result  of the fear of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) that is  ravaging parts of the West Africa subregion.
The NCC boss explained that the country is behind schedule on licensing of the  infrastructure firms because the commission’s foreign consultants refused to come to Nigeria because of Ebola which was imported into the country by the indet, American  Liberian Patrick Sawyer.
He said that under the NCC Open Access Model, the regulator intends to license seven  infracos  one each for  the six geo-political zones of the country while the seventh would service  Lagos exclusively.
He said it remains a decanting challenge for the country to meet the five-fold target of broadband  penetration from the current less-than-seven  per cent by the commission to handle  the bid evaluation would not come to the country for the assessment as agreed, stressing that the commission is working out clearance measures with the  Federal Ministry of Health  for the  consultants  to arrive.