Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), at an interactive session held recently with top media executives from mainstream and online media community, rolled out significant accounts of his stewardship as the Head of Nigeria’s Telecoms Regulator in the kast five years.
Attended physically and virtually by top-notch members of the media, the event took place at the Commission’s Communications and Digital Economy Complex, Mbora, Abuja. Senior management of the NCC, including Adeleke Adewolu the Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management was also present.
While addressing the forum the EVC who recently got another five-year term after his first term expired in August 2015, brilliantly highlighted his significant policy initiatives that have yielded a record broadband penetration growth enhancement in the telecoms industry, most importantly in the contribution towards Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Prof. Danbatta also listed the Commission’s regulatory priority areas for the next five years to include:
- facilitating attainment of 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025;
- consumer protection and empowerment;
- consolidation of spectrum trading to ensure maximum and efficient usage of available frequencies.
- SIM registration audit to provide security and curtail incidences of banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery;
- creation of Emergency Communications Centres (ECCs) in more states of the federation;
- execution of the counterpart funding agreements with the licensed Infrastructure companies (InfraCos) to facilitate digital transformation of the economy.
According to Danbatta, the careful implementation of the Commission’s Strategic Vision Plan (SVP) in the last five years with a focus on the 8-Point Agenda, has increased the country’s broadband penetration to 42.02 per cent by July, 2020 from 6 per cent in 2015.
The telecoms sector’s contribution to the GDP increased from 8.50 per cent in 2015 to 14.30 per cent in the second quarter of 2020. This means that the Q2 2020 contribution translates to N2.272 trillion.
The EVC noted that on the assumption of office five years ago, the Commission had discovered 217 access gaps, a result that has affected 40 million Nigerians – having no access to telecom services.
“But today, we have reduced the access gap clusters to 114 with 15 million of the 40 million digitally excluded Nigerians now having access to telecoms services. We are committed to addressing the remaining access gap clusters, which are areas outside the frontier of economic viability to ensure the remaining 25 million Nigerians have access,” the EVC said.
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L-R: Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); Adeleke Adewolu, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, NCC; Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, NCC; Abigail Sholanke, Director, Projects, NCC and Editor, AIT, Adebayo Bodunrin, during the interactive media chat with the EVC of NCC.
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