The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated its faith in strategic collaboration and partnership as a central principle of its stakeholders’ relationship management and regulatory activities.
Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta reaffirmed this while speaking during a panel session at the ongoing 2021 Virtual Conference and Exhibition on Information Communication Technology & Telecommunications (ICTEL) organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and themed
Danbatta who spoke on the theme, ‘Exploring Public-Private Collaboration for a Robust Digital Infrastructure, Regulations, Investment and Policy,’ noted that the Commission’s daily regulatory processes are marked by consultations with a wide spectra of stakeholders as well as strategic partnering and collaboration with both private sector players and other sister public sector organisations.
“Following the liberalisation of the telecoms sector in 2001, the Commission has continued to facilitate investment inflow into the country’s digital space through licensing of many private sector players, who are deploying services in different segments of the nation’s telecom market.
“This has resulted in rollout of massive infrastructure ranging from the deployment of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) and laying of thousands of kilometres of fibre optic cables to every nooks and crannies of the country. Hence, the sector has grown significantly in investment with significant access to an array of voice, data and other kinds of enterprises,” he said.
Danbatta also disclosed that the NCC has also continued to enhance existing infrastructure through the licensing of a category of private sector players known as Infrastructure Companies (InfraCo), who are to deploy fibre optic cable on a wholesale basis across the country with broadband Point of Access (PoA) in each of the 774 Local Government Areas of the country.
He stated that the InfraCo scheme is running on a PPP arrangement, where the government provides a counterpart fund as a subsidy to stimulate faster, more robust and resilient broadband infrastructure rollout across the country.
On broadband, the EVC noted that while penetration in Nigeria has reached 45% at the moment, from less than 6% in 2015, and by that fact stimulating digital activities in the country, there still exist access gaps which the Commission is making efforts to bridge.
According to Danbatta, “It is noteworthy that the hitherto existing access gaps of 217 identified in the country have been reduced to 114 through increased collaboration between the Commission and stakeholders in the telecom ecosystem.
“Hence, the InfraCo project being implemented by NCC and other similar regulatory initiatives which have PPP component is in line with policy expectations of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025; the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030; the NCC Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2020-2024, as well as a number of regulatory instruments and frameworks which envisioned the PPP model as a central organising principle for fast-tracking the development of Nigeria’s telecoms industry.
“Besides, the NCC is renowned for its tradition of engaging in robust stakeholder consultation on the development of its various regulations and policy initiatives. The Commission consistently engages private sector organisations, in a clear expression of its PPP philosophy, to carry out specific tasks, notably, in carrying out cost-based studies, whose outcomes have been used by the Commission to improve regulations and policy decisions that have far-reaching positive implications on the economy.”
He stated that the NCC has also engaged in a number of PPP engagement through such initiatives as the Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF), a multi-sectoral committee of private and public sector institutions whose collaboration with the Commission has bolstered its determination to continually improve on all principles of protection of telecoms consumers from an array of service challenges as well as incidences of frauds and other associated risks of online transactions.
Explaining the regulator’s belief in the centrality of PPP principles, Danbatta recalled that the NCC, in November 2020, created a ‘PPP Unit’ as a division under its Special Duties Department, with the task of overseeing the implementation of the NCC’s revenue assurance solutions (RAS) as well as the Device Management System (DMS) project.
“The two projects are being implemented in collaboration with private sector players. While the RAS is intended to address the revenue leakages accruable to the government, through the NCC; the DMS is intended to address the issue of type approval of telecom equipment and devices to ensure originality and standardisation because of the implication of substandard devices for health and quality of service.
“The DMS is also instituted to tackle the problem of SIM boxing and call masking, which not only constitutes a threat to national security but also a mark of anti-competitive practice in the telecoms sector and a basis for loss of revenue in tax remittances to the government.
“However, despite the various PPP interventions being undertaken by the government and similar initiatives at the Commission, a number of challenges persist in the telecom ecosystem. These include multiple taxation and regulation, Right of Way (RoW) issue, vandalism, poor electricity supply, and lately worsening insecurity.
“All of these factors affect both the tempo and quality of infrastructure rollout by the private sector licensees, who are the main engine of growth in the telecom sector. These challenges also affect the quality of telecom services and by extension the Quality of Experience (QoE) of telecom consumers,” he said.
The NCC boss urged other members of the panel to suggest better and more innovative PPP approaches that may be explored by the government towards making the country’s telecoms infrastructure safer, more resilient, more robust, and encourages more attractive investment into the sector.
He reiterated the Commission’s commitment to continuously engage relevant stakeholders, both in the public and private sectors, in the country and beyond, in order to ensure that appropriate infrastructure befitting a modern digital economic system is available in the country to deepen government’s determination and commitment to total digital transformation of services in the country.