NCC decries rising theft of telecom facilities

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has expressed worry about the increasing rate of theft of telecommunication equipment across the country.

Executive Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, stated this in Gombe while delivering a welcome address at a one-day sensitisation workshop organised by NCC for law enforcement agencies in the North East.

Danbatta, who was represented at the event by Head, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department, Efosa Idehen, lamented the rising cases of vandalisation of telecom’s infrastructure, such as installations, adding that this has surpassed cybercrimes.He said te development has been a source of concern to the NCC.

According to him,“We have also seen proliferation in the sale and usage of pre-registered Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards.”

NCC, he said, has rolled out various campaign strategies to educate the general public on implications and consequences of undermining the integrity of telecoms operation.

He stated further that the commission has instituted series of social capital programmes to galvanise the country’s socio-economic transformation, including the commissioning of over 700 projects in various institutions of learning across the six geopolitical zones under its school support programmes.

He said that even though the sector is now contributing nearly 10 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), NCC foresees greater development in that sector and fully committed to the implementation of the National Broadband Plan deploying more broadband fibre networks beyond major cities.

In view of this, he added, the Commission has issued licenses to two infrastructure companies, while the remaining five companies will be licensed shortly.

“This is expected to further boost business, as well as, improve life and catalyze economic growth at the remotest areas,” the NCC boss said.

By Tony Nwakaegho