HoR queries NCC over USPF N2bn projects

By Ihesiulo Grace

9 May 2023

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By Tom Okpe

The ad-hoc House of Representatives Committee has queried the Nigerian Communication Commission, (NCC) over 1014 projects under the Universal Service Provision Fund, (USPF) inducing an e-library project that was carried out to the tune of over N2 billion.

The House frowned at a request by the Commision for N700 billion to ensure, 27 million Nigerian who do not currently have access to telecommunication get coverage.

This was as the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta appeared before the House Ad-hoc Committee, investigating the failure and inability of the Commission to promote widespread availability mobile telecommunication network service in Nigeria as well as accruals and utilization of funds in the USFP, during its inaugural hearing on Monday at the National Assembly.

Rep Bamidele Salam, chairman of the committee, noted that there was no specific description of what was done in the contracts.

He noted that 80 percent of the projects had no specific location.

The Committee therefore moved a motion that the NCC should provide the specific addresses and project description and specifications for each of the contracts that were awarded and listed in the 91-page document, to be submitted by 2pm on Tuesday, May 9, 2023.

The Committee also, noted that most of the contractors had no addresses specified on the document, querying the Commission for unilaterally, deciding how much money goes to the USPF.

Salam said, “There is a list of contracts awarded by the USPF since inception provided for us here, which is about 1014 various contracts on which a few observations have been made.

“There is also the submission of the annual audited report of the USPF which has been from 2007 till date, but a few years missing from the audited reports.

“A few observations have been raised, and I want members to let us address those issues so we can take answers holistically.”

The lawmakers, further argued that a regulation made by the NCC cannot supersede its enabling Act.

In his contribution, a member, Mark Gbillah from Benue State said, “The challenge is that, the NCC has given itself the power to annually decide what annually, is allocate to USPF.

“Looking at the documents presented, administrative expenses rose from N19 million to N127 million. The expenditure on staff rose exponentially.

“Let me say that it is important for the NCC to let us know the premise on which you annually determine, allocate the USPF or otherwise and what annual allocation they have proposed and implemented from inception till date.

“We need to know what the funds have been used for. On the e-library alone you spent over 2 billion. How functional is the library based on the amount that allocated to them when a lot more should have been allocated in my opinion, to the deployment of Base Transceiver Stations to have more coverage across the country.”

Another lawmaker queried why in 2015 despite staff strength reducing from 48 to 45 there was an almost 100 percent increase from N434 million to N824 million.

Earlier Prof Danbatta said in 2013 there was a consultancy driven by the NCC to identify clusters of access gaps in the country.

He said 207 clusters of access gaps according to that study and in these clusters of access gaps, there were about 37 million Nigerians.

He said since then, through the Commission’s efforts, the number of people without access had been reduced to 27 million.

“What we have done to bring telecom services closer to the people living in rural, unserved and underserved areas of this country was a total of 37 million people, courtesy of the consultancy that was conducted in 2013.

“By 2019, we had succeeded in reducing the clusters of access gaps to a 114 through the deployment of necessary infrastructure needed to bring services to people living in rural, unserved and underserved areas of the country.

“This deployment of infrastructure are the base transceiver stations.

“I am will give information about the base transceiver stations we have so far. This resulted in the reduction of Nigerians in those clusters from 37 million to 31 million in 2019.

“By 2022, we had reduced the clusters of access gaps to 97 from 207 in 2013.

“The number of Nigerians again, came down from 37 million in 2013 to 27 million as we speak. How did we achieve this? We achieved this by deploying from 2009 to 2011 a total of 79 base transceiver stations.

“In 2013 to 2018, we deployed an additional 124 base transceiver stations. From 2019 to 2022 we deployed a total of 364 base transceiver stations.

“Arising from the deterioration of the exchange rate of the Naira to Dollar, we have a figure of approximately N700 billion.

“It is the total amount required to completely bridge the gaps within the clusters that I have stated earlier. This is not a tall order. It can be done,” Danbata said.

The Committee however, summoned Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Economy, the Accountant General of the Federation, Auditor General and Chief Executive Officers of Telecommunications’ companies over the issue.

They are to appear before the Committee alongside the NCC on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, when the hearing would resume.

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