NCC boss, Danbatta, assures foreign investors of safety

Potential investors with interest in the telecommunications sector have been assured of Nigeria’s commitment toward ensuring the safety and protection of their investments.

This assurance was given by Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, (NCC),Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, while addressing the investment forum session of the country at the ITU Telecom World 2017 in Busan, South Korea.

Danbatta narrated the story of how the NCC in collaboration with Nigeria’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), prevented a takeover bid for a telecommunication company by a consortium of banks back in Nigeria.

“The NCC is assuring the investors that our doors are open and that we will do whatever we can within the regulatory mandate assigned to us to ensure that their investment is safe and secure,” he said.

He added that NCC would continue to build a reputation “of a firm but flexible agency,” which provides incentives to operators and potential investors in order to ensure the gains recorded over the past couple of years are sustained.

“We collaborated with a sister agency to successfully stave off the takeover of a telecommunication company by a consortium of banks.”

He said, “Banks are not competent to run telecom companies, they should concentrate their efforts in making the financial sector more robust, which I believe they are doing.

This company is now rebranded as 9 Mobile; and is providing services to over 20 million Nigerians. Nigerians are on the pay roll of the company.”

“The message we are sending out to investors is that in the NCC we are always committed to ensure stability in the telecom sector of Nigeria, as well as making sure the safety of the investment is guaranteed,” the EVC NCC, he said.