NCC: Ease of doing telecom business our goal

The Director of Public Affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Tony Ojobo has reiterated the commission’s commitment at create an environment that can accommodate telecommunications’ investors, stressing that ease of doing telecom business is paramount to the commission.

Ojobo stated this while representing the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta as a discussant at the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting, held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island-Lagos.

According to the NCC spokesman, the Nigerian telecom regulator is consistently liaising with operators in the industry to create an enabling environment, especially building a robust infrastructure that would ultimately lead to the ease of doing business and allow telecommunications’ sector, which has been described as ‘Nigeria’s Poster Boy,’ to thrive.

He called on the state governors to remove some of the bottlenecks hindering the successful uptake of telecoms’ services across Nigeria.

He said that telecom, which is currently contributing about 10 per cent to the nation’s economy is capable of contributing more once those bottlenecks are removed.
According to him, the bottlenecks include vandalisation and pilfering of telecoms’ equipment; shutting down Base Transceivers Stations and multiple taxation by states and local governments, saying that it is threatening telecom companies.

“Ease of doing business requires a robust telecom infrastructure. The Government should recognize this and work closely with the state governors to take away some bottlenecks on Right of Way,” Ojobo added.

On his part, the Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, who delivered the major paper with the theme: ‘The Role of Communications’ Industry in Economic Growth,’ has described the NCC as the most transparent agency in Nigeria.

Ogunsanya attributed this to the ways and manners the regulator has handled spectrum auctioning and other processes in the industry since the liberalization in 2001. While describing telecom as the ‘Poster Boy’ of the Federal Government, he added that since the liberalization, telecommunications’ sector has created 10,000 direct and 1.3 million indirect jobs.

He listed intense competition, power, low retail tariff, high leverage, multiple taxation, roll out cost and smart technology as some of the challenges telecom companies must surmount, while also challenging the regulator to do more in protecting telecom infrastructure.

He asserted that Nigeria should probably replicate the Chinese example, where cutting of fiber can send people to jail, stressing that this will make the citizens see telecom infrastructure as critical national assets.