Chief Executive, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Ernest Ndukwe, disclosed this at the regular briefing of President Umar Musa Yar'Adua at Aso Rock.
In his presentation at the meeting, Dr Ndukwe indicated that the nation's teledensity has witnessed a tremendous growth in the last five years, and has risen from 0.4% to the current 29.6%.
"The Federal Government has earned over US$2.2 billion dollars in spectrum licensing fees over the past five years paid directly into the federation account through the Central Bank," Dr Ndukwe asserted.
He further disclosed that the number of connected lines in the country as at date is 41.6 million, comprising 97% on the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and 3% on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile and fixed lines.
In addition, Dr Ndukwe said that network coverage across the board has reached over 60% of the nation's population, tracing the rising poor Quality of Service (QoS) in the sector to lack of capacity and enjoined operators to speed up their roll out plans.
In a comparative analysis with other countries, Dr Ndukwe, who also is the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) NCC, noted that though a lot has been achieved in the past six years, Nigeria must continue to benchmark itself with its global competitors, especially by encouraging deployment of broadband infrastructures.
He assured that NCC is taking adequate measures to ensure that erring operators are penalised appropriately and according to global best practices. He noted that investigations have recently been concluded with regard to erring operators in the sector and penalties would be applied according to the provisions of law. "We have directed on compensation to be paid by erring operators to consumers," he said, although it's being challenged currently in the court by two of the major operators, MTN and Celtel.
In his response, President Yar'Adua, while commending NCC on the giant steps made so far, tasked the Commission to ensure that the nation remains competitive, and find a lasting solution to the deteriorating quality of service.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary to the Federal Government, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and the Chief of Staff to the President, General Abdullahi Mohammed (rtd) as well as Minister of Information and Communications, John Odey, the Minister of State for Information and Communications, Alhaji Dasuki Nakanda, and Chairman, NCC board, Alhaji Ahmed Joda.
Published courtesy of
