By 
Infrastructure companies (InfraCos) are to get subsidies for their rollout as incentives for investors exploring infrastructure licences in the country, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta has announced at the just ended ITU Telecom World in Durban, South Africa.
“In line with our initiatives to encourage investors for InfraCos to roll out, the Commission has created provisions in its 2017 and 2018 budgets as subsidies to the InfraCos. This is essentially to be disbursed piecemeal to the InfraCos as the deployment of their infrastructure progresses.
“We have assured all the licencees that this subsidy is based on the implementation and milestones of their roll out obligations,” said Danbatta while speaking at Nigerian Investment Forum in Durban.
Infracos are designed to close Nigeria’s infrastructure gaps and help to accelerate the national broadband initiative.
Six Infracos have been licensed to cover six geo-political regions of the country. They include Zinox Technology Limited for South East, Brinks Integrated Solutions Limited for North East and MainOne Cable Company Limited for Lagos. In all, NCC plans to licencse seven InfraCos.
“The NCC has put in place incentives for Infrastructure Companies in order to encourage speedy deployment of infrastructure that will deepen broadband penetration as quickly as possible, and further increase telecoms investment in GDP.”
“This is part of the roadmap to take Nigeria to the next level under the Open Access Model template. So far, six Infraco licences have been issued to cover Lagos, North East, North West, South South, South West and South East zones of the Country. Arrangements are underway to re-licence the North Central zone,” said Danbatta.
IHS which was licensed to rollout as an InfraCo in the north central region including Abuja returned its licence due to inability to carry out network buildout within a year.
