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The telecoms sector got a whopping $2 billion from offshore investors between the first quarter of 2015 and fourth quarter of 2021, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has revealed.
The telecoms regulator said the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) has helped to drive infrastructure deployment in leaps and bounds in a way that has enhanced quality of service and growth of other sectors.
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He spoke during a recent briefing of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. William Alo, who lauded the NCC for its remarkable strides.
“The entire country, and beyond, is fully aware of the strategic importance of the NCC as a regulating institution of the telecommunications industry in Nigeria. And, of course, we are aware today that between oil and communications, the latter is gradually taking over in the provision of revenue for the country as the nation strives to diversify the economy,” said Alo.
The investment within the period has impacted significantly on the telecom sector, according to Danbatta. He said the access gap clusters in the country has been reduced from 217 to 114 to enable 15 million Nigerians have access to telecommunications services, and increase of fibre optics deployments from 47,000 kilometers to 54,725 kilometers.
Also, “the 3G and 4G Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) in the country has increased from less than 30,000 in 2015 to 53,460 while seven VSAT gateway earth stations have been licensed to boost broadband penetration in the country.”
In his briefing, Prof Danbatta listed successes recorded since 2015 in teledensity, broadband penetration, and significant contribution of the industry to “the gross domestic product (GDP) that grew from 8.5 per cent in the 4th quarter of 2015 to 12.61 in the 4th quarter of 2021, as the sector also attracted over $2 billion in foreign direct investment over the period.”
Danbatta, who provided a detailed briefing about the achievements of the regulatory body and its efforts toward addressing all the challenges confronting the industry, intimated the permanent secretary with the key focus and targets of the NCC through the launched of the Strategic Vision (Implementation) Plan SVP 2021 – 2025, which took into consideration, the provisions of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy 2020-2030, and National Broadband Plan 2020-2025.
He said the SVP, which streamlines all policies for a robust sectoral lifting and relevance, has five focus areas which include: operational efficiency and regulatory excellence; facilitation of infrastructure provision for the digital economy; promotion of fair competition, inclusive growth and investment; improvement of quality of serve and quality of experience; and facilitation of strategic collaboration and partnership.
Other key achievements of the NCC under him include the recent successful auction of 3.5GHz spectrum for 5G services, licensing of 7 fibre optics infrastructure providers, and adding up to 38,296 kilometers of fibre optic in the country.
