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NCC says telecommunication investment has hit $25billion

By on March 18, 2013

Investment in the telecommunication industry is in the region of $25billion, the Nigerian Communications Commission said at the weekend.

The NCC DG Dr. Eugene Juwah, added that there are over 113million telephone lines, compared with about 450,000 active lines powered by a paltry $500million investment portfolio in year 2000.

Juwah, who spoke during the send off dinner for the former NCC board, said the number portability project will take off by the end of the month.

Number portability enables telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile operator to another.

“Presently, investment stands at about $25billion and active lines are well over 113 million and still counting.

“Now I can happily report that the Sim Card registration is nearly completed while the much-awaited number portability project will be taking off shortly, by the end of the month,” Juwah said.

He also explained that the project which has already been in operation in Europe and Asia, was delayed by some factors which have now been addressed.

“There have been obstacles to successfully implementing these projects but we have fought very hard by doing a lot of fine-tuning to achieve results.”

Juwah also pointed out that “the telecommunication industry is a deep and delicate one with each stakeholder-consumer, industry, government and international community maintaining very voracious appetite difficult to satisfy.”

He however said that with the support of the Communication Act, “we have always tried to strike a balance to meet everyone’s needs fairly well.”

On some challenges confronting the industry, Juwah said: “you will agree with me that just as there were legacy projects, there were also some legacy problems. The power problem still remains, multiple taxations by various government are still hydra-headed, vandalization of infrastructure is rampant, there multiple regulations from ancillary agencies and right of way for easy service deployment and expansion still constitutes a headache, although the ministry has nearly curtailed this problem.

“Above all, operators will always remain operators and will want to maximize gains while obeying the least of laws,” he further added.

The NCC boss is however of the hope that fourth generation regulation will maintain a hold on the industry and ensure growth and development both I. The area of quality and service deployment.

He also noted that the Commission wants to encourage more investment in critical infrastructure to ensure there is adequate investment by operators on each subscriber.

Juwah praised the pioneers of NCC for the great work done towards the transformation of the industry.

 

[National Mirror]