WIN, SABI my priority – Ndukwe

Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe at the weekend in Lagos, declared that his priority in the next three years remaining in his tenure would be to ensure spread of telecom infrastructure through the Wire Nigeria (WIN) project and broadband via the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI).

He also promises to leave a legacy of very professional and strong regulatory body, and a robust telecoms network crisscrossing the entire nation before he quits the scene in 2010 when his tenure expires.

Fielding questions from newsmen at an interactive session, weekend in Lagos, to mark the 7th anniversary of launch of the acclaimed Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) services in the country, Ndukwe said he believes that once the right processes are put in place, there will be no reason why things would not continue to move in the right direction, and that he would entrench those ideals within the one and half years left of his tenure.

Enumerating some of his priorities, Ndukwe said include massive expansion of telecom transmission infrastructure across the country through the Wire Nigeria (WIN) project, spreading broadband and Internet services to urban and semi urban location through the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI), and achieving a profound improvement in quality of services across the networks.

“Between now and 2010 this country will have even a more robust telecom industry. I will like to continue to develop the manpower of the Commission and set up the right processes.

“My major aspiration is to continue to develop the commission to be manned by very good people that will be able to sustain and maintain the reputation of the Nigerian Communications Commission even after I have left”, he said.

On the day the NCC boss was also decorated with the award of Icon of the Nigerian Telecom Revolution, at the ceremony organized by Telecom News magazine, he said Nigeria has a lot to celebrate on the 7th anniversary of the telecom revolution as Nigerian has become the leading telecom nation in Africa in terms of subscriber base, at more than 54 million lines as at today, and is one of the top ten countries in the world in the field of growth of the telecom industry.

According to him, the sector has witnessed surprised expectations with huge investments still coming, citing an instance with the buying of Multilinks by Telkom South Africa, the merger of four operators to form the bigger Visafone, the partial acquisition of Intercellular by Sudatel, and expansion of the investment base of Starcomms which has also gone to the stock market, as very significant in the attractiveness of the industry to telecom investments.

“Since January this year, the telecom network has witnessed steady growth which currently outstrips 1.2 million lines every month, which indicates the fact that the growth rate is still not abetted. This also shows that Nigeria has witnessed economic growth because there is a linkage between acquisition of telecom services and economic improvement”, he said.

Dr. Ndukwe also said Nigeria is proud to be playing host to other African regulators who are seeking to understudy the various processes and strategies adopted by the Commission to register the current successes. These countries include Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Liberia, Gambia among others.

He also said the Commission has been very active on the issue of quality of services across the networks with marginal improvements recorded against all odds. According to him, some of the measures taken in this direction include the imposition of compensation to the subscribers. He said this is the first time a telecom regulator in Africa, if not in any part of the world, would force the operators to pay compensation to all the active subscribers in their networks.

He said the reason for forcing the compensation was because the Commission believed that the subscribers would have lost some seconds and minutes as a result of the unacceptable quality of services rendered by the affected operators.


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