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| L-r: Dr. Juwah, Hon Oyetunde Ojo, Itanyi@stakeholder consultative forum March 2012 |
The issue of multiple taxation has assumed a global
dimension, according to the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah.
He said, the telecommunications industry, especially in the
last 10 years, which are capable of reducing the Nigeria’s chances of
harnessing communications technology so as to improve upon national
development, demand for critical stakeholders’ attention.
One of the major challenges, he said, is the subject of
multiple taxation, multiple regulation, deteriorating power supply, extraneous
regulatory issues by other agencies of government to name a few.
Juwah who made this known at a one-day national stakeholders’
consultative forum in Lagos on “Harnessing Communications Technology as a
Catalyst for National Development,” in address made available to ITRealms Online, also declared that
multiple taxation, has taken a new dimension across the Information and Communications
Technologies (ICT) sector globally.
He noted that just recently ended Mobile World Congress in
Spain saw that happening with the Secretary-General of the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure calling on governments not
to kill the telecommunications industry with taxes.
He pointed out that some of them are peculiar to
stakeholders, precisely in Nigeria, which needed to be tackled very urgently
for quick resolution.
“This informed my policy direction when I took over the
leadership of the NCC,” he asserted.
He maintained that NCC as the apex regulator of
telecommunications in the sector is resolved to keep to the vision of his
administration on assumption of office over a year ago.
He reiterated focus on six key areas intended to bring about
more fulfilling benefits to telecom users in Nigeria.
He listed some of these key areas to include consolidation
of mobile services; fixed lines and broadband deployment; enhanced competitive
market and choices for consumers; vigorous compliance monitoring and enforcement
and national connectivity for accelerated growth as well as enhancing
international relations.
Juwah emphasized that some of the aforementioned agenda of
his administration have began to manifest with some steps taken recently and targeted
at achieving some of the above initiatives.
He cited the instance with SIM Card registration which began
on March 28, 2011 and resulted in the capturing of some 110,433,976 SIM cards.
“The data is going through processing and cleaning at the NCC,” he said, stressing that the Commission would shortly commerce verification and ensure that multiple registrations are eliminated in order to create a database integrity and credibility.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
