Out
of the $68 billion, the sum of $35 billion, ITRealms gathered was garnered from
the Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs).
A press statement made available to ITRealms by the Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, made this disclosure.
The
immediate past Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure as keynote speaker at the Nigerian Telecoms
Investment Forum at the just concluded ITU Telecom World 2016, Bangkok,
Thailand said these figures recorded so far in Nigeria point to the fact that
“the country is certainly a preferred destination for telecommunications
investors in Africa”.
Toure
told participants including Communications Minister, Barr. Adebayo Shittu,
Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC)
of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar G. Danbatta, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Chief
Executives of agencies under the Ministry of Communications and major
telecommunications companies from Nigeria, Thailand, Senators and Members of
the National Assembly among others that Nigeria is the place to invest because
the population is large, there is political stability and a very robust
telecommunications regulatory regime.
He
explained that within 15 years when Nigeria opened its telecoms sector to the
global community, investments have grown in leaps and from a paltry 400,000
connected lines in 2001, the country now has over 150m connected lines and a
teledensity of 107 per cent.
“The
next growth for voice communication is in Quality of Service. The new oil in
Nigeria is ICT and data transmission is the way to go,” he declared.
Toure
was particularly excited that while he served as Secretary General of ITU,
Nigeria occupied the number one position as the fastest growing telecoms sector
for five consecutive years. Stressing that the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) has done a very good job with the way in managing regulatory
activities transparently and by the fact that law makers from Nigeria were also
part of the audience he spoke to at the venue, underscored the importance
Nigeria attaches to this sector.
The
former scribe who declared being more Nigerian than his native, Mali, because
Nigeria has always led the way, urging Nigeria to share its experience with
other African countries.
Speaking
on behalf of Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of
Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu, said since Nigeria was now navigating
from resource-based to knowledge-based economy, the government encouraged participating
investors to renew their confidence in most populous black nation.
“Feel
free to come to Nigeria and if visa is an issue let us know. Our doors are open
and the ease of doing business in Nigeria is being improved upon,” he assured.
Governor
El-Rufai, who served as panelist at the forum alongside Prof. Danbatta, EVC of
NCC, Ms. Funke Opeke of MainOne Cable, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko of Etisalat said
technology as an enabler has helped Kaduna State to reduce land fraud and tax
payments are now done online thus reducing incidents of leakages.
El-Rufai,
a former Minister of Federal Capital Territory told the audience that Kaduna
will soon launch Smart Kaduna initiative and has contacted a major Smart phone
manufacturer to introduce pocket-friendly smart phones to Kaduna to boost the
smart Kaduna Initiative.
NCC
boss, Danbatta said that the regulator has begun digital transformation through
the National Broadband Plan (NBP 2013–2018), pointing out that since
broadband is the catalyst for social and economic transformation, “we have come
to let the global community know that investments are welcome in this area.”
He
said, the target is 30 per cent growth by 2018 according to the NBP 2013 – 2018,
emphasizing that though Nigeria has hit 21 percent so far, investments will be
needed for 3G, 4G and to take services to underserved and unserved regions of Nigeria.
“And
we need to deploy infrastructure to those areas that have no services, we
understand that and the strategy to address them hence we came out with the 8-point agenda to address this” he
said.
Danbatta
further said, Nigeria has a very flexible regulatory environment and “we are
fare, firm and forthright in our activities”.
CEO
of MainOne Cable Company, Ms. Funke Opeke said MainOne Cable has keyed into the
National Broadband Plan and hence investments in the Infrastructure Company
(Infraco) licence for Lagos to take broadband services to Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs), corporate organisations through metropolitan fibre optic
links.
According
to her, “We are building over 1,000km of fibre optic in Lagos and this is part
of the building block to encourage broadband penetration”.
Dikko
whose company, Etisalat, has over 20 million subscriber base said that Etisalat
is encouraged to invest in Nigeria because “laws are very clear, policy is good
because the NCC hears us out all the time.”
Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops
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