The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta has declared that NCC raised $563.1m for the Federal Government (FG) through the auction of 3.5GHz, even as 80 million Nigerians have broadband access, reports ITREALMS.
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“NCC raised $563.1m for FG through 3.5GHz auction; 80 million Nigerians have broadband access," he asserted.
The EVC also gave kudos to his team at NCC for proactively implementing National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030 in the context of the vision of Federal Government and the supervision of the Ministry.
Danbatta also said during his presentation that NCC accomplishments under each of the eight (8) pillars of NDEPS was methodical, and cited 10 of the 16 regulations that have been instituted in giving expression to FG's vision on developmental regulation, which is the first pillar of NDEPS.
"These regulations were focused on Enforcement Processes, Lawful Interception, Quality of Service, Competition Practices, Licensing Regulations, and Universal Access and Universal Service among others," he said.
Also, Danbatta promised to complete the review of the remaining soonest and activate their implementation. Danbatta, who used a triangulation method in contextualising the achievement of NCC under the first pillar, itemised the guidelines, regulations and policy development initiatives to discharge the burden of proof of NCC’s effectiveness in the regulation of ICT and digital economy sector through approaches that enabled development.
In implementing Digital Literacy and Skills, the second pillar, Danbatta also stated in his clearly explanatory presentation, that the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), set up by NCC in 2004, had trained 5,352 students through 49 institutions, provided educational training software to 398 secondary schools, and endowed 7 professorial chairs in various Nigerian universities across all the geopolitical zones.
On Solid Infrastructure, the third pillar of NDEPS, Danbatta stated that broadband penetration as at December 2021 was 40.88 percent, thus enabling 80 million Nigerians to have access to broadband services.
According to the Director, Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde in a press statement available to ITREALMS, to reinforce the intensity of NCC’s commitment to improving broadband penetration, the EVC had declared the emplacement in process for the deployment of optic fibre cable using Infrastructure Companies (Infracos).
Danbatta was emphatic that the licensed Infracos have been directed by the Commission to commence immediate roll out without recourse to counterpart funding because the licence issued to them is independent of the counterpart funding agreement.
Stressing that the Infracos are expected to lay 38,296Km of fibre optic cable.
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