35 million Nigerians lack access to telecom services

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, says over 35 million Nigerians lack access to telecommunications services and by implication lack access to digital financing services.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta dropped the hint on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Commission in Abuja during an event to commiserate the 2022 World Consumers Rights Day Celebration with the theme:” Fair Digital Finance “.

Danbatta, who attributed the unfortunate situation to inadequacy of both wireless and fibre connectivity infrastructure. said the lack of access denies such large numbers of citizens access to digital and financial services and the benefits associated with it.

“It is a challenge that is attributable to the inadequacy of both wireless and fibre connectivity infrastructure.

“The fact remains that more citizens will embrace the digital financial culture when they have access to telecom services in the distant, isolated, unserved, and underserved communities where they dwell.

“We are therefore conscious of the urgency of increasing investment in both fixed and wireless infrastructure. This will make the target of at least 80 percent level of financial inclusion in about four years possible.

“The Commission has thus licensed the infrastructure companies (Infracos), which are to provide the fibre from landing ports to the hinterland of the country. A key focus in this regard is to provide broadband connectivity, especially in the 774 local government areas in the country.”

The EVC encouraged infrastructural companies ( InfraCos) that have been licensed to deploy infrastructures to areas affected by lack of services, but failed to do so risk NCC sanctions.
While he assured that broadband plans have been designed to cover the underserved areas within a number of years, Danbatta said the Commission remained committed to making Consumers the centre piece of its policies.

Also speaking on broadband plan, Danbatta said it has been “designed to deliver 120,000km of fiber, 70% penetration, data download speeds across Nigeria of a minimum of 25mbps in urban areas, and 10mbps in rural areas, with effective coverage available to at least 90% of the population at a price not more than ₦390 per 1GB of data (i.e. 2% of median income or 1% of minimum wage) by end of 2025.”

Other measures towards deepening of Mobile Broadband Penetrations in the Country and in turn enhance digital Financial Services (DFS) for the benefit of telecoms consumers include Spectrum Re-farming, 5G Spectrum Auction, Re-Planning of 800MHz CDMA Spectrum for LTE, Administrative Assignment of 700MHz Spectrum for LTE, the NCC boss said.

The Commission has made provision of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for financial transactions across various financial institutions’ platforms. This has brought ease to financial transactions, Danbatta added.(Courtesy Vanguard)