A total of N265 billion is set to be raised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and an association of several infrastructural companies (infracos). The fund is expected to be used for the development of broadband infrastructures across the country in the next four years.
According to the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, N200 billion would be raised by the infrastructural companies while N65 billion, which is subject to the approval of the Federal Executive Council as counterpart funding, would be raised by the commission.
Speaking on the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative, Danbatta said it was in line with the Public-Private Partnership project, which gives room for collaboration with private parties in a bid to provide effective solution.
Why this matters: The Broadband Initiative, when addressed, would help in getting rid of infrastructural deficits in the telecommunications sector. It would also lead to the socio-economic transformation of the country as stated by the NCC boss.
Speaking during a courtesy call by the Ambassador of Sweden to Nigeria, Carl Grans, at the NCC headquarters, Danbatta made known that the project would cut across the 36 states of the country.
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“If we can get this done successfully in the next four years, we would have succeeded in transforming the country in multiple ways, especially in managing energy, education, transportation and the environment and meeting some of the Sustainable Development Goals.
“And because broadband is so desirable, we hope to see the financial inclusion rate increase significantly as well as mobile money services and this would, of course, transform our society,” Danbatta added.
In a recent Nairametrics report, the NCC charged Mobile Number Operators to consider imposing a 45-day porting restriction period on newly activated SIM cards. This came after the regulator conducted a comprehensive compliance audit on the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Platform from September 4 to 6, 2019 in Lagos.
The MNP was introduced by the NCC in 2013 to encourage competition and ensure that consumers continue to enjoy quality services on all the mobile networks.
