The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr. Musa Istifanus has charged entities using the radio frequency spectrum and radiocommunications equipment without government permission to obtain licenses to avoid sanctions and prosecution.
According to a press release issued by Bolaji Kazeem, the Ministry’s Press Director, Mr Istifanus made this statement during A Sensitization Workshop titled Implications of Irregular and Illegal use of Radio Frequency through physical/virtual meeting holding at the Atrium Event Centre, Port Harcourt.
The PS, who was represented at the event by his Technical Assistance, Engr. Dr. Patrick Oghuma said that the Spectrum Monitoring Reports in the past few months indicate that individuals and some organizations use the radio frequency spectrum and operate radiocommunication equipment without due authorization.
He however charged members of the public, private companies and organizations using the radio frequency spectrum and radiocommunications equipment without government permission to regularize their operations by applying to the Ministry. He also charged them to cooperate with the Ministry’s officials who are on regular routine inspection duties.
Mr. Istifanus said the cooperation of all sundries are needed, as the experts conduct routine inspection duties in order to curb incidences of irregular and illegal use of radio frequency spectrum and operation of radiocommunication equipment without due authorization.
The Permanent Secretary pointed out that all licencees of the Ministry are expected to fulfill their financial obligations by paying up the annual renewal fees as required by their licence conditions to avoid withdrawal of their licence(s).
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What they are saying
In his words The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr. Musa Istifanus:
“Out of 300 frequencies that were monitored recently, 106 of them were found to be used without due licence. It should be noted that such users could either cause harmful interference to duly licensed users or pose a security threat to the nation, because they neither have licence to use the frequencies nor the permission to operate radiocommunication equipment.
“The Ministry has also obtained the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval in 2017 to procure state-of-the-art radio spectrum monitoring and denial of service equipment.
“This equipment will be used to monitor the radio frequency spectrum to help in minimizing incidences of harmful interference by radiocommunications operators through irregular and illegal use of the scarce radio frequency spectrum resource amongst many other uses and to deny service to those entities that blatantly refuse to obtain licence or fulfil their financial obligations to the Ministry/Government.”
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