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Number of Nigerians without access to telecom service drop to 27 million – NCC  

Number of Nigerians without access to telecom service drop to 27 million - NCC  

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that the number of Nigerians living in areas without telecommunications service has dropped to 27 million from an estimated 37 million in 2013. 

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, disclosed this at a recent telecoms industry stakeholders forum in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state said this was achieved through the reduction of the country’s access gap by 53.1% as of the end of 2022.

Danbatta, who was represented at the forum by the Head, Pre-Licensing at the Commission, Usman Mamman, said from 207 clusters of access gaps in 2013, the industry has witnessed a reduction to 97 as of the end of 2022 by bridging 110 clusters of access gaps. 

Access gaps refer to the cluster of communities or grouped areas in different parts of the country that are bereft of access to telecom services and till date, the NCC has reduced clusters of access gap by more than half.

Rural connectivity 

Highlighting the efforts of the telecom regulator at connecting Nigerians living in rural areas, Danbatta said: 

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More base stations deployed 

Danbatta stated that from 2013 to 2018, the telecom sector also witnessed the deployment of additional 124 base transceiver stations while from 2019 to 2022, a total of 364 base transceiver stations were deployed. 

While describing the reduction in access gap so far as a landmark, Danbatta, however, said the Commission will not rest on its oars as it thrives to ensure that the remaining 27 million Nigerians, who currently lack access to telecoms services, are provided with services. 

Meanwhile, the EVC said part of the regulatory interventions of the Commission to bridge the remaining 97 access across the country to provide ubiquitous connectivity in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria is the issuance of the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Licences and the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) networks, among others. 

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