The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta has said that the telecoms sector has pulled in Foreign Direct Investment of $68 billion. He disclosed this during a sensitization workshop on code of corporate governance for the telecom industry in Lagos.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment made by a company or individual in one country in business interests in another country, in the form of either establishing business operations or acquiring business assets in the other country, such as ownership or controlling interest in a foreign company.
“The sector continues to contribute incrementally to the GDP of the nation which currently stands at 9.8 per cent notwithstanding the impact of recession on investment flows. That is against 8.5 per cent in 2015 and less than 1.00 per cent in 2001. Factoring in direct and indirect investment in the telecoms sector over the last 16 years, it has pulled in investment of over $68billion and when the GDP impact of these local and FDI are factored in, the contribution of the sector would even be higher than stated.” said Prof. Umar Danbatta.
Mr. Sunday Dare, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management at NCC, also said that NCC is taking measures to mitigate business liquidation in the telecoms sector through financial checks of telcos’ books by a team of chartered accountants and examination of the technical health of telcos by technical experts.
Although the current $68 billion is a significant milestone as it shows the rate of foreign investments in Nigeria’s telecom industry, too much foreign ownership in the telecom sector could lower our comparative advantage.
