Theresa Igata

Nigeria’s telecommunications sector contributed over N15 trillion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since the liberalisation of the sector, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, disclosed this at an interactive session with the media in Lagos on Tuesday.

Danbatta said the sector’s contribution to the GDP increased from eight per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016 to nine per cent in the first quarter of this year.

He said that since his assumption of office about 18 months ago, the industry had been adding between N1.43 trillion and N1.45 trillion to the economy every quarter.

Danbatta added that these successes notwithstanding,  the industry is not without its challenges, especially in the area of QoS (Quality of Service) which has been an issue and the commission is not resting on its oars, even as there has been considerable improvements at some point in Q1, 2017 following the data obtained on QoS using the stipulated KPIs of call drop and call success rate at 1 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.

“This was because in the tail end of 2016, we noticed a deterioration in the QoS and so we insisted that the QoS must improve, so we gave them a time line since we saw that the performance was below the stipulated 1per cent and 2 per cent call drop and call success rate respectively”.

On issues around the decline in teledensity, Internet penetration and other data statistics from mobile network operators, the EVC said: “the migration from 3G to 4GLTE is one of the reasons we have a decline in these areas. Consumers are getting clever,  they would rather use Whatsapp for both data and voice calls which moves them away from high tariffs of voice. Data bundle are cheaper and people are spending their money wisely.

“This trend will continue as we see more and more data coverage in this country. According to some people the revenues from voice and SMS will fall drastically. For the fall in teledensity, perhaps when the economy improves or if it persists we then have to do a comprehensive study”, Danbatta said.

The Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management, Sunday Dare corroborated the fact that the NCC is having some checks on the MNOs  to ensure improvement in QoS across the country. According to him,  “we have looked at the KPIs of these MNOs from 10 states and there are going to be sanctions for erring operators which is why we have the compliance monitoring and enforcement unit and once there’s failure to meet these standards then we sanction them”, Dare added.

Photo:

L-R: Mr. Tony Ojobo, Director Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); Mr. Sunday Dare, Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management NCC; Professor Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC and Mr. Mideno Bayagbon, Publisher NewsGuru when the NCC management met with editors in Lagos, Tuesday.