October 19, 2017

The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, has advised the Management of NTEL to spread to more parts of the country for more Nigerians, especially in the rural areas subscribe to it.

Shittu gave the advice in a statement by Mr Austin Asoluka, Assistant Director, Press, of the ministry on Thursday in Abuja.

He made the call when the new Managing Director of NTEL, Mr Ernest Akinlola and his management team visited the minister in his  office.

The minister said that by going national and moving to the rural areas, Nigerians in those areas would enjoy the services of NTEL along other network providers.

Shittu, while congratulating the new MD, said he would give him the necessary support because NTEL belongs to Nigeria, adding that the challenges of funding and going international should be addressed.

“It is government ambition to encourage Nigerian companies in the telecom sector to succeed.

“Hence, they should be able to have a timeline to be able to use NTEL everywhere in the country and internationally,’’ Shittu said.

Earleir, Akinlola said he deemed it necessary to pay a visit to the minister because of the massive support his company had received from him and the ministry since its inception.

He said that he had a clear vision of where he was taking the company to “that is to be number one in Nigeria”.

He assured the minister that the management would build a customer-based company that would engage in network sharing of information with NCC and infrastructure with other network providers in the country.

Akinlola said that he would build relationship with the ministry as well as customers because telecom industry needed to survive in the country.

The chief executive said that he would also build a nomenclature to invest in Ericsson, grow the country’s footprint, and get cheaper handset for the customers.