September 19, 2023.
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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), says that subscriptions to 5G services in the country have reached 500,000 with general Internet subscriptions reaching 159.5 million from less than 100 million in 2015.
The Executive Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, noted that the national target to achieve 70 percent broadband penetration by 2025 was receiving renewed attention from the Commission.
NCC also promised at least 50 percent broadband coverage of the nation before the end of 2023.
According to a statement by NCC’s spokesperson, Mr Rueben Muoka, Danbatta gave statistics at a media parley recently in Kano.
The statement quoted the NCC boss as saying that the various efforts of the Commission to improve broadband penetration were yielding fruitful results with the current estimates as at July 2023 standing at 47.01 per cent.
The EVC also said active telephone subscribers had increased from less than 150.7 million to 218.9 million, representing a teledensity growth of 115.70 per cent from 107.87 per cent in 2015.
Danbatta said broadband penetration, which stood at 6 per cent in 2015 has increased significantly to 47.01 per cent as of July, 2023, enhancing over 89.73 million subscriptions on 3G, 4G and 5G networks in the country.
He said: “Also, from 8 per cent contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015, telecommunications sector now contributes 16 per cent quarterly to the Nigerian economy as of the second quarter of 2023. besides, following the authorization of more telecommunications companies to operate in the Nigeria’s telecoms sector, the investments profile has increased tremendously from $38 billion in 2015 to $75 billion currently and this keeps growing daily. From the sales of Fifth Generation (5G) C-Band Spectrum, the NCC has generated over $847.8 million for the Federal Government,”
“Other milestones and initiatives recorded aside the regulatory activities that culminated in the landmark launch of 5G services in Nigeria include the introduction of Spectrum Trading Guidelines, re-farming and re-planning certain spectrum band for efficiency, the emplaced collaborative process for the release of C-Band Spectrum by Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited, and introduction of the Expanded Revenue Assurance Solution (ERAS) to address revenue leakages and improve government revenue from the telecoms industry.
“These initiatives also include Licensing of Satellite Earth Stations, issuing of operating licence to SpaceX Satellite, facilitating the landing of additional submarine Cables, such as the Google 2,000km Equiano subsea Internet cable in 2022, listing of MTN on the Nigerian bourse, licensing of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), introduction of new unlicensed millimeter wave spectrum, and regulation of white space spectrum,” Danbata said.
Also as part of NCC’s commitment under his leadership, Danbatta said he had endowed professorial chairs in Nigerian universities and committed over N500 million naira to Research and Development (R&D) in the telecoms sector.
“The creation of the Digital Economy Department, the mandate to drive the implementation of the indigenous telecoms sector growth through the operation of the Nigeria Office for Developing Indigenous Telecom Sector (NODITS), are also important strides made by the Commission,” he said.(www.naija247news.com).
