Recently, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, was at the inaugural edition of the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) 2023, which ended in Marrakesh, Morocco where he wooed investors to take up opportunities in Africa’s largest telecommunication market.
The 3-day event held between May 31-June 2, 2023 had major tech stakeholders, international government entities, start-ups, youth, academia, and investors from across Africa and the world converged at Marrakech, for the first GITEX to be hosted outside Dubai since its inception 42 years ago.
For those three days, Africa’s largest and most influential tech and start-up event launched Africa into a golden age of digital inclusion, rallying the resilience of a youthful population and elevating tireless governments determined to redraw the boundaries of socio-economic development.
Danbatta, who spoke at the inaugural edition of the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) 2023, which ended in Marrakesh, Morocco recently, said Nigeria presents a stable political and economic conditions.
He invited international telecom companies and potential investors to take advantage of the opportunities presented by Nigeria’s population of over 200 million people to invest in its telecom sector, especially in infrastructure provisioning for broadband.
Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Nigeria’s Ambassador to Morocco, Mansur Bamalli, also spoke in the same direction and commended the Commission for its regulatory prowess which has made Nigeria the next investment destination in Africa.
Danbatta, who was represented at the conference by the Team Lead, Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecom Sector (NODITS), Babagana Digima, said the Commission has a mandate to facilitate the development of the telecom industry in Nigeria, adding that one way through which this can be done is by attracting foreign investors that will further enhance the growth of the economy.
He informed the global stakeholders at the event that the Nigerian government has been very supportive of the telecom industry which has achieved an upward growth with over 220 million active mobile voice subscriptions in Nigeria, over 150 million Internet subscriptions and broadband penetration of 48 per cent, the country is yet to be fully connected.
“Our national plan is to achieve 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025. We still have less than 50 per cent penetration. This means there is huge investment potential for investors. Nigeria’s telecom sector needs more investment in the area of infrastructure deployment,” the EVC stated.
He stated that the telecom sector in Nigeria has become a major contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), quarter-on-quarter, driving the growth of the digital economy in the country.
„The importance of this event for us as a Commission is to showcase the NCC as a Nigerian brand, a foremost telecom regulator in Africa and beyond and to bring about the much-needed investment that will enhance development of the Nigerian telecom industry,“ Danbatta said.
The EVC stated that there are abundant talents in Nigeria that can be tapped by investors to support their business operations. “There are abundant human resources waiting to be harnessed by potential investors for ground-breaking global technological innovations and advancement in providing digital solutions.
“This event provides us with the platform to showcase some of the talents that we have discovered in Nigeria. The Commission has sponsored three indigenous start-ups that are at this event to display their solutions for prospective investors and partnerships,“ he said.
On his part, Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu who also delivered a keynote at the event said, “The fact that the event has been brought to Africa is a testament to the continent’s growing global tech and start-up ecosystem.” He said Africa holds vast potentials in the realm of technology and innovation.
Tech enabled sectors in Africa, as he reiterated, have been seeing unprecedented growth with record levels of investments and expansions. The Lagos state governor also highlighted the importance of the state to Africa’s technological growth, saying some of the largest data centres are coming to Lagos, which is because the state has been creating an enabling environment for them to grow.
The global audience also got a glimpse into what Sanwo-Olu described as domestication of the national start-up act, which seeks to codify an enabling environment for the tech and start-up ecosystem. “The Yaba start-up policy will elevate Lagos as a city ready to become a global player,” he said. “In a few years, not only will Africa be supplying the bulk of professionals required (to global IT industry) but will also be creating a lot of jobs.”
Recall that the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, had disclosed at a recent telecoms industry stakeholders forum in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state that the number of identified areas of clusters across Nigeria without access to the telecommunications services has reduced by 53.1 per cent as at the end of 2022.
According to him, from 207 clusters of access gaps in 2013, the industry has witnessed a reduction to 97 as of end 2022 by bridging 110 clusters of access gaps, representing a 53.1 per cent reduction.
By implication, the number of Nigerians who fell within the access gap which were estimated at 37 million in 2013 has been reduced to 27 million, following increased access to telecoms services by those hitherto not digitally included. 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.
Danbatta said, “We have worked tirelessly to ensure we bring telecom services to people living in rural, unserved, and underserved areas of this country, totalling 37 million people courtesy of the consultancy that was conducted in 2013.
“By 2019, we had succeeded in reducing the clusters of access gaps to 114 through the deployment of the necessary infrastructure needed to bring services to people living in rural, unserved and underserved areas of the country. The deployment of infrastructure is in terms of base transceiver stations, which resulted in the reduction of Nigerians in those clusters from 37 million to 31 million in 2019.
“By 2022, we have reduced the clusters of access gaps to 97 from 207 in 2013. The number of Nigerians again have come down from 37 million in 2013 to 27 million as we speak. We achieved this by deploying, from 2009 to 2011, a total of 79 new base transceiver stations,” he said.
Danbatta stated that in 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. “So far, the total number of base transceiver stations we have deployed to date between the time the access gaps were identified till the end of 2022 are 567,” he said.
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 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 are the issuance of the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) licences and the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) networks, among others.
