By Juliet Umeh
The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, is working assiduously to ensure that every nook and cranny of the country is fully connected with telecommunications services.
The Executive Vice-Chairman, EVC, of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who made the vow when the Champion Newspapers unveiled its heroes of 2002 at its annual awards in Lagos said it was one of the mandates he inherited at the Commission, that he will not let any inch of it unfulfilled.
Danbatta, who was awarded the paper’s Most Outstanding Regulator of the Year 2002, said the world has come to the point it is almost a crime to deny anybody modern communications tools which make life easy.
He said: “We will ensure that all parts of Nigeria has access to communications services.”
Also commenting to this year’s World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, WTISD, Danbatta said: “We identify with the agenda of the World telecommunication and Information Society Day in order to ensure that no part of this country is left without communication services.”
Giving reasons for honouring him, Champion said, “Danbatta has successfully spearheaded the attainment and surpassing of Nigeria’s national broadband target in 2018 and he is currently among those leading the charge for the realisation of the new national broadband target of 70 percent by 2025, after the country achieved and surpassed its earlier national target of 30 percent penetration in 2018.
“As of October 2022, broadband penetration has finally reached 48.49 percent, indicating 93 million broadband connections, up from five percent in 2015.
“Through effective regulatory regime and various cutting-edge initiatives, Danbatta has strengthened the role of telecommunications sector as a major contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Products, GDP growth, and boosted telecoms investment inflows from $36 billion to over $70 billion since 2015, among others.
“Among several concrete achievements, Danbatta, in 2021 ensured the successful auction and assignment of three frequency lots in the 3.5Ghz spectrum brand for the deployment of the fifth generation, 5G networks in Nigeria towards harnessing the potential benefits of emerging technologies for the advancement of the socioeconomic development of Nigeria,” the paper lined up.
Source: Vanguard
