Daily Independent (Lagos)
By Emma Okonji
9 October 2009
Lagos — Telecom investments in Nigeria has hit over US$18 billion (N2.79 trillion) within the last eight years on account of predictive regulatory environment and supportive government for a deregulated telecom industry.
Chief Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, gave the figure at the ongoing ITU World 2009 Forum and Exhibition taking place at the Palexpo Hall, Geneva, Switzerland. He said "the country is keen on attracting more investments so as to expand the needed services in the areas of Internet and broadband services across the country, having made a remarkable inroad into voice telephony services."
According to him, "the current investment figure is made up of about US$12 billon (N1.86 trillion) from foreign direct investment while the balance is from investments made from and within the country since 2001."
He said government's invitation to the private sector for participation in the industry has paid handsomely and led to the current success indices in the sector.
"This tells me that the decision by government to liberalise was a very good one," indicating why the current 68 Million active subscriber lines recorded in the industry over just eight years in Nigeria has been variously described as a revolution.
Ndukwe said the decision by Nigeria to implement a technologically neutral regulation has resulted in investments in both the GSM and CDMA based services and made diverse services available in Nigeria with investors attacking services from different points thereby providing choices for the Nigerian consumer.
He said Nigeria is today dominated by wireless services delivery, not just in the mobile sector but also in the fixed wireless services.
He said notwithstanding the achievements recorded in the mobile and wireless sector, there are efforts to improve connectivity through programmes such as the Wire Nigeria Initiative (WIN), to ensure that Nigeria is fully connected with optics fibre cable, an initiative said to have become very successful and that the operators have made substantial inroad in connecting several cities across the country with fibre cable facilities.
He told journalists that Nigeria is fairly a large country with lots of potentials for new investors and existing ones and that the nation is determined to be fully connected with affordable and high quality services.
Ndukwe also told the world press that Nigeria is shifting regulatory emphasis from licensing operators to monitoring and improving quality of services and attending to the needs of the consumer. "Henceforth, issues of quality of service and affordability, and the like are becoming the focus of the regulator in line with the dynamics of the market and we are trying to refocus on this in terms of structural repositioning of the regulator to deliver within the dictates of these dynamics," he said.
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