110.4 m subscribers registered, says NCC

• Commission maps out five year strategic plan
Ben Uzor Jr

As the ongoing registration of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards nears conclusion, 110.43 million lines have so far been registered, a whopping 14.28 million more than the official figure of 96,150,836 active mobile lines in the country. Eugene Juwah, executive vice-chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), who disclosed this weekend at a consultation forum organised by the commission to obtain requisite input as the commission looks to strengthen its five year (2013-2017) management plan, said it was a lucid indication of multiple registrations that must be corrected during the verification process that will soon commence.

This, Juwah further added would foster database integrity and credibility. “This will naturally lead to the implementation of a more robust Mobile Number Portability (MNP) which is at advanced stage of actualisation. The exercise, we believe can positively impact on Quality of Service (QoS) and stimulate another facet of healthy competition. That project will also broaden the choices available to subscribers and impose a code of behaviour on the operators to retain their subscriber.” He said five year strategic master plan would further deepen Information Communications Technology (ICT) penetration for economic gain in Nigeria.

The plan, which spans from 2013 to 2017, according to NCC, would transit the Nigerian economy to a digital one. According to Juwah, there is the need for the NCC to develop a five- year Strategic Management Plan to guide the regulatory body’s interest and intervention activities while enabling it respond quickly to the challenges of the sector with the overall aim of paving the way for an ICT-driven economic development. Therefore, he said the aim of the consultative forum is to ensure that critical inputs from ICT industry stakeholders are considered in the development of the five-year (2013 -2017) strategic management plan.

In her keynote address, Omobola Johnson, minister of Communications Technology, represented by John Ayodele, a director in the ministry, said if the plan must materialize, there was need for collaboration between government and the public. According to her, the challenges facing emerging economies, such as ours is the ability to prepare citizens for the growing information challenges, “I believe that enabling ICT Environment, the country can leapfrog and compete globally.” In her own contribution, Funke Opeke, chief executive officer, MainOne Cable Company, believed that if the plan must work and contribute meaningfully to the economy, it is imperative to have ubiquitous broadband in the country.

Opeke, who lamented the lack of a national backbone infrastructure for the deployment of broadband, said developmental objectives of Vision 20:2020 and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may remain an illusion in Nigeria. “It's unfortunate; we do not have a national backbone to serve as common distribution architecture in Nigeria as it is in South Africa and Ghana. The Infrastructure we have now was built by proprietary investors and it is not being shared. For us to achieve ubiquitous broadband access, end- users must have the service at their doorsteps but this will not be possible without shared infrastructure", she stated.

For Wale Goodluck, corporate services executive, MTN, there is need to strengthen the rural telephony project. In NCC’s plan for the future, Goodluck argued that rural communities are moving targets. “A rural community today might not be a rural community tomorrow. So, we must take that into consideration. We are going to see greater purchasing power in the rural communities. We have an opportunity to prepare our networks for the future needs. Telcos must begin to adopt a low-cost model that makes it easier to roll out additional infrastructure. However, more incentives are required to ensure that rural telephony succeeds.”

Osondo Nwokoro, regulatory director, Airtel Nigeria pointed out that there has not been sufficient operator buy-in as it relates to the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). He said the USPF must set clear targets to get the full buy-in of operators which would consequently drive infrastructure rollout to un-served and under-served areas of the country. “Public Private Partnership is central to the success of rural telephony. It should be target and performance driven. There should be a list clearly stating those areas of Nigeria that are unserved or underserved in order to deploy requisite funds to those areas”, he concluded.