The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said total investments attracted by the telecoms sector to the country have reached $70billion.
It however said a large chunk came from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Its Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, who spoke while welcoming guests to the Nigeria Pavilion in the International Telecoms Union (ITU) Telecom World 2017, Busan, South Korea, said despite these modest achievements, Nigeria’s information communications technology (ICT) sector is still, “work in progress”.
He said: “Since the Digital Mobile Licences (DML) were issued 16 years ago, investment in the sector has hit about $70billion from a mere $50million in 2001. Most of these investments are FDIs.
“Although, we have made very modest progress in the sector, we still need to deepen investments to make broadband pervasive in the country.”
He said the country comes to the ITU Telecom World every year to tell its story, share experiences and borrow a leaf from global best practices to address its concerns, engage and collaborate with the global community to strengthen the growth and impact of the Nigerian telecoms industry.
“We therefore come to enlist the support of other players, governments, regulators and the global community from whom there is always a basket of ideas to take back home to Nigeria. The implementation of these ideas will ensure a better regulatory environment, even though ours has been seen as a very robust and consultative regulatory agency right from 2001 when the DML were issued.
“The spirit of cooperation and consultation is very high at ITU Telecom World events,” he said.
He said the engagement of the delegation with the global community during the event will include creating awareness of the investment opportunities in Africa’s biggest telecom market, as well as guarantee of adequate Returns on Investments (RoIs).
“In this connection, we are here to tell the ICT community that Nigeria with a population of about 170 million is a preferred investment destination in Africa.
With over 150 million active subscribers, in the voice segment, over 102 per cent teledensity and a little over 92 million internet connections, Nigeria is indeed a place to invest,” he told participants.
According to him, the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for sustainable development said Nigeria now has about 21 per cent broadband penetration and conscious of the reality that broadband fuels faster data transmission speed and capacity, focus now is on how to attract the right investments to grow this critical area of the sector through broadband coverage expansion.
Source: http://thenationonlineng.net/ncc-telecoms-sector-investments-hit-70b/