The Emir of Bichi, Alhaji Nasir Ado Bayero, has tasked the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to sustain its practice of regulatory excellence with service providers in the country.
Bayero gave the task when the Board of Commissioners of the NCC, led by its Chairman, Prof Adeolu Akande, paid a courtesy visit to the Emirate as part of activities lined up for its 2020 Board Retreat in Kano, according to the NCC Director of Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde.
In a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, Adinde said that the Emir, who is also the Chairman of 9Mobile, commended the Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, for his efforts in ensuring that the service provider did not collapse during its financial crisis few years ago.
Emir Bayero said NCC’s intervention saved millions of Nigerians from being rendered jobless with the attendant consequences, adding that Danbatta’s untiring efforts to ensure that competition is not undermined in telecommunications industry are highly commendable.
He particularly appreciated the NCC boss for ensuring that effective leadership and regulatory initiatives are always in place to achieve the successes recorded in the telecoms sector in the country.
The Emir acknowledged that over the years, the Commission had earned its reputation as the foremost telecoms regulatory agency in Africa.
According to him, “your Commission has also excelled in achieving its mandate of establishing an effective licensing and regulatory framework for the supply of communications services in Nigeria.
“In the course of executing its mandate, the Commission has been seen to be guided by the principles of fairness and forthrightness, which have been the underpinnings of the core values of your institution.
“We are sure that the successes recorded by the Commission are as a result of sound leadership, honesty, hard work and professionalism of Prof. Danbatta.
“We urge the EVC to continue to provide quality leadership and the necessary strategic policy directions to ensure that the communications industry achieves greater heights.”
The emir expressed delight that the regulatory authority of the communications industry in Nigeria is responsible for creating an enabling environment for competition among operators in the industry.
He was also impressed as the Danbatta-led NCC had consistently ensured the provision of qualitative and efficient telecommunications services throughout Nigeria.
Earlier, Danbatta reeled out a number of statistics to support the impressive growth of the telecoms industry, especially in the last five years.
He pointed out that in the last five years, the NCC’s management built on earlier successes recorded, noting that broadband penetration moved from 6 per cent to over 45.43 per cent.
He said that the sector’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution rose from 8.5 per cent to 14.30 per cent and active phone subscribers grew from 151 million to over 205.2 million.
The EVC said that the internet subscriptions also increased from 90 million to 151.5 million, teledensity now stands at 107.53 per cent while investment in the sector increased from US$38 billion to over US$70 billion.
Members of the board, who accompanied the Chairman and the EVC to the palace included the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Ubale Maska; the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, and Mr Clement Baiye.
Others were: Prof. Millionaire Abowei, Mr Aliyu Abubakar, Mr Salman Muhammed and Chief Uche Onwude. (NAN)
