The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed that over 35 million consumers still lack access to telecom services and by implication lack access to digital financing services in the country.
Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of the Commission, stated this development at an event to commiserate the 2022 World Consumers Rights Day Celebration with the theme: “Fair Digital Finance”, at the NCC Head Office in Abuja, FCT.
Prof Danbatta attributed the unacceptable development to inadequacy of both wireless and fibre connectivity infrastructure.
He said the lack of access had long denied such large numbers of the citizenry requisite access to digital and financial services, and the benefits associated with it.
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He also noted: “It is a challenge that is attributable to the inadequacy of both wireless and fibre connectivity infrastructure.
“The fact remains that more citizens will embrace the digital financial culture when they have access to telecoms services in the distant, isolated, unserved, and underserved communities where they dwell.”
Danbatta further stated: “We are, therefore, conscious of the urgency of increasing investment in both fixed and wireless infrastructure.
“This will make the target of at least 80 percent level of financial inclusion in about four years possible.
He said: “The Commission has thus licensed the infrastructure companies (InfraCos), which are to provide the fibre from landing ports to the hinterland of the country.
However, he encouraged Infrastructural Companies (InfraCos) that have been licensed to deploy digital infrastructure to areas affected by lack of services, but failed to do so risk NCC regulatory sanctions.
Assuring that the Commission has designed a Broadband plan to cover the underserved areas within a number of years, Danbatta further stated the NCC remains committed to making consumers the centrepiece of its policies in Nigeria.
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The Broadband plan, he also noted, has been “designed to deliver 120,000km of fiber, 70 percent penetration, data download speeds across Nigeria of a minimum of 25mbps in urban areas, and 10mbps in rural areas, with effective coverage available to at least 90 percent of the population at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data (i.e., 2 percent of median income or 1 percent of minimum wage) by end of 2025.”
According to him, other measures towards deepening Mobile Broadband penetration, and in turn, enhance Digital Financial Services (DFS) for the benefit of telecoms consumers in the country include Spectrum Re-farming, 5G Spectrum Auction, Re-Planning of 800MHz CDMA Spectrum for LTE, Administrative Assignment of 700MHz Spectrum for LTE, the NCC boss said.
Danbatta said that the telecoms sector regulatory Commission has made provision of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for financial transactions across various financial institutions’ platforms.