Over two decades after the historic telecoms revolution in Nigeria, some 30 million Nigerians are still not covered with telecoms services.
The 30 million people, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) fall within 97 clusters of people without access to services.
Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta said part of the measures being to address this gap is through the licensing of satellite providers, adding that satellite technology has the capacity to extend services to the hinterlands.
He assured that the Commission will impress upon one of its licencees, Starlink, to crash its service charges so that more Nigerians can be captured into the telecom access net so as to close the gap.
“We recently issued a licence to Starlink. This is a communication service provider that operates all over the country. We are trying to engage them to bring the cost of their services down to affordable levels so people in rural areas can equally benefit from this important information. With time we hope the days of un-connectivity will be over with the satellite provision all over the country.
“We are still looking at the price of the Starlink terminal so all Nigerians will be able to enjoy this service. It is faster than 5G and I think the corporate world is all over the entire country. This is one important measure we have put to address the challenge of the access gap which is about 97. We have not relented in deploying fixed and wireless infrastructure, especially in the rural and underserved areas of the country to bridge the access gap,” he said in Lagos at the weekend on the sidelines of a cyber security forum tagged: Combating E-fraud on Telecom Platforms and Building Consumer Confidence in the Digital Economy.
The Commission had earlier said the number of identified areas of clusters across Nigeria without access to the telecoms services has been reduced by 53.1 per cent as at the end of last year.
Danbatta explained that from 207 clusters of access gaps in 2013, the industry has witnessed a reduction to 97 by bridging 110 clusters of access gaps, representing a 53.1 per cent reduction.
He said by implication, the number of Nigerians who fell within the access gap which were estimated at 37 million in 2013 has been reduced to 27 million, following increased access to telecoms services by those hitherto not digitally included.
Access gaps refer to the cluster of communities or grouped areas in different parts of the country that are bereft of access to telecom services and till date, the NCC has reduced clusters of access gap by more than half.
Read Also: Telecoms Q1 contributions to GDP hit N2.508tr
“We have worked tirelessly to ensure we bring telecom services to people living in rural, unserved, and underserved areas of this country, totaling 37 million people courtesy of the consultancy that was conducted in 2013.
“By 2019, we had succeeded in reducing the clusters of access gaps to 114 through the deployment of the necessary infrastructure needed to bring services to people living in rural, unserved and underserved areas of the country. The deployment of infrastructure is in terms of base transceiver stations (BTS), which resulted in the reduction of Nigerians in those clusters from 37 million to 31 million in 2019.
“By 2022, we have reduced the clusters of access gaps to 97 from 207 in 2013. The numbers of (disenfranchised) Nigerians again have come down from 37 million in 2013 to 27 million as we speak. We achieved this by deploying, from 2009 to 2011, a total of 79 new BTS,” he said
The NCC stated that between 2013 and 2018, the telecom sector also witnessed the deployment of additional 124 BTS while from 2019 to 2022, a total of 364 base transceiver stations were deployed.
“So far, the total number BTS we have deployed to date between the time the access gaps were identified till the end of 2022 are 567,” he said.
He said the Commission will not rest on its oars as it thrives to ensure that the remaining Nigerians, who currently lack access to telecoms services, are provided with services, adding that part the regulatory interventions of the Commission to bridge the remaining 97 access across the country to provide ubiquitous connectivity in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria are the issuance of the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Licences and the deployment of 5G networks, among others.