The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NCC

  • NCC eyes N30.4b from levy, licensing

    Regulator of the telecoms sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is targeting N30.4 billion from telcos and other investors that will be interested in investing in the economy this year.

    This is contained in this year’s N60.2billion budget of the regulator, approved last week by the lower legislative chamber, the House of Representatives.

    According to a breakdown of the budget, the revenue component showed that the regulator is expected to make N2.4 billion as licensing fees while it is looking at making another N28.9 billion from the annual operating levy (AOL) paid by incumbent carriers in the country.

    But the continued postponement of the licensing round for the 2.6Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum and hanging fate of the country in meeting the International Telecommunications Union (ITU’s) deadline for analogue switch-off, may make this a wishful thinking. This is because the spectrum that would be freed as a result of the migration would be handed over to the telecoms sector, which NCC will hopefully auction to meet the revenue target.

    The NCC is also targeting N5.2 billion from spectrum fees while another N5 billion will come from Numbering Plan. It also expects to raise N2.5 billion from Sundry Income just as it looks forward to making N5 billion from what it described as Investment Income.

    In the projected N51.2 billion revenue, N9 billion was brought forward from last year to put the regulator’s available total revenue at N60.2 billion for this year.

    On the recurrent expenditure side, from N16.2billion, N80 million is for establishment costs; N10.677 billion goes for staff and other costs while N823.927 million is for Travel costs. Operational costs gulps N3.151 billion; N1.508 billion for Administrative Costs and N1 million for bank charges.  N10 million is also meant for development/acquisition of document management system; N10 million is for e-documents and archiving, while another N10 million was provided for same project. N10 million is for implementation of automated e-filing and electronic document management system; N20 million is for procurement of new ICT tools and accessories

    N3.2 million has been earmarked for cash counting machine, N20 million for CCTV and installation of photocopy machines, which is N8million higher than the approved estimate of N12 million in 2014.

    Document digitalisation and archiving system will swallow N10 million while N40 million is for project management system (consultancy and software applications) including training.

  • Internet usage on GSM networks increase to 81m – NCC

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), says the number of internet users on the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) networks has increased from 76,322, 802 in 2014 to 81,892,840 by January 2015.

    This is contained in the NCC Monthly Internet Subscriber Data, obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos.

    According to the data, there is an increase of 5,570,038 internet users on the networks in January.

    It showed that from the 81,892,840 internet users recorded in January, MTN Nigeria led the table with 39,173,123 customers browsing the internet on its network.

    It stated that MTN had an increase of 556,386 internet subscribers in January, after it recorded 38,616,737 users in the month of December 2014.

    According to the data, Globacom is second on the internet usage table, recording 17,671,405 subscribers surfing the net with its network in January.

    The data revealed that Globacom gained a total of 532,085 additional internet users on its network, up from 17,139,320 users in December 2014.

    Airtel Nigeria, it said was third on the roll with 14,969,924 internet users in January, as against 14,371,987 customers recorded in December.

    The data showed that internet users on the Airtel Nigeria network also increased by 597,937 in January.

    It disclosed that Etisalat was last on the table with 10,078,388 of its customers browsing the internet in January, compared to the 6,194,758 users in December, an increase of 3,883,630 users.

    The NCC data also revealed that the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators (Multi-Links and Visafone) had a joint total of 153,798 internet users on their networks in January.

    It showed, however, that the only surviving two CDMA networks in the country listed a loss of 526 internet subscribers in the month under review from the 154,324 users they recorded in December.

    The data stated that Visafone recorded a decrease of 311 customers surfing the internet in January, reducing the number to 153,059 compared to the 153,370 users in the month of December.

    It said that Multi-Links had 739 internet users in January, hence losing 215 customers from the December record of 954 users.

    The data further showed that in spite of the decrease on the part of the CDMA networks, Nigerians were gradually embracing data as the next revolution in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

     

  • NCC set to cap transmission cable price for operators

    NCC set to cap transmission cable price for operators

    Worried by current regime of denial of access to viable routes, predatory pricing and discriminatory and arbitrary pricing in transmission cable sector of the telecoms sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it will set a cap on its cost.

    It warned that it will not hesitate to sanction any operator that breaches the cap.

    Its Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Eugene Juwah who spoke in Lagos at the stakeholders consultative forum on the determination of cost based transmission cable pricing, said while it is the policy of government that appropriate prices be determined by market forces, it has recognised that in the transition from monopoly to full market competition, there would be periods market forces may be inadequate to bring about efficient market conduct and prices that are close to costs.

    Represented by its Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Mr. Okechukwu  Itanyi who spoke on the sideline after the meeting, he said  after the consideration of the report of the study contracted to KPMG, it will develop “strong enforcement regulations and cap the cost price of transmission cable in the country.”

    According to NCC, KPMG was contacted two years ago to carry out the study as part of its regulatory oversight function to address competitive dynamics, pricing and related matters in cable transmission pricing among operators.

    “In the discharge of our regulatory and oversight functions, we are committed to participatory regulation and shall continue to ensure wide consultation before major decisions affecting the industry are taken,” Juwah said.

    He said the commission engaged the services of KPMG to ensure that the execution of the project is guided by current realities in the sector.

    He explained that presentation of findings from the study to stakeholders is to further prove the commission’s participatory regulation to gather opinions and inputs for best pricing regime in the sector’s cable transmission market.

    The essence of determining a cost based transmission cable pricing and development is to enable a judicious use of spectrum with minimal frequency coordination. This allows links to be deployed close to one another without interference.

    KPMG’s Partner, Management Consulting, Mr. Joseph Tegbe, explained that the primary objective of the project is to develop a cost based option for regulating the pricing of transmission cable in the telecoms industry.

    According to him, the greatest challenge encountered in the project was access to data as it took a year before accessing data from the operators.

    He said having followed international best practices in carrying out with the study, information given by the telecoms operators was used as benchmark in the proposed pricing regime, adding that it took cognisance of the falling value of the naira and interest rate which kept going up.

  • NCC appeals judgment

    NCC appeals judgment

    THE counsel to the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Paul  Usoro (SAN), yesterday  filed an appeal against  the judgment. NCC, in a statement, said it filed the appeal through its counsel  on eight grounds.

    Usoro  contended that the learned judge misdirected itself in law and on facts when it awarded N500 million as damages and compensation to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The lawyer averred that the judge erred in law when he dismissed the appellant’s Notice of Preliminary Objection of March 2, 2015, which challenged the competence of the suit on the grounds that same was unmeritorious.

    He added that the judge was wrong when he held that the suit of  the first respondent disclosed cause of action against the applicant.

    Usoro, in the notice of appeal, noted that the court misdirected itself in law and facts when it held that the suit, as constituted, fell under the context of Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution as amended and not rooted in contract.

    He explained that the court erred in law and occasioned grave miscarriage of justice when it held that the first respondent seemingly complained of discrimination by the appellant.

    The notice of appeal also said the learned judge erred in law when he held that the appellant indeed discriminated against the 1st respondent when it granted the Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation in 2011, the right to use short codes and did not allow the first respondent same right in 2015.

    Another ground was that the judge erred in law when it invalidated the appellants’ directive contained in its letter of January 19, 2015.

     

     

  • NCC begins 2.6GHz spectrum licensing

    NCC begins 2.6GHz spectrum licensing

    • Targets $224m revenue 

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it has started the process that would culminate to the auction of licences in the 2.6gigahertz (GHz) spectrum band.

    Its Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, who spoke in Abuja advised interested parties to look up the Information Memorandum (IM) on the Commission’s website and be guided accordingly.

    He said the Federal Government would reap a minimum of $224 million from the auction, adding that the minimum slot for bidders would be four, while the maximum would be eight within the various spectrum chats available.

    Juwah said if the business atmosphere is favourable, the Federal Government could reap more revenue from the auction, stressing that necessary arrangements have been concluded for a transparent and hitch-free exercise.

    Represented  by its Director, Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, he said interested participants and stakeholders are expected to abide by the provisions of the IM.

    Juwah said the spectrum auction was informed by the need to open up the space for the delivery of present and future generations of broadband services to subscribers in line with the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) of 2013-2018.

    He said the commission is determined to achieve 30 per cent penetration in broadband expansion in the country, stressing that the 2.6GHz to be auctioned and 2.3GHz earlier auctioned would operate alongside each other to make the 30 per cent broadband penetration in the country by 2018 a reality.

  • NCC: Technical skills needed to sustain growth

    NCC: Technical skills needed to sustain growth

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said there is need to intensify efforts at building the specialised skills set needed in the telecoms sector if the gains of the telecoms revolution are to be sustained.

    Its Head Policy and Research, Dr. Henry Nkemadu, said the telecom revolution in the country which has resulted in the unparalleled growth from 400,000   lines to 139 million connected lines needed to continue to grow.

    He said for this to happen, there was need to grow the specialised skill sets to sustain and drive more growth and development in the sector.

    He spoke during the donation of 87 information communication technology (ICT) books to Bayero University, Kano (BUK).

    He explained that the aim of the project, which is part of NCC’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) to spread digital dividends to tertiary institutions across the country, is to develop local capacity that will contribute to the ICT sector and boost the national economy.

    NCC Board Commissioner, Alhaji Mohammed Bintube, who led the Commission’s delegation to BUK to donate the books, said the ICT book donation is part of the project of the Commission to fill the dearth of educational materials within the ICT sector in the country.

    BUK Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed expressed gratitude to the NCC for the donation and encouraged it to further partner with the university in its efforts to expand ICT training programmes within the institution.

    He said the NCC is one of the institutions that show legitimacy and honor in the ICT sector, adding that the book donation by the Commission to the school is worth millions of naira and is one of the best the university has received so far.

    The books will adorn the university’s ICT Centre named T.Y Danjuma ICT Centre which consists of a post-graduate school, Departments of Information Technology (IT), Software Engineering and Computer Science. The gesture from the NCC is spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

    In a statement, NCC Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo quoted Bintube as saying:   “Commission is honored and privileged to be present at one of the citadels of learning in Nigeria. We appreciate the efforts made in ICT within the university.”

  • ‘NCC can sanction recalcitrant respondents’

    ‘NCC can sanction recalcitrant respondents’

    The Federal Commissioner, National Complaints Commission (NCC) Lagos State, Funso  Olukoga has been on the saddle for three years. In this interview with  ADEBISI ONANUGA, he speaks on

    To what extent would you say your commission is known and are Nigerians actually making use of its services?                

    The fact that we are pushing out so many adverts and embarking on enlightenment campaigns, underscore the fact that we are not known so much by Nigerians and much still needed to be done. We want to ensure that all Nigerians know us, know the services we provide and know that they have a right to complain when they are not satisfied about government services or matters between two parties.

    How has improved awareness creation affected your performance within the last one year when compared to the previous year?

    What we were able to do in 2014 was quite a remarkable achievement. This is because the number of cases we had in 2013 was much lower than what we had in 2014. It showed that people are getting to know us better. It showed that people are getting more knowledgeable about what the public complaint commission does and what we are doing. I am sure that within a short time, Nigerians will know more about the public complaint commission and make use of its services because it is free anyway. All they have to do is bring their complaints to us and we will deal with them. 

     So, what did you do in awareness creation that led to improved performance which was not being done before by your predecessors?

    In the area of awareness, we went out to the people; we encourage people to patronise us, through website. We sent out leaflets; we paid courtesy visits to various organisations that we believe will be able to help us publicise our work. We also visited media organisations too. In the last few months, we had visited almost all the newspaper houses in Lagos, and electronic media as well, just because we want people to know what we are doing. So we were able to achieve a lot in spite of our financial constraint.

     What do you intend to achieve with the complaints boxes you launched recently?

    The launching of the public complaints boxes is another bold step that we took as part of our efforts to take our services to the doorsteps of Nigerians. The boxes are intended to serve the needs of individuals, who otherwise may be far from our office, to drop their written complaints against any individual or corporate organisations. It now becomes our responsibility to pick these complaints, look into them, carry out necessary investigation and treat them as appropriate. That is why we made the boxes to be transparent, have the name of the commission boldly written on it and would be positioned in conspicuous locations around the state for easy access of the people. Some of the places we are considering include local council development authority (LCDA) offices, hospitals, eateries, airport, seaport, market places and hotels among others.

    How would you describe the relationship between your commission and other agencies of government vis-à-vis your responsibilities?

    As agencies of government, they know it is important for them to cooperate with us in order to ensure that there is good governance. And in any case if they do not cooperate, it is easy to have them sanctioned as well because it is a matter of procedure. They realise that it is easy to identify and sanction any government agent or agency that fails to cooperate with other agencies of government. So, those that are always recalcitrant are the private organisations that do not have the knowledge of the existence of the Public Complaints Commission or are ignorant of the laws enabling the Public Complaints Commission to impose sanctions on them for being recalcitrant. Because if they do, they will realise that there are sanctions for disobeying the laws.  So, these private organisations are the culprits really. And we will deal with them.

    Does your commission handle complaints against foreign companies, particularly those that are engaged in casualisation of workers? 

    I will say that we do not discriminate when it comes to a particular company dealing with Nigerian citizens. It can be local or foreign company. What is important as far as we are concerned is that any act of injustice is dealt with or removed and that if there are problems between the complaints and respondents, that these problems are resolved. If there is any means of crime either relating to illegal immigration or whatever, we are under obligation to report to law enforcement agencies. And if there is any act that has some criminal element, again we are bound to report to law enforcement agencies. But if it is a matter of employee/employer relationship, we try to resolve it just the way it is and we have succeeded most of the time. 

    So, how has alternate dispute resolution assisted in your constitutional roles?

    Alternate dispute resolution is one of the tools we employ when we are resolving complaints between the respondent and the complainant. Alternate dispute resolution, of course, has to do with resolving matters out of court and not getting to litigation. There are certain cases that present themselves in such a way that the resolution would depend on the expertise of administrators and we will refer such cases to the administrators. Where we can mediate and resolve the matter, yes, we will mediate between the parties and we will resolve the matter. So, it is a tool we use. But the job of the public complaint commissioners is not reliant on that tool alone, but we make use of it very often and we find it very useful in dealing with the cases that are brought before us. The ADR is very useful and we have a working relationship with the Lagos State Multi-Door Courthouse, where we refer cases that have technical content as far as arbitration is concerned. 

    Were there complaints against the Federal Government as regards the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment exercise? If there were, how did your commission handle the matter?

    We don’t even need to wait for anybody to come to us before we responded to it. If you follow our activities, we responded at that time, we came out with a statement to say that future recruitment should be done in a particular way so as to prevent that type of occurrence. Where we believe that we should respond, we respond because that is what we are set up to do; to respond on behalf of the citizens. And we are empowered, not just when they lay complaints before to us, but we are empowered to be proactive, that is, to even intervene where we believe that an act of injustice has been committed or may be committed. So, we are allowed to do that. And in that case, we responded and came up with a statement, at least, in Lagos State.

    his vision  for the commission and his achievements. 

  • Telephone subscriber base hits 136m, says ncc

    Telephone subscriber base hits 136m, says ncc

    From less than 500,000 in year 2000, the subscriber base of the fixed and mobile telephone users has increased to 136 million as at November 2014.

    This was disclosed in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Wednesday by the Director, Policy Competition and Economic Analysis of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Mrs. Josephine Amuwa.

    The NCC chief made the disclosure during the donation of books on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to the Ekiti State University (EKSU).

    Mrs. Amuwa described Nigeria as the “fastest growing telecommunications country in the world” with more than three million direct and indirect employment.

    She expressed dismay that Nigerian engineers and engineering students have not utilised the opportunities made available by the growth in telecoms industry because of dearth of relevant books and other publications.

    Mrs. Amuwa said: “This development has led to a substantial demand on the available human resources and encouraging operating companies to become net importers of skilled telecoms manpower into the country.”

    Expressing his appreciation for the donation, EKSU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oladipo Aina, said the books would help the university to actualise it’s five-year strategic plan.

  • Court lifts suspension of APC’s fund-raising platform

    The Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday restrained five telecoms firms from suspending All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign fund-raising platform.

    Justice Ibrahim Buba made the ex-parte order following the party’s motion.

    The judge made an order of interim injunction restraining Etisalat, MTN, Glo, Airtel and Visafone from giving effect to a directive by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which warned them against running political promotions that will portray them as being partisan.

    The judge ordered the telecoms firms “to continue to run, operate and/or restore to its full operative use the SMS Code platform 35350 created for fund-raising for the applicant’s presidential campaign.”

    The orders are to subsist pending the hearing and determination of APC’s originating motion on notice.

    The court also granted APC leave to serve the originating motion on notice and other processes on NCC (the first defendant) outside the court’s jurisdiction.

    APC said the platform is to operate till February 12 when campaign activities for the presidential election will end in line with Electoral Act and the election time-table.

    In the originating motion, APC is demanding N25billion damages from the defendants for violating the fundamental rights of the party and its members.

    It said since the platform was suspended, it has been unable to disseminate or receive information from its supporters via the SMS code 35350.

    The party said while the platform was suspended, NCC has allowed that of President Goodluck Jonathan to run seamlessly.

    The party said it created a “premium SMS code 35350” through which willing donors could contribute to its presidential campaign fund.

    Within hours of its creation, APC said it was getting about five messages of N100 each every minute. A total of 5,400 messages were received, it said.

    However, NCC in a January 19 letter, directed all telecoms service providers “to avoid running political advertisements that will portray them as being partisan.”

    NCC said it would “not hesitate to sanction any service provider that will flout this directive.” As a result, the telecoms firms suspended the platform.

    However, APC said political parties have been using several media platforms to advertise, with none accused of being partisan.

     

  • Fund-raising platform’s closure in order, says NCC

    Fund-raising platform’s closure in order, says NCC

    THE Nigerian Telecommunication Commissions (NCC) said yesterday that it acted in order by closing the fund-raising platform of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

    NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman Eugene Juwah dismissed allegation of partisanship and double standard levelled against the commission.

    Juwah, who fielded questions from reporters shortly after the opening ceremony of the Third African Preparatory Meeting of African Telecommunications Union (ATU), at Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja, said the action of the commission was based on rules.

    Director of the party’s fund-raising  and Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, last week accused the NCC of closing the party’s fund-raising platform.

    Fashola, who described the action of the NCC as unconstitutional, threatened to challenge the agency in court.

    But, Juwah maintained that the NCC was a public service institution, which is not political, insisting that the rules governing the operations of NCC were not made with considerations for elections.

    His words: “We are a public service agency; we are not political. If you are allowed to raise money, you must conform to the rules of NCC. We did not make these rules looking at elections. We made these rules for the interest of the development of telecommunications in Nigeria. And we will keep those rules, whether there is election or not.”

    Juwah said the meeting of the ATU was an avenue to further the interest and development of the region, stating that participants would discuss issues of harmonisation of spectrum as a scarce and limited resource with a view to come up with a uniform position during the World Radio Communication (WRC) Conference.

    “This meeting is a key meeting for the world and we are going to discuss spectrum usage. Africa is to protect its own interest in spectrum usage. So, the meeting we are having today is to prepare the ground for our own position.

    “We are going to the WRC in 2015 with a united voice and this is a key meeting. It won’t be the last. It is one of the preparatory meetings towards the end of the year for WRC 2015. The expectation is that all the outstanding issues regarding the use of spectrum will be discussed, especially harmonisation of spectrum, spectrum slots and border interference and other technical issues,” the NCC boss said at the gathering.

    The Minister of Communication, Dr. Omobola Johnson urged participants to leverage on their experiences in the field of spectrum management to forge a strong and united position for Africa in the WRC 2015 Conference.