NCC ATTRACTS $1B NEW TELECOM INVESTMENTS, AS MAIDA-LED MGT UNVEILS SCORECARD

The management of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, under the leadership of Dr AMINU MAIDA, says the telecoms sector in the country has attracted over One Billion Dollars in new investments this year, 2025. These investments, largely geared towards infrastructure upgrades, were chiefly driven by market forces and sustained by regulatory adjustments adopted earlier the year. The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, NCC, Dr AMINU MAIDA, appointed in October, 2023, said the relaxation of price control mechanisms, which came into force earlier this year, allowed room for greater competition among Telecoms industry players.  Dr AMINU MAIDA made this known during an interactive session with the media in Lagos, where he outlined the impact of policy changes that have been introduced in the telecoms sector under his leadership in the last two years.  MAIDU said Telecoms operators have also been able to leverage on the economic reforms of the APC-led administration under President BOLA TINUBU on fuel subsidy removal and unified foreign exchange. He maintained that while new investments in the upgrade of telecoms infrastructure have started yielding fruits, there remain existing challenges in the area of security and site acquisition for telecommunications installations, among others.  In response to that, the NCC EVC said the Commission has revised its Site Security Guidelines, requiring telecoms service providers to adopt basic steps in ensuring the security of their facilities. The EVC also stressed the need for continued stakeholders’ engagement and public sensitization to address misconceptions about sites installations and security threats arising from host communities.  Where such measures fail, AMINU MAIDA told the media representatives in Lagos that the NCC was equally working on a strategy in partnership with the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, for a Rapid Response Force to intervene in cases of extreme security threats to telecoms installations. MAIDA equally stated that the NCC was at the point of adopting a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Ministry of Works, which would be extended to the states, on a collaborative approach to the execution of infrastructural projects without the disruption of telecoms services. Going forward, the NCC Executive Vice Chairman, AMINU MAIDA, said the Commission plans to extend the existing thirty-thousand-kilometre coverage of fibre backbone installation to around ninety thousand.  He maintained that the overall target is to achieve improved quality of telecoms services that guarantees greater customer satisfaction, increased consumption, improved profit margins of service providers and higher tax revenue to the government. AMINU MAIDA equally used the opportunity to dispel insinuations about the newly introduced 2025 Guidelines on Corporate Governance for operators, saying it was in line with standard practice to ensure the rotation of management for transparency, accountability and sustainability.