Nigeria's telecoms sector records 39 per cent growth in FDIs

BETWEEN 2009 and now, Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and private investments into Nigeria's telecommunications sector have increased by 39 per cent, according to The Guardian checks.The industry's FDIs, which stood at $18 billion in 2009 rose to $25 billion in 2012.The $7 billion differentialrepresents about 38.8 per cent growth of the total investment inflows into the country's telecoms industry.From a private sector investment of about $50 million in 1999 and following the liberalisation of the telecoms sector in 2001, the industry, by end of 2009, attracted more than $18 billion of private investments, including FDIs.The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, spoke in Abuja, said expansion of telecoms facilities in the country may have informed the increase.According to him, 'in 2009, the foreign direct investment that has come into Nigeria stood at $18 billion, today it is $25 billion. So there has not been a significant slow down as such. The foreign direct investment continues in form of expansion.'We are just talking about poor quality of services. What you need to clear poor quality of service is further investment. You have to expand the existing facilities the service providers have and the money for that comes mainly from external sources.'He said specifically for broadband, 'we hope that significant money for broadband will come from external sources.'According to him, though Nigeria had done very well in the telecommunication industry with the present record of over100 million subscribers in mobile telephone, it had not done well in the area of data services.On broadband technology, he said, 'broad band is a technology that we cannot do without. It is a technology that if we miss will cause us a huge developmental loss. It is also a technology that should not be left only to profit makers like telecommunication service providers.
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