NCC links bouyant economy to enhanced broadband services

RECOGNISING the importance of broadband to nation's economy, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has restated its commitment to ensuring the expansion of broadband services in the country.NCC said ubiquitous broadband services hold greater prospect for the nation's economy.Speaking through its Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Eugene Juwah, at the 2012 edition of the Nigerian Telecoms Development Lectures (NITDEL) organised by Logica Media Group held in Lagos, the commission said, 'With widespread deployment of broadband services in Nigeria, the future holds greater prospects for the telecoms industry. This is why we are currently sparing no efforts to achieve a robust deployment of broadband services across the length and breadth of Nigeria.'While noting that the Commission acknowledged the huge prospects that abound in the availability of affordable and pervasive broadband services in a vast geographical spread such as Nigeria, Juwah said the regulator was interested in bringing broadband access to all citizens a reality in the country.He said telecoms sector, as evident in the last 12 years of telecoms deregulation, portends much more prospects for the nation in terms of Gross Domestic Product Contribution (GDP).According to him, everyone is a witness to the greater strides that telecoms sector has helped us to achieve as individuals, and as a nation. We are witnesses to the access which telecoms services have made available with the revolution that has attended the industry in the last decade.'We have seen how businesses have thrived with the availability of Information and Communication Technology. We are all full of admiration with the huge private sector investments that the industry has witnessed, rising from about $500,000 in 2001 to over $25 billion as at present and how it has transcended to the nation's economic environment.'By this, we mean the contributions of telecoms to the economy by way of job opportunities, human capacity development, improved business transactions with associated cost savings and most importantly, its contribution to the nation GDP profile where it has taken over from the financial sector,' he said.The NCC boss, however, noted that the challenges facing the industry were numerous and enormous but noted that the difference lies in the determination to ensure that they were surmounted along the line.'You are all were that financing is a major challenge. Telecommunications infrastructures and services are of high capital intensity. In spite of the enormous amount of investments attracted so far in the industry in the short span of about 12 years, the sector is capable of absorbing a s much as hundreds of this same amou8nt in less than this period if made available,' he said.
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