Danbatta: NCC remits N344.71bn revenue to FG in 5 years

Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), says the commission generated and remitted N344.71 billion in revenue to the federal government’s consolidated revenue fund (CRF) in the last five years.

According to a statement signed by Ikechukwu Adinde, director of public affairs, NCC, on Thursday, Danbatta disclosed this during a legislative oversight function on the commission with the house of representatives committee on telecommunications.

He said the successes of NCC is due to the relationship between the commission and the national assembly, adding that the diligent oversight by the lawmakers and necessary legislative support brought forth a lot of dividends for the industry.

“Through the support of the lawmakers, especially the house of representatives committee on telecommunications, which the NCC leadership has worked with in the last five years, the commission has been able to generate and remit N344.71 billion to federal government CRF from spectrum fees and operating surplus,” he said.

Danbatta said the telecoms sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) increased from 8.5 percent to 14.30 percent (N2.272 trillion) as of the second quarter of 2020 (Q2 2020).

He further said the telecoms investment grew from around $38 billion in 2015 to over $70 billion in 2020.

He also said the commission has been able to increase broadband penetration from 6 percent in 2015 to 45.43 percent as of September 2020, while basic active internet subscription grew from 90 million to 143.7 million.

“Between 2015 and September 2020, active voice subscription has increased from 151 million to 205.25 million with a tele-density standing at 107.53 percent as at end of September 2020.

“We are also empowering and protecting the consumers and ensuring we are able to sanitise the industry of improperly registered subscriber identification module (SIM) cards through our impartial regulatory approach.”

Meanwhile, the committee urged NCC to sustain its current template of ensuring effective regulation of the telecoms sector in a manner that would be more beneficial to the industry players, the consumers of the telecoms services and to the federal government.