NCC says it remitted N133bn to federation account in two years

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it has remitted N133bn to the federation account in two years.

In a statement on Wednesday, Tony Ojobo, director, public affairs of the NCC, said the commission’s last remittance to the consolidated revenue fund was N12,705,154,120 which was paid into the federation account on June 30.

Ojobo said this was less than 10 days after the NCC remitted the sum of N1,282,453,138 to the account.

“In the same vein, the NCC last year, transferred N20,000,598,873 and another N15,000,000,000 in March before remitting N29,475,867,407 and N16,500,000,000 in December of the 2016,” the statement read.

“In 2015, however, the commission remitted N23,512,316,450 in October after paying N6,856,182,132 in September of the same year.

“It is noteworthy also that the quarterly contribution of telecom sector to the GDP has been consistently impressive in the last two years.

“Although NCC’s primary role is not to generate revenue for the government, but to nurture and regulate the industry, figures obtained from the commission show impressive remittance of funds to the coffers of the consolidated revenue of the federal government, especially in the last two years.

“The executive vice-chairman and chief executive officer of the commission, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, recently said that the sector contributed N1.549 trillion to the gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2017, representing 6.68 per cent increase from the first quarter of the year (N1.452 trillion).

“The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report has confirmed that the telecommunications sector, during the second quarter of 2017, contributed 9.5 per cent to the GDP in contrast to 9.1 per cent contribution in the first quarter of the year.

“We are very proud of the remarkable contribution the sector is making. Even at the recent times when the whole economy was facing challenges, the sector had remained resilient and stable.”

Ojobo added that the quest for country’s attainment of 30 percent broadband penetration by 2018, has received a major boost as ITU-UNESCO broadband commission for sustainable development confirmed that Nigeria had achieved 21 percent level of penetration from less than 10 percent two years earlier.