NCC to deploy ‘revenue assurance solution’ to block financial leakages in telecom industry

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it will deploy revenue assurance solution (RAS) to independently monitor revenues generated by its licensees in a bid to block financial leakages in their annual operating levy (AOL) payable to the federal government.

Umar Danbatta, executive vice-chairman (EVC) of the NCC, said this in Abuja on Friday during a virtual interactive session with stakeholders on the deployment of RAS in the Nigerian telecommunication industry.

Danbatta said the deployment of the IT solution will enable the commission to determine how much their licensees generate annually.

He said the technology solution will not wait for licensees to submit information to the commission before determining what they should pay as AOL.

“The financial burden of deployment will be on the operators. This project relieves the commission of the initial financial burden that will be required for the deployment of the RAS project,” he said

“It will also ensure that accurate revenue generated by the licensed network operators are tracked, analysed and utilised for the benefit of the industry. Beyond revenue assurance, when deployed, the NCC RAS will bring a lot of solutions to the industry.”

While no date was announced for the IT solution to go live, Danbatta said the solution will include a more effective and enhanced monitoring and regulation of the licensed telecommunications operators by the commission.

Danbatta said the commission believes the deployment of appropriate revenue assurance solutions will confer higher levels of integrity and fidelity on the AOL figures obtainable in the industry.

He said the RAS will enable NCC to validate the information, records and data supplied to it by the licensees from time to time, amongst others.

“This is in addition to plugging possible loopholes and leakages in the revenue computation and collection processes. AOL is a very important tool in the regulation of the telecommunications industry. In Nigeria, the importance of AOL is well expressed in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003,” he said.

“AOL can be described as the tap root of an efficient and effective telecommunications regulatory environment. The mechanisms for collection and computation of AOL, are of interest and important to both the regulator, and the operating networks,” he said.

He said efforts have been made towards achieving an effective AOL administration, pursuant to the powers of the commission under section 72 of the NCA Act 2003.

According to him, some of the objectives of the AOL regulations, as provided in part 1 (2) of the AOL Regulations 2014, are to “create and provide a regulatory framework for the effective and efficient administration by the Commission of the Annual Operating Levy regime and all matters related thereto;

“Stipulate the mode and methods of assessment of Annual Operating Levy and the payment modes thereof; specify guiding standards and principles for the administration by the Commission of the Annual Operating Levy regime.”

He also said the size of the Nigerian telecommunications industry and revenue events engaged by the network operators, demands effective, accurate and technology-driven revenue assurance solutions which NCC-RAS represents.

He said appropriate revenue assurance systems have resulted in higher revenues and plugging of leakages and that modern revenue assurance systems had shown to be equipped with additional capacities to generate and analyse information beyond those required for revenue computation.