The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it has remitted N463 billion into the Federal Government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) in the last five years.

The NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, made the disclosure when he led the management team of the commission to pay a visit to the new permanent secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, William Alo, in Abuja recently.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday by the commission’s director of Public Affairs, Reuben Mouka, Prof. Danbatta also disclosed that the commission has commenced the process of reviewing five regulatory instruments developed to address the challenges of the telecommunications industry in the country.

The NCC boss also told the permanent secretary that the commission has issued landing permits to 53 Geo Satellite Orbits space stations and 923 non-GSO space stations among other achievements of the commission.

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Danbatta, who said the NCC remained a major contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, stated that the 3G and 4G Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) in the country have increased from less than 30,000 in 205 to 53, 460, while 7VSAT gateway earth stations have been licensed to boost broadband penetration in the country.

He added that the GDP contributions of the industry had grown from 8.5 per cent in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2015 to 12.61 in the Q4 of 2021, while the telecoms sector also attracted over $2 billion in foreign direct investment over the period.

He further listed some other key achievements of the NCC under him to include the recent successful auction of 3.5GHz spectrum for 5G, licensing of 7 fibre optics infrastructure providers, and adding up to 38, 296 kilometers of fibre optic in the country.

He noted that access gap clusters in the country have been reduced from 217 to 114 to enable 15 million Nigerians have access to telecommunications services, and increase of fibre optics deployments from 47,000 kilometers to 54, 725 kilometers.

In his remarks, Alo commended the leadership of the NCC for the remarkable strides of the agency that has earned a remarkable international reputation for Nigeria and placed the telecom regulator at the forefront of the nation’s quest for forward-looking national economic growth.

The Star