Effective regulation has been proven to result in greater economic growth, increased investment, better quality of service, higher penetration and more rapid technological innovation in any nation. It is safe to say the Nigeria Communications Commission has been on top of its game, in this regard.
Verifiable data show that a nation’s economic development depends largely on its overall progress in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. Access to telecommunications is therefore critical to the development of all aspects of a nation’s economy including manufacturing, banking, education, agriculture and government. A good and effective regulatory environment is essential in order to foster economic development in any sector.
According to the Nigeria Communications Commission, being Nigeria’s regulator for the telecommunications industry, it has succeeded in overseeing the activities of all of the nation’s service providers including providers of Internet services.
A key objective of the Commission is to promote the provision of modern, efficient, reliable, affordable and easily accessible communications services and the widest range thereof throughout Nigeria, including the Internet, with policies and industry codes developed to address issues peculiar to the Nigeria and International best practices reviewed and adopted where they do not conflict with existing national laws.
The Interconnection of several networks linking thousands of devices – the Internet – and the resultant dependencies on the facilities provided, have become an indispensable platform for communication, commerce, development, etc. The Commission designs programmes and initiatives on Internet Governance developments in other jurisdictions, promotes the establishment of a multistakeholder structure of policy development, participates in Internet Governance related fora within and outside the region, and partners with International agencies to drive growth in Internet access, growth and usage within Nigeria.
NCC has tirelessly worked on the development of the National Internet Registry database. With this, the Commission documents information on all IP addresses allocated to Nigeria by AFRINIC. Such information is utilised for various regulatory activities relating to security on the Internet.
Many may not be aware of its Nigerian Child Online Protection initiative. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) released the revised guidelines on Child Online Protection (COP) in July 2020. Based on this, the NCC held a virtual hangout with children in order to adopt and adapt the guidelines to suit Nigerian context. These, according to NCC will be made available in the 3 major languages (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba) and pidgin and will be published upon completion.
On the heels of its successes, the Nigerian Government recently formally handed over the 3.5HZ spectrum of the fifth Generation (5G) network to the Nigeria Communications Commision (NCC). A huge plus to the ICT industry in the nation. It was the minister of communication and digital economy, Isa Pantami, who performed the handing over ceremony on Thursday in Abuja.
The allocation of bulk spectrum to the NCC is based on its regulatory roles in the telecommunication industry.
The initial allocation is done under the auspices of the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC).
The NFMC is the custodian of the National Frequency Spectrum Scarce Resource and the apex body for the management of the spectrum. It focuses on the non-commercial spectrum and gives bulk spectrum allocation to statutory bodies empowered by law to assign spectrum to end users.
The ministry allocates spectrum for non-commercial use and this is done through the Spectrum Management Department. A total of 148 spectrum allocations have been made since 2019.
“We are here today to officially allocate the 3.5GHz frequency band, specifically the 3.52GHz to 3.90GHz (or 380 MHz), to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for onward assignment to the winners of the 5G Auctioning Process. The initial allocation is done under the auspices of the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC),” Mr Pantami said.
5G networks offer major advantages over technologies that preceded it. These advantages include much lower latency, higher bandwidth, greater device density, longer battery life for nodes and greater network flexibility.
As at the end of December 2021, 200 mobile operators in 78 countries/territories had announced 3GPP compatible 5G service launches (either mobile or fixed wireless access), including about 9 countries in Africa. With our population and market size, we are on course to become the country with the largest 5G deployment in Africa.
In December 2021, Mafab Communication and MTN Nigeria emerged the two successful winners of the 3.5gigahertz(GHz) spectrum auction for the deployment of 5G technology.
The winners emerged after 11 rounds of bidding that lasted for eight hours. The commission fixed the base price at $197.4 million, and the two winners got the nod of the regulator at $273 million.Apparently the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) hopes that 5G services will be available by the fourth quarter of this year in the country.
In a recent statement, the Head, Spectrum Administration of NCC, Usman Aliyu, said this while speaking on 5G deployment at a capacity building workshop organized for ICT journalists by the Commission in Abuja.
Aliyu explained that cleaning of the Bands is ongoing with the migration of the FSS users from 3.4-3.8 GHz spectrum following the ratification of the use of the Nigerian Communications Satellite by the National Frequency Management Council.According to him, when deployed, a lot of services would be enhanced with a resultant effect on the economic growth of the nation in the areas of education, health, financial services and improvement in the quality of service.
He said Nigeria has become the first country in Africa to successfully conduct a full 5G spectrum auction without the services of a consultant and the first software auction to be conducted since 2001.
‘5G auction committee was constituted, information memorandum was developed, consultation on Memorandum carried out, key stakeholders responded, corrections were made on IM before the auction.No doubt, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) will continue to roll out all-inclusive regulatory initiatives to provide market opportunities for all licensees towards achieving efficient national policy targets.
The commission is committed to the NCC Strategic Vision Plan (SVP 2021 to 2025) which the pillars are organisational efficiency and regulatory excellence, facilitate the provision of infrastructure for a digital economy which fosters national development, promote fair competition inclusive growth, increased investment, innovation services and facilitate strategic collaboration and partnership.
However, NCC needs all stakeholders, especially licensees, to key into all the commission’s programmes and to operate with maximum efficiency.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspaper
