Connect with us

Business

NCC accuses state MDAs of hampering access to telecommunications

Published

on

NCC accuses state MDAs of hampering access to telecommunications

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of state governments are hampering access to telecommunications in the country.

Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, at NCC, Mr Sunday Dare, stated this at a stakeholders’ parliament in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital on Thursday.

According to Dare, who was represented at the event by Deputy Director, Legal and Regulatory Services, Mr Tobbi. Mohammed, various policies and actions of state MDAs were inimical to accessing telecommunications services.

While listing some of the actions of the states that hinder access to telecommunications services, he said failure to grant approval for citing base stations, inordinate charges, delays and outright denial of right-of-way and shutting down of base stations have hampered access.

Read also: Crude Oil prices fall on the eve of OPEC meeting

The NCC topshot further explained that such actions deny citizens access to telecommunications which the states and their agencies should be promoting.

Dare contended that the shutting down of one base station in one state was capable of affecting services in a number of states, especially if the affected base station was a hub.

He said: “In this regard, we are concerned that preparations for this parliament were unfortunately overshadowed by events in the past two weeks which saw Kogi State Internal Revenue Agency sealing up some Base Transceiver Station sites around the state.

“To emphasise the interconnectedness of the national telecoms network, we should note that although less than 20 BTS sites were shut down, but because many of them were ‘hub’ sites, their being ‘off-line’ immediately affected over 150 BTS sites in Nasarawa, Benin, Enugu, Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Niger State and the FCT.

“This led to outages and service degradation which affected millions of innocent telecoms users across these other states.

“If we were to quantify the monetary impact of the disruptions to communications, banking (PoS, ATMs, etc.), security, health and other platforms which rely on the infrastructure, I am sure the national economy would have lost billions of Naira during that short period. We must avoid this kind of disruptions at all costs.”

Speaking at the event, Kogi State Director of Urban and Regional Planning Board, Rikiya Ibrahim, called on mobile operators and other telecommunications service providers to consult relevant state agencies in their operations.

According to Ibrahim, proper consultation was necessary to forestall confrontation that could result in the shutting down of telecommunication facilities.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now