As part of efforts to enhance the effective and efficient deployment of 5G network, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Danbatta, has said the commission has engaged investors at different fora in order to attract foreign direct investment into the country.
This is just as Professor Dambatta said over 35 million Nigerians were yet to be reached with basic infrastructure and service, in unserved and underserved areas.
Danbatta stated this on Sunday while speaking at the fourteenth Distinguished Electrical and Electronics Engineer Annual Lectures held at Coronation Hall Government House, Kano.
According to him, the capital intensity of the telecoms industry in Nigeria restated the need for service providers to increase their infrastructure deployment to satisfy the ever-increasing demand, create room for double the size of the current $68 billion investment in the next ten years.
Danbatta maintained that his agency had shown the investors NCC Road Map for Broadband, which includes open Access Model initiative and 5G deployment readiness.
Professor Umar Garba Danbatta noted the NCC has activated enforcement code for corporate governance for the telecommunication industry with the some of strengthening telecoms legal entities, sustaining sectors role as a driver of economic growth as well as social transformation and attracting investors.
He, however, added that the NCC has opened up new spectrum spaces, in which “we have identified some of the potential frequency bands that may be harmonised for 5G deployment in region 1, which include: 26GHz, eiGHt and 42GHz.
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“Therefore, we suspended the licensing of those frequencies in readiness for 5G deployment. This step will ensure that all Nigeria is not caught unaware when standardisation bodies harmonise those frequencies bands.”
Also speaking, the national chairman of Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Engineer Johnson Funso Adebayo, said the institute was very proud of the achievements recorded in NCC as a result of tireless efforts of Professor Umar Garba Danbatta.
He said the institute has conferred on the Danbatta the title of a fellow of the institute, saying this was a clear demonstration of their satisfaction with his performance in moving the telecommunication sector in the country forward.
Professor Dambatta was decorated with a colourful gown which indicates his full fellowship with the institute.
The ceremony was attended by senior electrical and electronics engineers, university lecturers, stakeholders and the public.
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