Members of the House of Representatives on Friday tasked Private Telecoms Operators to enlist on the Stock Exchange in the bid to attract adequate funding.
The lawmakers gave the charge during an interactive session held with Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) held at the instance of the House Committee on Telecommunications, chaired by Hon. Peter Akpatason (APC-Edo).
In his address, Hon. Peter Akpatason applauded the contributions of telecom service providers in the development of the telecom sector, which contributes about 18% to the nation’s GDP.
“We firmly believe in the power of collaboration and synergy between the legislature and the private sector to drive growth, innovation, and prosperity. In this spirit, we seek to further deepen our working relationship, ensuring that your concerns, insights, and expertise are duly considered in our lawmaking processes and oversight of your Regulator – the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),” he said.
In line with the committee’s vision to strengthen and sustain our relationship with the regulators and all critical stakeholders, he disclosed that the Committee will organise a Legislative-Regulator- Stakeholders’ Forum with a view to get acquainted and to enhance our understanding of the challenges, goals, and aspirations as well as gain valuable insights of the telecommunications sector in Nigeria.
Hon. Akpatason also reiterated the Committee’s readiness to “provide necessary parliamentary intervention and support when the need arises. Your issues and challenges will be heard, and we will work tirelessly to find effective solutions that benefit both the industry and the citizens of Nigeria.”
In his presentation, ATCON President, Mr. Tony Emoekpere expressed concern over issues bothering on multiple regulations and taxes, rising cost of doing business due to myriads of factors such as inflation, currency devaluation and subsidy removal, sustained difficulty in accessing forex at an affordable rate, rising cost of securing telecoms facilities and field personnel in the face of insecurity, as well as enforcement of old tariffs regime being implemented by ATCON members.
While speaking on the issue of high Right of Way charges being imposed by some States of the Federation including Lagos and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), he maintained that “the 70% broadband penetration target of the national broadband plan cannot be achieved with high ROW charges. We advocate for a uniform N145 per meter or a waiver (as some States have done) nationwide including the FCT.”
While responding to question bothering on provision of national emergency line, Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Mr. Wole Abu disclosed that the 112 has been “in-built into the GSM Code to the tariff, we are not just using it.
“If there was a law today at least you will be able to reduce the issue of lack of intelligence to our security forces. So, that’s something that is already in place. It’s the handover on the other side that is not there, that’s the security services are not using that technology. We have put it already on every network.”
Other Operators, who spoke during the session raised alarm over the indiscriminate sale of NITEL mast/towers as scrapped metals, thereby causing sporadic installation of telecom masts/towers by individual telecom operators.
Speaking after the presentations of the stakeholders, Hon. Akpatason harped on the need for collaboration between government and telecoms operators towards ensuring that the telecoms industry is up and doing and serving Nigeria’s interest.
He said: “You mention the need for enabling environment, as it relates to security, infrastructure and legislation, among others. The responsibility is for both the government and you, the investors in the industry.
“You spoke about access to funds, particularly rates that will not hurt investment, friendly rate that is one thing that government alone can do. But definitely, government has responsibility to ensure that organisations that have the power to support businesses don’t prime their funds out of the reach of businesses. Because that way, if that happens what it means is that many businesses will no longer be lucrative. And when that happens, Nigerian people will be the ones that will suffer.”
While noting that closure of businesses would lead to job losses and hamper services, he maintained that: “ultimately, we are all going to suffer if we allow the situation to continue to degenerate. It is not in our interest to see this situation exit. Definitely, we will do all necessary possible to ensure that these issues are practically addressed,” Hon. Akpatason assured.
Hon. Akpatason who assured that the Committee will set up a sub-committee to identify and drill-down into all the issues identified and come up with recommendations, averred that: “Our government is very interested in making sure that businesses survive. Not just surviving but profitable enough to continue to be in existence. Because government alone can’t employ all the people but companies will do that, companies will support government when companies are profitable.
“The issue of security, that’s a big masquerade in Nigeria, that has consumed a whole lot of interests, businesses and so on and so forth. This cannot be in the interest of anybody, nobody can be happy about that. The legislative arm of government will work with you the investors as well as the executive arm to ensure that some of these issues are tackled frontally.”
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNEÂ
and then