Cerebral Regulation Earns Telecommunications Captain’s Band As ICT Contributes 17.83% To GDP Growth In Q2 2020
By Cyber Era Staff
Competent regulation of the telecommunications sector, under the watch of chief telecommunications regulator at the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, has been credited with the stellar contributions the sector has been making since he assumed helms at the Commission in 2015.
As reported by The Guardian: “Despite the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s telecommunications and information services sectors remain the enablers of growth, with N2.3 trillion(US$ 5.94billion) or 14.30 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution in the second quarter of 2020.
Data available to The Guardian show that the contribution of the sector translates to N2.272 trillion, up from N1.821 trillion in the first quarter of the year.”
The Guardian hinged its report on figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), indicating an increase of 31.43 per cent.
“While the entire Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry recorded 17.83 per cent in the second quarter, the 14.30 per cent contribution of the telecoms sub-sector was unprecedented, far and above oil and gas, and other non-oil sectors” the medium wrote.
Checks by the same medium showed that, in 2015, telecoms’ contribution to GDP stood at eight per cent and has grown significantly quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year to reach the current milestone of 14.30 per cent. The Guardian continued:
Meanwhile, industry stakeholders attributed the second quarter contribution of the telecoms sector, which represents a leap from the 10.88 per cent in Q1 2020, to the sound regulatory environment enthroned by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The stakeholders, including the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, (ATCON), Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators (ALTON), and the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), who spoke with The Guardian on the matter, commended the regulatory framework driving the digital frontiers in the last five years.
The ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, thanked all industry players for their resilience and consistency of purpose. Adebayo hinged the growth on so many factors including the investor-friendly policy and regulatory environment championed by the leadership of NCC, the commitment of all stakeholders, consistent investment in network maintenance and expansion, and sacrifice by sector operators.
To sustain this growth, the ALTON Chairman said the country should continue to invest in network expansion and maintenance operations, access to foreign exchange to procure network critical equipment, consistency in policy and policy environment.
Adebayo said there should be access to spectrum and friendly policies around its allocation, assignment and cooperation between the stakeholders.
ATCON President, Olusola Teniola, said: “telecoms industry has remained bullish owing to the quality of leadership at the helm of affairs at the Commission.” He added that NCC had become a reference point in telecom regulatory ecosystem in Africa and beyond.
In the same vein, President of National Association of Telecoms Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS) Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said the proactive regulatory approach of Danbatta has helped make telecoms “the oxygen that keeps economic activities afloat during the lockdowns and consumers are appreciative of the fact that the Commission, working with its supervising Ministry, didn’t allow the consumer to suffer serious disruption to quality of service and quality of experience.”
As per the report from the medium: “Checks showed that effective regulatory regime, backed by various initiatives of the Commission and efforts of the supervising Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy at addressing industry challenges, is providing the needed digital valves that have supported the economy from collapse, since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
The increase in broadband penetration, Internet usage, number of access to telephone and several other initiatives by the Commission, especially in the areas of driving tech innovations, employment creation, promotion of digital inclusiveness, which are policy directions of NCC, an industry regulator, has, in the last five years, boosted the sector’s contribution to GDP.
These policy activities have also enhanced the growth of digital-based activities across other sectors of the economy increasing efficiency and effectiveness in economic operations.”
Speaking recently at the Commission’s first virtual telecoms consumer parliament (VTCP), the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, noted that the NCC, had always been innovative and proactive in its regulatory activities by ensuring that the economy remained afloat despite the restrictions occasioned by the pandemic.
At the Commission’s first VTCP, Danbatta listed critical regulatory actions that have been taken by the Commission to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on quality of service (QoS) delivery by the networks to telecom consumers.
Danbatta said the NCC, in conjunction with the supervising Ministry developed e-platforms to handle all requests from the licensees to ensure that regulatory services were provided to sustain service delivery to subscribers.
He said the Commission also approved and encouraged resource sharing among network operators and secured Right of Passage (RoP) for all telecommunications companies and suppliers for easy movement during the lockdown, measures that enabled the operators to service their base stations and ensured seamless services for telecom consumers who increasingly relied on the networks during the pandemic.
Danbatta further stated that the NCC, working with the ministry was resolving the problem of high cost of Right of Way (RoW) with the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), adding that, through such engagements, the state governors had lent their support for a robust broadband infrastructure.
“The Commission is hopeful that with the reduction in RoW, which will automatically result in reduction in capital expenditure (CAPEX) by the network operators, telecom companies will sooner than later reciprocate the gesture by making their services more affordable to Nigerians,” he said.
According to the NCC EVC/CEO, , regulatory efforts had also resulted in a Presidential approval directing Security Agencies to protect Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and telecom facilities as critical national assets, saying this had helped to safeguard telecom infrastructure for the greater role telecom had to play with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Danbatta strongly charged the service providers to constantly upgrade and expand their network capacity in order to deliver top-notch QoS to their consumers.
Earlier in a presentation, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Barrister Adeleke Adewolu showed the various Quality of Service (QoS) indicators for the second quarter of the year across the networks and how the consumer Quality of Experience compared with the parameters based on the voice of the consumer survey (VoxPop) conducted by the Commission. Speaking further, the ECSM highlighted the challenges facing operators, which impacted negatively on quality of service to include fibre cuts, vandalism and theft of telecommunications site equipment.
A panel session of telecoms operators, who participated virtually in the TCP, was held and moderated by the Director, Consumer Affairs, NCC, Efosa Idehen. The panel session addressed issues of network capacity upgrade, change in consumer data consumption behavior, implementation of agreed Consumer Complaints and Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA), consumer education as well as general issues around quality of service and quality of experience by the over 192 million telecom consumers in the country.
According to the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report (Q2 2020), released by the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by –6.10 per cent(year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2020, ending the 3-year trend of low but positive real growth rates recorded since the 2016/17 recession.
The decline, the NBS stated, was largely attributable to significantly lower levels of both domestic and international economic activity during the quarter, which resulted from nationwide shutdown efforts aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic. The domestic efforts ranged from initial restrictions of human and vehicular movement implemented in only a few states to a nationwide curfew, bans on domestic and international travel, closure of schools and markets etc., affecting both local and international trade. The efforts, led by both the Federal and State governments, evolved over the course of the quarter and persisted throughout.
“ When compared with Q2 2019, which recorded a growth of 2.12 per cent, the Q2 2020 growth rate indicates a drop of –8.22 per cent points, and a fall of –7.97 per cent points when compared to the first quarter of 2020 (1.87%). Consequently, for the first half of 2020, real GDP declined by –2.18 per cent year on year, compared with 2.11 per cent recorded in the first half of 2019. Quarter on quarter, real GDP decreased by –5.04 per cent. Furthermore, only 13 activities recorded positive real growth compared to 30 in the preceding quarter,” stated the NBS .
