The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is to audit the revenues accruing to telecommunication operators in the country in order to ensure that they are remitting the correct amounts to the regulatory agency, according to Prof. Umaru Danbatta, executive vice chairman (EVC) of the NCC.
Danbatta who stated this when he hosted Mr. Adebayo Shittu, minister of Communications who paid a working visit to the agency in Abuja on Wednesday, said that it had become necessary to probe the revenues accruing to the companies in order to ensure that they were not cheating the government.
Telecommunications operators remit 2.5 per cent of their revenues to the NCC as annual operating levy.
Out of this amount, 40 per cent is reserved for the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) (to bridge the gap in un-served and underserved communities), while 60 per cent is used for running the commission.
According to him, three consulting companies have been pencilled down for the job to ascertain the revenues accruing to the companies and how much should come to the NCC as annual operating levy.
“We have established a need to check whether the NCC is being short-changed or not,” he said.
Danbatta said that 40 million Nigerians had not been reached by telecommunications signals, adding that the NCC had identified 207 gaps across the country that needed the intervention of the regulatory agency to ensure that services were extended to the communities.
He also stated that the NCC had recently developed three new regulatory frameworks, one of which had been used for licensing two infrastructure companies.
The NCC boss said the commission had also identified that Nigeria was paying too high for terminating calls in other countries and added that measures would be taken to correct this trend, which also sees Nigerian operators receive little or nothing for terminating foreign calls.
Danbatta also pleaded with the government to consider the entire industry in the new Communications Tax Bill that is before the National Assembly.
Shittu had earlier told the NCC boss that there was a need to do something about the poor quality of services obtainable in the country.
The minister said, “It must be noted that Nigerians are complaining. Even me as the Minister of Communications, I receive unsolicited messages and calls. When you complain, they will ask you to press something to discontinue; and even when you do that, they will still continue to charge you. This is very wrong.
“Also, the issue of dropped calls is still very rampant across the country and nobody is excluded from this. We must do something to stop this because if we do not, the Nigerian people will see us as failures who are not capable of protecting their interests.” Agency report.
