The Chairman of the National Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Peter Igho, has said that Nigeria is presently the world fastest telecommunications growing country.
Igho, who spoke in Umuahia, Abia State capital, on Monday evening when he led some directors and officers of the NCC, including Emeka Itanyi, on a visit to Governor Theodore Orji to share ideas on how to serve the people better, he said that as at April 2014, Nigeria has 129 million active telephone subscribers with 92 per cent tele-density as against the 0.4 per cent it was while 50 million Nigerians have access to the Internet.
The NCC boss explained that telecommunications contributes 8.5 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and has transformed the way of doing things in the country.
Though he noted that there were complaints against quality of service, he said the NCC was making efforts to address and improve on it, adding however that the challenges are enormous with some beyond the scope of the NCC.
He listed some of these challenges as issue of right of way and multiple taxation by governments at state and local levels that demand one form of tax or another, adding that to increase the quality of service, more Masts were necessary.
The NCC chairman however gave kudos to Abia State governor whom he said has never denied the commission the right of way to install its facilities even as vandalism of facilities has been minimal in the state.
He also said that the NCC emergency communication centre located in Umuahia would soon be completed and commissioned.
Adjudging the NCC to have done and doing well in Abia and Nigeria generally, the governor said that Abia children were becoming more Information Communication Technology (ICT) compliant.
“We have fought multiple taxation and now made the state very conducive for you and others to operate legitimately and to assist your Commission to operate more effectively”, the governor added.
