The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC,  in Abuja,  has declared that any restrictions to deployment of masts and tower across the country by any government agency, state or local government, will negate the efforts of government to attract investments in the sector and will also worsen the quality of services in the telecom industry.

Acting Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, spoke during a courtesy call on the Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey in his office in Abuja to discuss issues relating to the activities of National Environmental Standards and Regulations Agency, NASEREA with respect to towers belonging to the telecom operators in Nigeria.

Mr. Odey had set the tone for amicable resolution of all areas of conflicts when he assured the NCC team of efforts  to harmonize existing regulations for the benefit of sustain a performing sector of the economy while allowing NESREA to carry out its jobs as the police of the environment.

Dr. Gwandu told the audience that the telecoms industry is one industry that has been working in this country and has brought a lot of investments to this country as well as created jobs while promoting different businesses and improving our GDP, and for this reason needs to be spared of interference from various agencies or governments.

“Honourable Minister, equally important to mention is that we cannot have telecom services without putting masts and towers around the country because we don’t have infrastructure in place like other countries, we don’t have fiber and wired lines across the country”, he said.

He said the visit to Mr. Odey, whom he referred father to the Telecoms industry, having worked as Minister of information and Communications, is because he is an advocate of harmonization of these regulations so that government will be seen to be working together in harmony and seen to be promoting those areas that foster investments in Nigeria.

“There have been jitters in the industry and in the investment world for those coming to invest in telecom areas or rather telecommunications generally. Luckily, Our President and the Honourable Minister have been working assiduously and travelling round the world to attract investment to Nigeria. NIPC has been set up purposely to attract investment to Nigeria and they have been working hard and we have been cooperating with them and I can remember the Honourable Minister visiting a lot of countries with us to talk to investors to come and invest in telecoms in Nigeria.

“Honourable Minister, what we want to suggest or rather crave your indulgence is to rather look at the fact that when we mean regulation, it should be across board. If it is a regulation for generator, it should be across board for homes, for businesses and for all concerned. For NEPA, for radio, for TV, all should have the same rules,” he said.

Dr. Gwandu also made clarifications concerning some issues bordering on environmental concerns of these masts and towers raised by the Director General of NESREA, Mrs Benebo Ngeri, who complained that the telecom operators have not complies with the agency’s deadline for conclusion of audit on the environmental impact assessment of these towers.

Dr. Gwandu said that the NCC is in agreement with the issue of health concerns relative to the location of the installation of these masts but that the Commission is working to amend existing regulations to tackle such.
“But if we are talking about health with respect to emission of radiation, this is something that no person can tell you that there is absolute evidence.

The World Health Organization has conducted series of research and there is no conclusive evidence of any impact on human health. It is the non-ionizing emission that is coming from towers and masts and it does not upset molecules in the body. So that means there is no evidence that is conclusive in terms of impact and this is a major issue for the whole world not only for Nigeria.

“So when you say health let us not look at it from that angle, there is no evidence of impact, there has been research but non-conclusive”, he said.

He added that people are investing in telecom because there are clear rules and these rules have been enforce within which they have been working and we have a law that we abide and that the sector has been working and when we begin to have conflicting laws there will be problems.

“Our concern is that is that this regulation we are talking about are targeting telecoms, targeting a sector that works, investors will see it as targeting their investment because government wants to get money out of them and let us not send that message, let us send the message that we will welcome investors to this country to come and invest and we will keep rules on environment, environment specific and not telecom specific”, he said.