By Juliet Umeh

Reminiscing his time at the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC as Executive Vice Chairman, current Chairman, MTN Nigeria, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, lamented the inability of successive Nigerian government have not given telecommunications deserved attention even when they know the sector remains the most powerful enabler of growth.

Ndukwe was only to single out the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, between 1999 and 2007 as one which elevated the fortunes of the sector.

Ndukwe spoke as a guest at the 20 years of telecom revolution in Nigeria, organised by Compact Communications Limited, in Lagos, last week. He extolled the sagacity of Obasanjo’s administration, saying it regarded the Telecom Sector as priority. 

Speaking on the issues that led to the telecom revolution between 2001 and 2011, Ndukwe said all decisions taken by the then administration were proactive and catalysed improvement of the sector. 

He regretted that the telecom sector, as vital as it is to human development and advancement was not given the necessary priority attention it deserved by successive governments since independence.

Ndukwe said: “At independence in 1960, the colonial government bequeathed about 18,724 telephone lines. The population of Nigeria then was put at 42.7million translating to a teledensity of 0.044 percent.

“From then till year 2000, the number of telephone lines actually in use (i.e. active subscriber lines) rose to just about 400,000 lines translating to a national annual growth rate of less than 10,000 lines per annum over the forty-year period from 1960 to 2000. 

“Meanwhile teledensity remained at a dismal 0.4 percent (far below the African average of 1.67 percent) while Nigeria’s population had risen to 120 million.

Why NITEL died

Ndukwe also touched on NITEL, the government-owned operator at the time, and why it collapsed when it was supposed to be the pivot of telecom revolution in the country. He averred that the telco was either unwilling or unable to handle the volume of demand for telecommunication services by the increasing Nigerian population. 

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He said: NITEL’s services, when available, were mostly characterised by low call completion rates,  congestion of trunk lines and exchanges and call billing errors. 

“Nitel also had the problems of poor system maintenance and not making timely investment for network expansion to meet the demand for telecom services.

“There were high incidences of contested bills which subscribers argued they never incurred – some complained of receiving “outrageous” and unbelievable bills even while their phones were disconnected and not in use and unusually high subscription fee for obtaining phone lines.  The waiting time for connection to a Nitel line was as long as two years. In 1999, it was estimated that there were over 10 million people on the waiting list of NITEL who had applied for telephone lines.

“Following the birth of the NCC, several licences were awarded between 1997 and 1999 to some Private Telecom Operators to provide telecom services in various parts of the country. 

“Due to various factors including the fact that Nigeria was under military rule at the time, made the operators unable to make any significant impact in the sector. Many of the PTOs neither had the funds nor necessary wherewithal to roll out networks on an appreciable scale. Those that succeeded in rolling out some networks were only limited to Lagos and a few of the major cities in the country,” he noted.

Also speaking, EVC NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said two decades after, the sector has witnessed significant and phenomenal growth in terms of level of access to voice and data services and has become an enabler of growth in other sectors of the country.

He said: “It is, therefore, exciting that, as of September 2021, the number of active mobile subscriptions in the nation’s telecoms sector stood at 190.8 million with teledensity rising from less than one per cent, 20 years ago, to 99.9per cent currently.

“Also, from ground zero in 2001, Internet subscriptions have risen to 140.2 million as of August, 2021 while actual broadband penetration is now standing at 41 per cent.

 “The broadband penetration is equivalent of 78.3 million subscriptions on the Third Generation (3G) and Fourth generations (4G) mobile networks in the country.”

Vanguard News Nigeria