Telecommunications
Structure and Policy
The Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC) was established by government decree no. 75 in 1992 to regulate the
telecommunications industry, to ensure the provision of adequate, effective and efficient
telecommunications service nationwide at affordable price and to provide local and
international telecommunications information service. The objectives of the NCC are
defined as follows in the Communications
Acts:
- to create a regulatory environment
for the supply of telecommunications services and to promote fair competition and
efficient market conduct;
- to facilitate the entry into markets
of vaule-added services operators;
- to ensure that licensees or
authorised carriers and other providers of telecommunications services and infrastructure
meet their commercial obligations and such other obligations specified under this decree
in a manner which promotes co-operation and fairness;
- to protect licensees and the public
from unfair conduct of other providers of telecommunications services, with regard to the
quality of service and to the payment of tariffs;
- to ensure that licensees achieve the
highest level of accountability and responsiveness to customer and community needs;
- to ensure that standard telephones
services are supplied as efficiently and economically as possible and at such performance
standards which reasonably meet the social, industrial, and commercial needs of the
community;
- to promote the development of other
sectors of the Nigerian economy through the commercial supply of modern telecommunications
services within the framework of this Decree;
- to establish technical standards and
promote the development of Nigeria's telecommunications capabilities, industries and
skills;
- to ensure that the Nigerian public
have growing access to telecommunications facilities; and
- to optimise the use of
telecommunications facilities in Nigeria with due consideration for the rights of the
licensees and the public interest.
NCC has
conducted a study on the telecommunications industry and published a document entitled
"Investment opportunities in the Nigerian telecommunications sector" and it has
so far awarded 130 licences for paging, VANs VSAT services, cabling, public payphones,
mobile telephone operators, terminal equipment and private network links.
In January 1985, the erstwhile
Post and Telecommunications Department was split into Postal Division and
Telecommunications Division. The latter was merged with the Nigerian External
Telecommunications Limited (NET) to form the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited
(NITEL), a limited liability company, while the Postal Division was reconstituted
into another organisation called the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST). The main objective
of NITEL Ltd. was to harmonize the planning and coordination of the internal and external
telecommunications services, rationalise investments in telecommunications development,
and provide easy-access, efficient and cost-effective services to the nation. NITEL is
100% government-owned and the government announced in the 1998 federal budget its
intention to privatise NITEL.
The government approved in September
1997 that a second national telecommunications carrier be appointed to provide
competition in the long distance and international services. The policy, regulatory
and roll-out objectives are being worked out by the Ministry of Communications and the
Nigerian Communications Commission.
Other Market players:
Motophone (Nigeria) Limited,
an independent company with Nigerian shareholding, was licensed at the end of 1997 to
provide international VSAT hub service in competition to NITEL.
Business Network Services
(BIZNET), a joint venture of Spar Aerospace (Canada/Nigeria) and NITEL, has VSAT
earth station in Lagos.
There are two mobile cellular
telephony networks by Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and Mobile
Telecommunication Services Limited (MTS). The cellular mobile network by NITEL
covers three areas of the country, Lagos, Enugu and Abuja, with a capacity of 10,000
lines. There is only one Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) in each area. MTS Ltd. operates a
5,000 cellular line capacity network based in Victoria land, Lagos.
Nigerian Communications Commission has
issued a number of operating licences for GSM and AMPS cellular services. These are
expected to be operational in 1999.
Fixed wireless networking is an
important market segment which has been liberalised, with the following licensed major
operators in 1997:
1) Multi-links with
50,000 digital lines capacity;
2) EM-International Systems Limited (EMIS) with 100,000 digital
lines capacity in Lagos only;
3) Intercellular Nigeria Ltd. with 10,000 access lines in cell
sites in Lagos;
In 1998, the Ministry of
Communications produced a National Policy on Telecommunications that would ensure an
orderly and efficient development process of the telecommunications infrastructure. The
National Telecommunications Policy has set the strategies and guidelines for the
modernization, expansion and improvement of the telecommunications networks and services
so that the industry's impact and contribution to national development shall be enhanced
to make Nigeria a leading country in Africa.
The policy document defined four
broad categories of policy objectives:
- Long-term Macro Objectives
To enhance national development
through increased interaction and integration of Nigeria's socio-economic and political
factors.
Short/Medium-term Macro
Objectives
To provide the basic
telecommunications service requirements of the commercial and industrial sectors of the
economy and to commence sector-specific application of telecommunications services in the
health, educational, agricultural, safety and public administration sectors of the
economy.
Medium-term Micro
Objectives
To design and implement network development projects
that will yield a minimum of 2 million lines and associated facilities in order to achieve
a teledensity of 1.5 per 100 inhabitants by the year 2005;
To ensure that telephone facilities are brought to
within 5 km distance from any community;
To adopt the techniques of manufacturing network
components and spares; and
To set the conditions that will attract investors
and experts to achieve the objectives in (ii) and (iii) above.
Short-term Micro Objectives
To implement network development projects which will
involve the provision of services in urban and rural areas at the minimum rate of about
13.5% growth rate per annum from the year 1996, such that 10% of rural communities are
serviced in the short-term, 30% in the medium-term and 60% in the long-term time frames;
To implement network development projects which will
provide associated facilities to enhance the performance of the national network;
To link the award of contracts for network
development projects to the establishment of local manufacture of network spares and
components;
To seek for Government's approval of appropriate
incentives to include, but not limited to, Customs and Excise Duty reduction and Tax
Holiday for telecommunications Research and Development (R&D) and other
telecommunications facilities.
To enhance the participation of service providers in
the following telecommunications undertakings:
- The Community Telephone
- Sales and Installation of Equipment
- Repair and Maintenance of Equipment
- Value-Added Services
- Corporate Networks
- Cabling
- Computer Networking
- To establish a Telecommunications
Development Fund (TDF) which will operate as an industrial development bank and
provide financial support to telecommunications projects in Nigeria;
- To promote indigenous expertise in
telecommunications by establishing a National Institute of Telecommunications
(NIT), and encouraging private sector initiatives in manpower training and
development;
- To participate effectively in international
activities in order to promote telecommunications development in Nigeria, meet the
country's international obligations and other activities of the international community;
- To establish a National Frequency Management
Advisory Board (NFMAB) as an arm of the Ministry of Communications, with
responsibility for the planning, co-ordination, allocation, assignment, registration and
monitoring of the radio frequency spectrum, to the satisfaction of the diverse user groups
in the country, bearing in mind technological evolutions as well as international
standards, regulations and obligations.
The policy document elaborates on the following
major "policy recommendations":
- The Federal Government of Nigeria shall ensure the
establishment of a Telecommunications Development Fund (TDF) which shall
operate as an Industrial Development Bank (IBD) to provide funds to finance
telecommunications projects in the country.
- The Federal Government of Nigeria shall ensure that
the telecommunications development follow world-wide trend in the establishment of digital
or any other technology while gradually phasing out the existing analogue systems.
Appropriate and affordable technology shall be adopted to ensure an uniform growth rate
and penetration of rural telecommunications services. Effort shall be made to promote
indigenous design and production capability and local manufacture of a substantial amount
of the components as well as sub-systems used in the telecommunications services.
- A National Institute of Telecommunications
(NIT) shall be established to provide the necessary high-level manpower and to
serve as a research and telecommunications development centre.
- The Federal Government of Nigeria shall promote
Research and Development (R&D), both basic and applied research, relating to the
telecommunications industry, by extending the educational policy of government to cover
R&D in science, electronics, telecommunications, computer and information technology.
Telecommunications operating and regulating bodies shall be encouraged to set up R&D
centres.
- The Federal Government of Nigeria will continue to
support effective use of satellite systems for national coverage and international
connections. It shall collaborate with other African countries to establish and manage the
African Regional Satellite Communication (RASCOM) system or any other satellite system for
national and international traffic. The acquisition of a national satellite communication
technology and system shall be a long-term goal.
In line with recent Federal
Government objective of expanding the Telecommunications Network in Nigeria, a 2-Day
International Seminar from 21-22 July 1999 was organized by the Ministry of Communication
to review the existing telecommunications policy in line with the global liberalization
and de-regulation of the telecommunications industry.
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ICT
Networking Development
The National Center for Technology
Management (NACATEM) at the Obafemi Awolowo University and the Yaba
College of Technology are the two major institutions involved in internetworking.
There are also a number of networking initiatives
in the country to interconnect all the research and academic sector. The National
Universities Council (NUC) has been supervising and coordinating the activities
of all universities in Nigeria. It has recently launched the National
Universities Network (NUNet) programme to connect all the universities in a
national academic network. The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), which has a
statutory responsibility for ensuring standards of education in polytechnics and technical
colleges, has also a plan to interconnect all the technical academic institutions.
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ICT Partners and
Projects
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