Licensing Mobile Virtual Network Operators and the continued rollout of Fifth Generation (5G) networks across the country is in a bid to offer telecommunication services to the 27 million Nigerians without access to telecoms, the Nigerian Communications Commission has said.
The commission said the number of Nigerians without access to telecommunication services fell by 37.04 per cent to 27 million in 2022. It said this is as the number of identified areas of clusters across the country without access to telecoms fell to 53.1 per cent as of the end of 2022.
This was disclosed by the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta at a recent telecoms industry stakeholders forum in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state.
The EVC of the commission, who was represented at the forum by the Head, Pre-Licensing at the Commission, Usman Mamman, said, the number of clusters with access gaps has declined from 207 in 2013 to 97 as of 2022.
Danbatta said, “We have worked tirelessly to ensure we bring telecom services to people living in rural, unserved, and underserved areas of this country, totalling 37 million people courtesy of the consultancy that was conducted in 2013.”
He stated that the deployment of infrastructure in these areas resulted in the reduction of the telecoms gap. He added, “By 2022, we have reduced the clusters of access gaps to 97 from 207 in 2013. The number of Nigerians again has come down from 37 million in 2013 to 27 million as we speak.