Mobile Network Operators have appealed to the Federal Government for interventions towards resolving the challenges plaguing the country’s telecommunication industry.
According to them, the challenges include multiple taxation, fibre cuts, unstable power, supply, scarcity of foreign exchange, theft of telecoms equipment and insecurity.
The appeal was made when a delegation of top management of the Nigerian Communications Commission led by its Executive Commission, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, visited the headquarters of MNOs to inspect their technical infrastructure and other facilities during a weeklong exercise in Lagos.
A statement by the NCC’s Director, Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, on Friday, said the essence of the visits was to get first-hand information about MNOs’ operations and verify challenges they might be dealing with in order to make recommendations to appropriate stakeholders towards addressing them.
It said the inspection was part of the NCC’s efforts to ensure operational efficiency and improvement in the regulatory framework in achieving the objectives of the national digital economy and other policy initiatives of the Federal Government.
The commission visited Airtel, 9Mobile, Globacom, MTN and Spectranet, according to the statement.
“MNOs listed areas where increased and more decisive interventions are needed from the commission to include the issues of wilful and inadvertent fibre cuts; theft of telecoms equipment; non-availability and inadequacy of, as well as unstable power supply; multiple taxation and regulations across all the three tiers of government; damages caused undersea cables by marine transportation systems; scarcity and difficulty in accessing foreign exchange; as well as insecurity which has impeded network rollout, especially in some parts of the country,” it said.
