The Senate, at a plenary on Tuesday, passed the 2023 budget of the Nigerian Communications Commission following the presentation by the Committee on Communications.

The lawmaker representing Yobe South, Ibrahim Bomai, who laid and presented the reports, stated that the NCC 2023 budget of N559.080billion was made up of total recurrent expenditure of N86.7billion, capital expenditure of N5.2billion, and special projects of N35billion.

The commission is expected to transfer N416billion out of the projected revenue to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The Senate also passed the Universal Service Provision Fund 2023 budget of N16billion.

It is made up of N2.4billion recurrent expenditure, N124.8billion capital expenditure, and projects expenditure of N13.4billion.

At the committee budget defense to the joint National Assembly, Executive Secretary of Nigeria Communications Commission, Professor Umar Dambatta,  had presented a budget of N559 billion for the 2023 fiscal year.

He explained that the 2023 budget anticipated the deployment of 5G, which would offer greater network flexibility and translate into improved quality of service and quality of experience for consumers. He said these would ultimately lead to an increase in revenue for network operators and the government.