Investments in telecoms hit $68bn in Nigeria

Nigeria’s telecommunica­tions sector attracted $68 billion investment as at July 2016. Of the figure, $35 billion came from Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), the Nigerian Commu­nications Commission (NCC),said in a statement.

NCC Director of Public Af­fairs,  Tony Ojobo, who signed the statement, quoted the imme­diate past Secretary-General of the International Telecommuni­cations Union (ITU), Dr. Ham­adoun Toure, whilst making the revelation at the Nigerian Tele­coms Investment Forum at the just-concluded ITU Telecom World 2016, Bangkok, Thailand.

Toure said that the figures re­corded in Nigeria point to the fact that “the country is certainly a preferred destination for telecommunications investors in Africa.”

He told the audience that Ni­geria is the place to invest because “the population is large, there is political stability and a very ro­bust telecommunications regula­tory regime.”

The event was attended by the Minister of Communica­tions,  Adebayo Shittu, Kadu­na State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman,  Umar Danbatta, members of the Diplomatic Corps, members of the National Assembly, chief executives of agencies under the Ministry of Communications and major telecommunications com­panies from Nigeria and Thailand.

Toure said that within 15 years that Nigeria opened its telecoms sector to the global community, investments had grown from a paltry 400,000 connected lines in 2001 to over 150 million lines and a teledensity of 107%.

“The next growth for voice communication is in Quality of Service. The new oil in Nigeria is Information and Communication technology (ICT) and data trans­mission is the way to go,” the ITU scribe said.

He was particularly excited that while he served as secretary-general of ITU, Nigeria occupied the number one position as the fastest growing telecoms sector for five consecutive years.

Toure said that the NCC has managed regulatory activi­ties transparently, adding that the fact that Nigerian lawmakers were among the audience, underscored the importance the federal Gov­ernment attaches to the sector.

He said he is more Nigeri­an than his native Mali because Nigeria has always led the way, adding “Nigeria should share its experience with other African countries.”

Shittu, who spoke on behalf of President Muhammadu Bu­hari, said since Nigeria was nav­igating from resource-based to knowledge-based economy. “We want to encourage you (investors) to renew your confidence in our country,” he said.