Massive international bandwidth capacity emanating from four undersea cable system lying on the shores of the country are yet to be exploited, says Segun Ogunsanya, chief executive officer at Airtel Nigeria.
According to him, this enormous bandwidth capacity will provide a myriad opportunities to domestic and international investors to take advantage of the growing broadband and data industry.
Ogunsanya who was speaking last week at the BusinessDay CEO’s Forum held in Lagos, however, noted that critical issues must be urgently resolved for the Nigerian telecommunications industry to reach its full market potential.
He listed these issues to include frequency spectrum availability and adequacy, government’s commitment to the National Broadband Plan (NBP), tackling the monster of multiple-taxation, reliable and cost-effective power supply, protection of telecoms infrastructure from vandalism and resolving restrictions on telco activity in mobile money.
Speaking on spectrum availability, the Airtel CEO stated that due to explosive growth in mobile data traffic, operators require more spectrum to support this growth. Although he commended the NCC for making inroads towards spectrum availability and adequacy, he noted that there is an urgent need to expedite the release/award of frequency to operators as this will facilitate industry development.
Ogunsanya also decried the incident of multiple-taxation, disclosing that revenue loss from idle or shut down base stations represent the main source of negative impact of multiple taxation and network vandalism for the industry. 2 percent to 3 percent of Nigeria’s sites are affected by arbitrary shutdown and vandalism at any given point in time.
According to him, it is estimated that increased operating costs and lost revenue costs around N9bn each year to the telecoms industry or about N20bn if most of the arbitrary fees in some key states are upheld.
He, therefore, called on the government to unify taxes under one code and also bring to book vandals who deliberately destroy telecoms infrastructure.
Commenting on the immediate implementation of the National Broadband Plan (NBP), the Airtel CEO said achieving the NBP will require possibly up to 50 percent more than the $3bn – $4bn Nigerian operators have been spending on CAPEX annually, an increment that would need to be justified by a material change in operating conditions that would improve investment confidence.
He also noted that for the incoming government to succeed, it must show commitment to its anti-corruption campaign by ensuring the right leadership for critical sectors are put in place; develop and implement a robust economic blueprint showing key milestones and timelines and reorganise the public sector so that it becomes more efficient, effective and productive.
Ben Uzor
