Stakeholders at a workshop in Lagos have called for a comprehensive review of Nigeria's National Telecommunications Policy 2000, citing rapid changes in the digital landscape. The event, hosted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), brought together industry players and policymakers to assess the relevance of the two-decade-old policy. Dr Ernest Ndukwe, former Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, credited President Olusegun Obasanjo with initiating the telecom revolution through the 2000 policy that dismantled the monopoly of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL). Under that framework, the NCC conducted a transparent auction for Digital Mobile Licences in January 2001, opening the sector to private investment.
Ndukwe recalled resistance from some stakeholders who opposed the adoption of GSM technology, advocating instead for CDMA and TDMA. The NCC responded by adopting a Technology Neutrality stance, though all successful bidders—MTN, Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWN), and Glo Mobile—ultimately chose GSM. The policy liberalised the sector, increasing telephone connections from about 500,000 to millions within years. The telecom sector now supports over 120 million connected lines, a sharp rise from the 1,250 lines installed monthly during the pre-liberalisation era.
Paul Usoro (SAN), one of the architects of the 2001 licence auction, attended the review workshop. Ndukwe urged the NCC to consider reviewing the Nigerian Communications Act of 2003 after updating the policy, stressing that regulatory decisions must follow broad stakeholder consultation. He warned against making sectoral decisions in isolation from industry operators. Hadiza Bala Usman, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy and Coordination, noted that telecoms now underpin economic and social activities beyond voice services. She highlighted that high right-of-way fees led to an 85% increase in deployment costs in 2024, contributing to higher consumer prices.
Dr Ernest Ndukwe helped build a telecom system that thrived on openness, yet today's operators face 85% higher costs due to bureaucratic bottlenecks like right-of-way fees. The same government that once removed barriers to competition now allows infrastructure delays that inflate prices for Nigerians. If the 2000 policy was about speed and access, current practices are undoing that legacy. Reviewing old laws means little if existing chokeholds remain untouched.
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