Senate Laments Poor Broadband Services

The Senate yesterday described as worrisome, the poor access of Nigerians to broadband internet services despite the number of undersea cables running across the country and the huge investment channeled into the project.

Senator Gilbert Nnaji, chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, made the observation when Dr. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, led the management team of his agency to defend its 2015 budget proposal.

Nnaji noted with concern that the country finished year 2014 with just 8 percent penetration into the broadband services after stagnating at 6 percent between 2011 and 2013.

He said the directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the telecommunications operators to source foreign exchange only through the interbank has constrained their efficiency level and hampered their expansionary drive with its attendant effect on quality of services.

The senator noted that there was a remarkable improvement on capital project proposal of N21.1bn in 2015 compared to N15bn in 2014.

He, however said, “this cannot be said of the total amount proposed for special projects which is N2.1bn in 2015 as opposed to N3.4 bn in 2014.”

“In other words, while there is a greater emphasis on capital project in 2015 as against 2014, special projects in 2015 do not appear to enjoy the same attention,” He added.

Nnaji promised that his committee would look critically into the issue of the State Accelerated Broad Band Initiative, which falls under special project.

He wondered how the commission would carry out its task when it has a significant role in assisting the private sector to build and run a broadband infrastructure in all state capitals and selected major cities across the country, when budget proposal for special duties was reduced.

The NCC boss in his submission explained that the federal agency was planning to propose a bill before the National Assembly with a view to tackling the challenges in the sectors.

Juwah said, “We have in conjunction with the National Assembly, plan a bill on Telecom Critical Infrastructure which we hope will be presented to the two chambers and be given accelerated hearing.

“We hope that most likely it will be in the interest of telecom members and this committee in particular, if this bill is passed during this parliamentary session.

“This bill will deal with vandalism of telecommunication infrastructure and fibre cuts due to road networks, shutting off of services by state governments, planning permit restrictions, right of ways restrictions.

“We hope that if this bill is passed as federal legislation, all these problems will be reduced and there will be a remarkable improvement in the quality of service.

Juwah added that the agency’s broadband initiative had started and already awarded two licences, one for Lagos and one for North Central including Abuja.

He said, “These are licenses for the provision of metropolitan fibre network.”

He added that the problem of the allocation was that the agency does not get its budget passed on time.

The NCC boss said, “We have accrued money since this project started from the last budget. We have looked at our budget requirement and as the project is ongoing, we feel that we have enough funds to cover the project.”