SIM audit, communications centres will stem insecurity – NCC

Continuous SIM registration audit and creation of Emergency Communications Centres will curtail incidences of banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has said.

Danabatta, who disclosed this at an interactive session with senior media chiefs from mainstream and online media at the weekend in Abuja, also listed NCC’s regulatory priority areas for the next five years to include facilitating attainment of 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025.

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Danbatta said the diligent implementation of NCC’s Strategic Vision Plan which focused on the 8-Point Agenda had helped to lift broadband penetration from 6 per cent in 2015 to 42.02 per cent by July, 2020.

He said the sector’s contribution to GDP increased from 8.50 per cent in 2015 to 14.30 per cent in the second quarter of 2020.

In financial terms, Danbatta said the Q2 2020 contribution translated to N2.272 trillion.

He noted that when he came on board five years ago, 217 access gap clusters were identified in the country affecting 40 million Nigerians without access to telecoms services.

“But today, we have reduced the access gap clusters to 114 with 15 million of the 40 million digitally excluded Nigerians now having access to telecoms services. We are committed to addressing the remaining access gap clusters, which are areas outside the frontier of economic viability to ensure the remaining 25 million Nigerians have access,” he said.