Emma Okonji
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms regulatory body, has said in the last two years, it remitted a total sum of N133,426,062,786 to the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government.
Although the primary role of NCC is not to generate revenue for the government, but to nurture and regulate the industry, but figures obtained from the commission show impressive remittance of funds to the coffers of the consolidated revenue of the federal government, especially in the last two years.
According to the commission, the last remittance to the consolidated revenue fund, which was on June 30, 2017, was N12,705,154,120 and it came just less than 10 days after the NCC remitted the sum of N1,282,453,138 to the account.
In the same vein, the NCC last year, transferred N20,000,598,873 and another N15,000,000,000 in March before remitting N29,475,867,407 and N16,500,000,000 in December of the 2016.
In 2015, however, the commission remitted N23,512,316,450 in October after paying N6,856,182,132 in September of the same year.
The quarterly contribution of telecoms sector to the GDP has been consistently impressive in the last two years.
The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, recently said the sector contributed N1.549 trillion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2017, representing 6.68 per cent increase from the first quarter of the year (N1.452 trillion).
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report has confirmed that the telecommunications sector, during the second quarter of 2017, contributed 9.5 per cent to the GDP in contrast to 9.1 per cent contribution in the first quarter of the year.
“We are very proud of the remarkable contribution the sector is making. Even at the recent times when the whole economy was facing challenges, the sector had remained resilient and stable,†NBS said in a statement.
Similarly, the nation’s quest for attainment of 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018, has received a major boost as ITU-UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development confirmed last year announced that Nigeria had achieved 21 per cent level of penetration from less than 10 per cent, two years earlier.
