Driving telecoms sector growth through strategic vision plan

Nigeria’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, no doubt, has the potential and capacity to transform the Nigerian economy and make it competitive, especially as countries take competition to the digital space.

Strategic Vision Plan   
The NCC launched the Strategic Vision Plan (SVP) 2021- 2025 to reinvent and transform the telecoms ecosystem in the country. The SVP 2021-2025 has five-point agendas which are: Organisational renewal for operational efficiency and regulatory excellence; Facilitating the provision of infrastructure for a digital economy, which fosters national development; Promoting fair competition, inclusive growth, increased investment, innovative services and improve quality of service (QoS) for enhanced consumer quality of experience (QoE), and Facilitating strategic collaboration and partnership
     
Speaking at the occasion held in Abuja, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Commission, Danbatta, said “the five key elements of the SVP (2021-2025) have also been carefully considered and aligned with the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025); the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), 2020-2030; the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector, Revised National Identity Policy For SIM Card Registration, among others.
   
Assessing the impact of the SVP in the telecom sector, the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, said the SVP for 2015-2020, which focused on the eight-point agenda of the commission, had significant improvement on the growth of the sector, with a high sector contribution to national GDP.
     
According to him, the implementation facilitated broadband penetration growth from less than 18 per cent in 2015 to 45.02 per cent penetration level as at December 2020 and currently at 48.2 per cent with some 92 million having access to the service.
     
He said within the same period, there was improvement in service quality offered by operators and that the sector witnessed optimised usage and benefits of spectrum, ICT innovation and investment opportunities. He said the implementation within the period also facilitated strategic collaboration and partnership, empowered and protected consumers, enhanced fair competition and inclusive growth, as well as ensured regulatory excellence and operational efficiency.
  
One important aspect of the current SVP is the implementation metrics put in the place, which provides for tasks to be done and the timelines under which they should be carried out.

Impact on service quality and cost
Relatively, there has been some succor on service quality since the unveiling of the SVP. The SVP, which has helped beam search light on activities of telecoms operators through  the monitoring of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
    
With services largely through the 3G and 4G networks in the country, operators have been kept on their toes to ensure quality. Telcos found wanting have been sanctioned. It is believed that quality of service has also impacted cost of services.
   
Arguably, various reports have revealed reduction in data by over 75 per cent from $11.15 in mid-2014 to $2.78 at the end of 2019.” The average cost of data now has come down to around N500 from N1000 per Gigabyte, considering the fact that most operators now offer 2GB of data for N1000 or below.

But, according to a telecoms expert, Kehinde Aluko, as much as some of these policies have been impactful on the sector, there are still huge gaps.
 
InfraCos project to deepen broadband penetration
Currently under review, experts believe that if fully implemented, InfraCos project has capacity to help drive the country’s 70 per cent broadband target by 2025.

Spectrum Revenue generation for Government
NCC was the first telecoms regulator to embark on trial of 5G technology in West Africa. After a rigorous process, the NCC conducted the auction of 3.5Ghz spectrum to deploy 5G network in December 2021 where MTN and Mafab Communications emerged as the winners.  From the auction, the NCC raked in over $500 million, which was remitted into the FG’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), as prescribed by law.
   
On September 18, 2022, MTN held a commercial launch of its 5G services in Lagos. This is in addition to the revenue earlier generated by the Commission between 2015 and early 2020, wherein the Commission had remitted N344.71 billion to Federal Government’s CRF from spectrum fees and operating surplus. The NCC has equally licensed Airtel to provide 5G service.

Challenges remain
Despite these achievements, the sector still needs more intervention. For instance, Tier 2 operators have called for fair treatment from both government and bigger players.
  
The Managing Director, Infratel Africa, Tunji Alabi, said the firm plays in the rural telephony/colocation market, and like others, is at a disadvantage due to the increased cost of deployment without any significant increase in the revenue sharing formula.
 
Alabi said in most cases, the Tier 1 operators get a larger share of the revenue despite the minimal investment and risk acceptance by them. He said an increase in the cost of diesel had a massive impact in the operations of the Tier 2 colocation operators as the MNOs refused an increase in the pricing for collocation, stressing, “most Tier 2 players have been forced to absorb this cost.”

“Government-regulated voice and data tariff, which has not changed in over 15 years despite the increase in cost of money/cost of borrowing and increase in the cost of diesel without any increase in the pricing for colocation is also a challenge. This cost increase was absorbed by the Tier 2 operators.”

Going forward
Aluko said deploying IT solutions to measure QoS and QoE is one such approach that can give service providers the necessary edge they need to hedge against some industry challenges

He said QoE has nowadays become one of the most important factors for subscribers while choosing an operator. Aluko, who said by using these solutions, operators can gather specific information on the call and data traffic, specific to area and timings to ensure even improvement in service quality.
  
While calling on NCC to ensure the industry remains afloat, said:  “MNOs should differentiate themselves through business intelligence, gained from deploying QoE and QoS solutions to better pre-empt their subscribers’ needs, build brand loyalty and upsell their products. Smart business intelligence allows MNOs to add features and services that can be leveraged for enhanced performance, increased uptime and exclusive content.”