Telecoms sector contributed nine per cent to GDP in Q1

* Adds N15tr to economy since liberalisation
* NCC to review MNOs KPIs on service quality

Nigeria’s telecommunications sector contributed about nine per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in quarter one of 2017. The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, who disclosed this, while giving a report on the sector in Lagos, yesterday, added that since the liberalisation of the industry, it has added about N15 trillion to the economy.

Danbatta, who explained that the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP increased from eight per cent in Q4 of 2016 to nine per cent in the New Year, noted that since his assumption of office as the EVC about 18 months ago, the industry has been adding between N1.43 Trillion and N1.45 Trillion to the economy quarterly.

The NCC EVC admitted that the quality of service offered by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) has not been impressive, he however, said there was a major improvement in the first quarter.

According to him, the continued drop in service quality has really created a huge gap between consumers and the MNOs, “reason for some drop in subscriptions.”

He said the commission will review the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set for the operators to meet, with a resolve that any of the MNOs that failed to meet up will be adequately sanctioned.

Though the Commission was practically silent on when telecommunications services will possibly improve in the country, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, NCC, Sunday Dare, averred that the commission had already read a riot act on poor services, saying that the Q1 2017 KPI results is under review.

Dare said there is no deadline on improving QoS on the part of the operators, “but sanctions are available.” Speaking more on the continuos drop in telephone subscription in the country, the NCC EVC disclosed that the commission discovered that some subscribers are migrating from 3G to 4G/LTE, “so they rather use WhatsApp to communicate and even make free calls. Consumers are moving away from high tariff services to a more cheaper and free services.”