REJIGGING THE NATIONAL TELECOM POLICY
The telecom landscape now serves as the backbone of economic and social activities, writes
SONNY ARAGBA-AKPORE Although the National Telecommunications Policy published by the Federal Government in 2000 is considered outdated today, no one can deny that it clearly set a direction for Nigeria’s telecommunications industry. And in what looked like a befitting tribute to President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999–2007), Dr Ernest Ndukwe, who began the implementation of the policy in what has been described as the Nigerian telecom revolution, said Obasanjo opened the floodgates for what we are seeing today. From a paltry total of connected telephone lines of about 500,000, the sector was liberalised and freed from the monopoly enjoyed by the state-owned Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL). The Telecom Policy opened the sector for equal participation by other private companies, thus leading to the provision of telecommunications services we encounter today. Ndukwe was named Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) while Ahmed Joda was appointed Chairman. That was in the year 2000, and with a strong board in place, the power to implement the Telecommunications Policy 2000 was activated. Apart from other guidelines initiated by the NCC, one of the major fallouts of the document was conducting the auction for Digital Mobile Licences (DML) in January 2001.
