NCC after Ndukwe and emerging challenges for the new regulator
By Martin Ekpeke
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
Engr. Ernest Ndukwe could not have wished for a better parting gift
days before he finally retired from the regulatory body he had led
for 10 years and served two terms.
The court passed judgment asserting the powers of the regulator to
conduct frequency auction and ruled that any interference from any
outside body including its supervisory ministry, the Federal
Ministry of Information and Communications, would constitute an
illegal act under the enabling law that set up the NCC.
Months earlier the Commission had its auction exercise in which it
granted Mobitel Limited a license that will enable it to provide
wireless broadband services canceled by the Minister of Information
and Communications, Dora Akunyili . The minister had alleged that
the exercise lacked transparency. Mobitel sued the commission and
the former Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Akunyili,
after its license had been canceled. It won judgment in its favour
which also asserted the independence of the NCC.
Prof Akunyili’s action would raise the first major question over the
integrity of Ndukwe as a regulator and also pose the first test to
the much-touted independence of the NCC. Both Ndukwe and the NCC
were vindicated by the court judgment.
Now that Ndukwe is out of office, expectations are high on what the
new leadership of the commission can do to improve on his
achievements. Holding forth in acting capacity is Engr. Stephen
Bello. He is the most senior officer at the commission.
In his 10 years in office, Ndukwe brought a sense of assertiveness,
openness and guided direction once unknown in the sector. He won
global admiration and respect for himself and the Commission which
he effectively positioned as one of the most dynamic on the
continent. In January 2001, Ndukwe would conduct a digital mobile
licence auction that would win global acclamation for its
transparency. The auction exercise would ignite competition in the
once tedious telecom sector of less than 500, 000 active phone
lines.
By the time he would be leaving office in April 2010, he was leaving
behind a sector of over 75 million active subscribers with sectoral
investment hovering over $30 billion. He had brought in more vim
than was expected and more players than anticipated straddling every
part of the sector from the mobile sub-sector, the Internet
sub-sector, infrastructure sub-sector to the application service
sub-sector. The sector had a 360 degree change.
Under Ndukwe, mobile penetration had a yearly increase of 10% in
2001 to 48.7% in 2009. Private sector participation in the telecom
industry helped to make the market more attractive and strong enough
to win the confidence of international investors.
If the Ndukwe years brought aggressive competition and rapid uptake
of mobile telephony, it witnessed the decline of fixed lines
(landlines) to raise questions on the authenticity of Nigeria’s
telephony status. Fixed is costly to deploy but it ultimately knocks
down the cost of telephony unlike the more premium mobile services.
It is expected that a new regulator will focus on getting operators
licensed to provide landline services to fulfill the obligations of
their licences.
A new regulator would definitely also square up to the challenges
posed by poor quality of services that tended to portray the NCC as
conspiring with network owners to cheat subscribers of good quality
service. A new NCC boss would certainly focus on expanding broadband
and data services in the country which is relatively new. This is
the next wave of growth that is expected in the industry.
For the new regulator, antitrust is already lurking waiting for the
first test to prove which direction the NCC would go in safeguarding
the interest of small operators from big operators that could bully
their way through anti-competitive behaviour leaving smaller
operators flat on their back.
