Settle N70bn interconnect debts, NCC tells telecom operators

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, has urged telecom operators in the country to settle the huge interconnect debts owed to other networks.

Danbatta said this should be resolved in the wider interest of the telecommunications industry.

He said the “interconnectivity indebtedness valued at over N70 billion is a big challenge to infrastructure expansion and inimical to healthy competition”.

Speaking at an industry event on Thursday in Abuja, he said, “We have licensed infrastructure companies; we have introduced innovative policies such as spectrum trading and spectrum farming; broadband penetration has increased from six percent to 43.3 percent in the last five years.

“Also, from eight percent in 2015, the telecoms sector contributed over 14 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product as in the second quarter of 2020, valued at N2.3 trillion.”