Telecoms sector adds 1.3% to GDP in two years

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Telecommunication mast

NCC targets sector’s growth with Code of Corporate Governance

Telecommunications sector contributed 1.3 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between 2015 and now.According to the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umaru Danbatta, the sector continues to contribute incrementally to the GDP of the nation, which currently stands at 9.8 per cent notwithstanding the impact of recession on investment flows.

He said the figure is against the 8.5 per cent recorded in 2015 and less than 1.00 per cent in 2001.The implication of this is that the sector continues to grow despite the several economic challenges facing the economy, and can attract further investments.
  
Danbatta, spoke in Lagos, at the Workshop on Code of Corporate Governance in the Telecommunications Sector. He said factoring in direct and indirect investment in the telecoms sector over the last 16 years, it has pulled in investment of over $68 billion and “when the GDP impact of these local and FDI are factored in, the contribution of the sector would even be higher than stated.”
  
Checks also showed that within the last 16 years, the country’s telephone lines increased from a meager 400,000 offered by Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) to 236 million connected lines of which about 147 million are active.Danbatta posited that to sustain the growth and contributions of the sector to the economy, it must be properly regulated.
  
According to the NCC EVC, the sector has been showing sterling performance due to the quality of regulatory oversight provided by the commission. He said sustaining the improvement in standards of international best practices will ensure that the sector is strongly positioned to play the facilitator or enabler role, which it has come to represent in the contemporary world economic ecosystem.
  
“As technology trends emerge to disrupt traditional economic order the sector must leverage strength to provide the backbone needed to ride the storm of the disruption on that evolution. All sectors of every national economy have become dependencies on Telecommunications and ICT, and failure in the sector would have far reaching negative ramifications and thus the onus is on the sector to build capacity to lead effectively,” he stated.  
  
Danbatta recalled that in the last 16 years of the telecoms revolutions, many operators have fallen by the way side, largely owing to internal management issues than from technical challenges.

He stressed that as migrate more towards knowledge economy and higher level economy Infrastructure dependency on Internet and ICT support services it would no longer be desirable for such collapses to occur hence the need to sensitise operators on those observed poor corporate governance practices, which had contributed to failures in the past.

To the Chairman, NCC Board, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, the Corporate Goverance Code, will go a long way to strengthen sector’s investments.Durojaiye noted that the main purpose of corporate governance is to facilitate effective, entrepreneurial and prudent management that can deliver the strategic objectives of the organization using the systems, policies and procedures.
  
He said a governance operating model is the mechanism used by the Board and Management to translate the elements of the governance framework and policies into practice, procedures and job responsibilities with each organization.
  
According to him, the traits of good Corporate Governance would include hardwork; discipline, transparency, accountability, integrity and reputational risk, independence, fairness and corporate social responsibility.
  
Durojaiye, in his welcome address, the move is in line with the Federal Government Change mantra and the ease of doing business drive and is like the African leaders peer view mechanism and it is expected that the industry reaches a self-regulatory phase in the nearest future.
   
“The recent, rather unacceptable, events in the industry have also brought to the fore the need for Board Corporate governance and the commission has resolved to improve Economic Regulatory compliance and adherence to the Code of Corporate Goverance. As it is said, ‘once beaten is twice shy’,” he stated.