The paper Monday quoted the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Commun ications Commission (NCC), Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, as saying during the just-concluded International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Geneva, Switzerland,
that the massive investments recorded in the sector since 2001 was due to the deregulation policy of governments and a predictive regulatory environment.
'Government invitation to the private sector for participation in the industry paid off and led to the current success stories. This tells me that the decision to liberalise the sector by the government was a very good one,' Ndukwe said.
The present investments figure comprises about US$12 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), while the balance is from investments made from within the country since 2001.
Experts said Nigeriaâ?s Telecommunication sector is the fastest and largest growing in Africa, with a total of 68 million telephone lines, from just some few hundreds of thousands eight years ago.
Ndukwe said notwithstanding current success, efforts were on to improve connectivity through such programmes at the Wire Nigeria Initiative to ensure that the country is fully connected with Optics Fibre Cable.
'Henceforth, issues of quality of service and affordability and the like are becoming the focus of the regulator in line with the dynamics of the market,'' Ndukwe said.
Lagos - 12/10/2009
Pana
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