Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed that the country’s phone subscriptions have reached 147 million as at January this year.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, disclosed this during the NCC Special Day at the ongoing 29th Enugu International Trade Fair.
The fair was organised by the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Mines, Industries and Agriculture (ECCIMA).
Danbatta, who was represented by the NCC Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said the country’s social media space had continued to thrive.
“Our statistics continue to show positive movement in the provision of services with internet and phone penetrations standing at over 100 million and 147 million subscribers respectively in January 2018.
“With broadband penetration of 21 per cent, Nigeria’s social media space has continued to thrive and citizens are enjoying access to modern ways of interaction in the cyberspace,” he said.
Danbatta said Nigerians were not left behind with services and innovations that abound in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry.
“It is our commitment to keep the nation abreast of developments in telecommunications industry through innovative and world class regulatory processes,” he said.
He said Commission would soon issue directive to service providers to give 14 days’ window to subscribers to enable them roll over their unused data.
“In other words, this will stop the current practice where subscribers lose unused data even if they fail to renew on the date of the expiration of the current subscription.
“We have already put the service providers on special notice about our current monitoring of user experience relating to poor reception, wrong billings and deductions and will call them to account in due course,” he said.
Earlier, the President of ECCIMA, Mr. Emeka Udeze, said the presence of the Commission at the fair was a well thought out strategy to interact with its various public in the South East.