The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that about 36 million redundant lines of subscribers have been withdrawn in the past few months so as to give room for effective management of telecom facilities.
Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta said the lines had to be withdrawn because “we do not have time to allow resources to waste. The intention is to ensure that all resources at our disposal, number resources, spectrum resources are put into god use and benefit of this country”.
Prof. Danbatta who spoke with journalists shortly after declaring open the 84th Edition of Telecom Consumer Parliament at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Conference Centre, Abuja, noted that the NCC would continue to play its regulatory roles for the growth and development of the industry.
He said: “Those are lines that are redundant. We always give statistics about active lines. We have noticed that the teledensity is growing, steadily growing for 6-7 months and has exceeded 150million mark now.
“It is expected of NCC that resources that are not being put into use are withdrawn so that this can in turn be a sign to all operators so that they can put them in good use and activate them.”
Prof. Danbatta also said the NCC was doing everything possible to bridge the 198 telecom access gap which translates to about 40 million people especially those in rural areas not having access to mobile phone usage.
According to him NCC in conjunction with industrial players is deploying a modern technology solution in three locations to tackle the problem headlong instead of following the present mechanism which would take over 20 years to achieve.