ALTON @20: Nigeria telecom sector records over $68bn Foreign Direct Investment.

….as association move to celebrate industry achievements

To commensurate its 20 years Anniversary, the Association of Licenced Telecommunication Organisation of Nigeria (ALTON) has moved to celebrate the achievements and milestones recorded in Nigeria telecom industry so far.

Rolling out the achievements yesterday at a press conference in Lagos, the Chairman of ALTON, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo noted that 20 years after the liberalization of the telecom sector in Nigeria, the section has attracted over $68 billion Foreign Direct Investment and contributed over N15 trillion to Nigeria economy.

Speaking on this, Adebayo said the country has moved from one cellular mobile network with limited coverage and 26,500 connected lines to 4 GSM operators, 2 VoIP operators, 4 Fixed Wired operators with 172.9mn mobile subscriptions & teledensity at 123.5 percent.

“After 20 years, Nigeria boasts of over N15trn contribution to its economy, over 123mn internet subscriptions across various technology platforms (e.g. VoIP, GSM & Fixed Wired), sector contribution to GDP at 11.4 percent and over USD68bn Foreign Direct Investment. This is worth celebrating,” he said.

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He added that Nigeria is today Africa’s largest telecoms market in terms of subscriptions, stressing that beyond growth in sheer numerical terms, telecoms have evolved from being a sparsely-available public utility to becoming a ‘social overhead capital’.

As part of the milestones, Adebayo listed that the year 1999 saw the Publication of the initial Nigerian Policy on Telecommunications

“2000; Inauguration of telecoms sector reform implementation committee& issuance of finalized telecoms Policy.
• 2000; Appointment of New Executive Management & Board for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
• 2001: Successful completion of Digital Mobile License (DML) & spectrum licensing process  – initial issuance of 3 Licenses to CIL, Econet Wireless & MTN
• 2003: Enactment of the Nigerian Communications Act (repealing the 1992 Act, reforming the NCC & establishing the NFMC and USPF)
• 2006: Successful completion of Unified Access Service & 3G spectrum licensing process- initial issuance of 4 Licenses to Alheri, MTN , Celtel & Glo
• 2007: Issuance of 3G spectrum & launch of high-speed data services
• 2010: NCC issues infrastructure sharing & collocation service licences
• 2013: Issuance of National Broadband Plan by the NCC
• 2015: NCC announces issuance of 6 infraco licenses for provision of metro fibre and transmission services
• 2015: Commencement of  issuance of VAS (content) provision licences by the NCC
• 2016: First commercial deployments of 4G/LTE services
• 2019: Field trial of 5G.

The ALTON 20-Anniversary and award ceremony is billed to hold tomorrow in Lagos. The umbrella body of all licenced telecom operators in Nigeria will honour all those who have contributed to the growth of the sector.