Between 2013
and now, no fewer than 92 internet service providers (ISPs) have closed shop in
Nigeria. The development is being linked to a number of reasons, including the
unfriendly economy and business environment as well as unhealthy competition
among Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
Speaking
yesterday in Lagos at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)-organised
Stakeholders’ Forum on ISPs, the Director of Licensing and Authorisation,
Funlola Akiode, noted that the remaining internet providers had failed to renew
their licences.
She
disclosed that in the past five years, the commission had licensed 103 ISPs,
adding, “but only 10 per cent have applied for renewal of the licence. That is
one of the reasons why we are here, to find out if and why about 90 per cent of
our ISPs are out of businesses, and why some ISPs have not rolled out services
in accordance with the conditions of their licences.”
According to
her, as a responsible regulator, the sustainability of ISPs in
telecommunications businesses was a primary interest.
Admitting
that Nigeria still has a lot to do in terms of making internet accessible and
affordable, Akiode noted that despite the fact that over 70 per cent of the
country’s population are active mobile subscribers, the digital divide still
remains very wide.
She said the
commission has not lost sight of the critical position it occupies in guiding
the growth of the industry through robust, fair, transparent and participatory
processes where compliance, to extant rules of the game, is religiously upheld.
Akiode
revealed that current statistics indicate that Nigeria has the highest of
internet users across Africa. “It may interest you to know that Nigeria
however, tends to be the lowest when measures in accordance with the
penetration rate. For instance, the penetration of 48.4 million when compared
with Nigeria’s population is just 0.3 per cent or 34 per cent, while our population
is increasing in a geometric progression, the Internet usage and penetration
rates are increasing in arithmetic progression.”
In his
remarks, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, Sunday Dare,
acknowledged that the larger telecommunications industry is beset with numerous
challenges such as power, accessibility of foreign exchange, multiple
taxation/regulation, infrastructure vandalism as well as high cost and long
delays in obtaining permits, among others.
A
representative of the ISPs, Wavetek, Adeola Ogunbodede, listed two practical
problems accounting for their closure of business. He named them as lack of
capital and slow processing of licenses by the regulator.
0 Comments