Abuja – The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu on Tuesday said that the ministry would soon set up a committee to look into the problems being faced by telecom operators.
Shittu said this when Mr Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman, Association of Licenced Telecommunications Operators led members of the association on a visit to Ministry of Communications in Abuja.
According to him, the committee will comprise members of the association, the ministry and representatives of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
“I think the issues are sufficiently critical that I feel we should have a small committee made up of members of your association, members from our ministry and the NCC will have representatives.
“We will look closely into these issues and see the ones we can take to the Federal Executive Council, the National Assembly and see which ones we can address in-house between the ministry and NCC.
“That will make us have better results because these issues are the same as your business supports the business of every other Nigerian,’’ he said.
The minister said some of the problems presented by the association were very critical that enough time and resources should be deployed to attend to them before it got worse.
“I will propose that we have a small committee; it could be ad-hoc for now, so that within a short time we will be able to solve all the problems.
“If the problem becomes enduring, we have to create enduring platform so that as the problems are rearing their heads we will be finding solutions to it,’’ Shittu said.
Earlier, Adebayo said that the visit was to inform the minister of the problems faced by telecom operators.
Adebayo said that Information Communication Technology (ICT) also had a direct impact on the performance of government at all levels in the country.
According to him, the sector accounts for about 10 per cent of nominal GDP in 2014 with a direct contribution of about N600 billion to the economy in the same year.
Adebayo said that there was the need to build more capacity and viable infrastructure to sustain our success.
The chairman noted that operators require more base stations, fibre optic cable infrastructure and other elements to support stable telecom operations.
“We are still facing a number of problems in particular, on the issues of interference with the smooth operations of telecom services which requires intervention of government through your office.’’
Adebayo listed the problems to include, multiple taxations and closure of Base Transceiver Station (BTS) sites without appropriate court order, and concerns with the taxes and levies Amendment Order 2015.
He listed other problems to include the proposed communications services tax bill of 2015 by the National Assembly and the Telecoms Services as critical national security and economic infrastructure.
He also expressed concern that the Bill to reduce Unsolicited Calls and Texts 2016 is still pending before the National Assembly. (NAN)