NCC Paid N35billion Into Federation Account in 2015

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has said it remitted N35 billion into the Federal account in December 2015.

The telecommunications regulator also said that since the oil price crash, it had ramped up efforts to increase earnings for the country.

Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Umar Garba Danbatta said telecoms operators paid 2.5 per cent of their total turnover every quarter to NCC and the regulator in turn remits 40 per cent of it to the federation account while it used 60 per cent for staff salaries and running of the commission.

He said: “It goes without saying that ICTs have the potential to combat poverty, be it rural or urban poverty. It will also foster sustainable development if appropriately deployed and made to address the diverse discrepancy in the ICT needs of people of all locations, age group and economic status.”

Danbatta, who disclosed this at the 38th Senior Executive Course of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), kuru, Jos, Plateau State while speaking on the subject, ‘Mainstreaming ICT for poverty reduction in Nigeria’, said that the frequency spectrum auction in Abuja will finally result to about N300 billion remitted into Federal Government account from licensing since the deregulation of the telecoms sector.

He said that the NCC is targeting over N40 billion alone from the sale of the 2.6Ghz spectrum as part of its efforts of bridging the digital divide in the country through the provision of broadband internet.