This section features background information and resources relevant to the current research theme. It includes resources produced by WDR and external sources and is organised by regions and topics. An archive of resources recommended in previous research cycles is also available along with news from the WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News Service.
Nigeria: Telecommunications and Broadcasting Regulators to Merge Print E-mail
Tuesday, 22 July 2008

The Minister of State for Communication and Information, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki-Nakande says that the National Communications Commission (NCC) and the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) will be merged.

"In the telecommunication sector, we have agreed that there is no need to have two regulatory authorities in the sector because as a result convergence between information and communication technologies, a lot of the regulations must come under one umbrella. Presently we have the National Communications Commission (NCC) and Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), so eventually we must merge them to become NCC," the Minister said.

He continued, "the thinking behind it is that both of them are doing virtually the same thing even though differently this one is selling spectrum of frequency for the broadcast sector for radio and television while the other one is also selling spectrum for telecommunication and broadband services so we will bring the all of them together.”

Nakande also stated that the Federal Government would soon issue directives to all network operators on infrastructure sharing.

"In the next two weeks we are issuing a direction to now enforce issues on call location and sharing of infrastructures by the GSM operators, due diligence should be made and submitted to the Ministry….We must insist that they must share their infrastructure and it will reduce the incidences of cable cut either by sabotage or by sincere mistakes. It also helps us to reduce cost for those infrastructures," Nakande said.

Source: Vanguard - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.