NCC boss congratulates Buhari on his re-election

Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari on his recent victory at the 2019 presidential election.

Danbatta, in a statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs of the Commission, Mr Nnamdi Nwokike, on Monday in Abuja, extolled the virtues of the President.

He added that the electoral victory was a reward for his selfless service to the nation.

He noted that the commission has, in the last 4 years, received the unwavering support of President Buhari.

The NCC boss said that the support from Mr President had helped not only in reasserting the commission’s regulatory independence, but also in making it a global household name in the area of regulatory excellence and operational efficiency.

“History was made last year when Nigeria surpassed its National Broadband penetration target of 30 per cent, as 31.48 per cent penetration was attained at the end of December 2018.

”The broadband penetration figure was 8.5 per cent when Buhari took over the leadership of the country and appointed Danbatta as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NCC in August, 2015,” he said.

Danbatta expressed optimism that with the continued support, the commission is enjoying from the Presidency, NCC is ready to take the broadband penetration to the next level.

”It can also be recalled that the telecom industry has, in the last four years, remained resilient even in the face of most daunting economic challenges, the country has ever experienced

”With quarterly contribution of between N1.4 trillion to N1.5 trillion to the nation’s GDP—according to the statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

”The contribution to the GDP has hit N1.9 trillion in the 4thquarter of 2018.”

According to Danbatta, there are 174 million active subscribers on the nation’s telecommunications networks as at January 2019,

He said that the figures for internet users hit 113.8 million in the same month.