Nigeria, Niger sign agreement on border frequency coordination

Nigeria and Niger Republics have signed a bilateral agreement for the coordination of frequency utilisation along their borders to ensure seamless deployment of services between the two sister countries.

Director of Public Affairs (DPA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Reuben Muoka,made this known in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

Mouka said the agreement’s signing ceremony was one of the highlights of the two-day Digital Economy Regional Conference, hosted by the Nigerian Government and facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.

He said the Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, signed on behalf of Nigeria, while his Nigerien counterpart, the Minister of Post and New Information Technologies, Mr Moussa Baraze, signed on behalf of Niger Republic.

Mouka said the Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta and Niger Republic’s Chairperson of the National Council for Regulation of Electronic Communications and Post, Mrs Aichatou Oumani, witnessed the ceremony.

He said the agreement applied to the co-ordination of frequencies existing in the Nigeria-Niger transboundary areas between 87.5 megahertz (MHz) to 30 gigahertz (GHz).

“The agreement will help in the effective coordination and sharing of frequencies and channels in the ‘buffer zone or area’ on borderlines between the two countries.

“It will also help to address one of the major issues of signal interference regulation that may arise in telecoms signal transmissions by terrestrial telecoms service providers, as it spells out the procedures for regulating such cases,” he said.

According to the agreement, it will provide, in part, that in case of harmful interference affecting one of the parties, the affected party shall inform the other party in writing for necessary action to be carried out.

Mouka said: “Also, the party from whence the interference is originating shall ensure that all necessary means are used to resolve the harmful interference within 30 days of receipt of the notice.”

He said while the agreement was without prejudice to the rights and obligations of the parties specified in the Convention.

According to him, the agreement fell within the purview of the Constitution of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other inter-governmental arrangements.

They state, among others state: “The land and mobile services whose use is restricted for security, maritime and national defence or for which information is not available, shall not be subjected to the provisions of the agreement.”