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Telecommunications services company, ipNX Nigeria Limited, is seeking the support of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to expand its operations in the country. The company made this known during a recent visit by its senior management led by Group Managing Director, Ejovi Aror, to the telecoms regulator in Abuja.
“We are here to solicit your support for our plan to expand our businesses because we are at the threshold of closing a chapter and moving onto another, particularly in expanding broadband infrastructure which is critical to national development’, Aror stated with unmistakable optimism.,” said Aror even as commended the NCC for its outstanding regulatory activities.
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According to Aror, the operation of the company has come to a critical juncture and ipNX is happy to migrate from the stage where it is now to a more strategic stage where it will play a greater role in the efforts to expand broadband infrastructures in Nigeria.
He also informed the management of NCC about some of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. The most central and significant of them, according to Aror, is the free Internet access to schools in Lagos and Oyo states.
Aror stressed ipNX readiness to extend such services to other parts of the country, particularly in schools, because of the importance of ICT to educational development.
Responding to the ipNX delegation, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who was represented by the Commission’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management (ECSM), Adeleke Adewolu, assured that the NCC will continuously make robust regulatory initiatives to improve the industry.
Adewolu, while recalling the evolution of the telecom industry in Nigeria, said that Decree 75 of 1992 which established the NCC, was a great feat. He added that the deregulation and liberalisation of the telecom sector in 2000 was a masterstroke because it triggered a rare leap in the democratisation of access to telephone services, from a few hundred hitherto existing fixed lines in 1992 to over two hundred million subscriptions today.
“So we are delighted about your interest in expanding broadband infrastructure”, Adewolu said, adding that the commission was always ready to partner with stakeholders to accomplish the objectives of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030; and the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025.
The ipNX delegation included the Group Executive Director, Commercials, ipNX, Bimpe Olaleye; Divisional CEO, ipNX Infrastructure Division, Uche Nnakenyi; and Tunde Olorunyomi, Financial Controller, ipNX. Adewolu led the NCC team that included Deputy Director, Licensing and Authorisation, Usman Mamman; Special Assistant on Legal Matters to the EVC, Afure Iloka; Head Online Media, Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan (who represented Director Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde); Assistant Director, Licensing and Authorisation, Abubakar Kurfi; and the Special Assistant to the ECSM, Quassim Odunmbaku.
