Nigeria not losing N600bn through telecom industry, NCC says
Nigeria is not losing N600billion revenue through the telecom industry as alleged by a senior Femi Falana (SAN), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said. The NCC’s Executive Commissioner(Stakeholders Management) Mr Sunday Dare said yesterday that there was no iota of truth in the allegation of the senior lawyer. “For the records, there is no […]
Nigeria is not losing N600billion revenue through the telecom industry as alleged by a senior Femi Falana (SAN), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said.
The NCC’s Executive Commissioner(Stakeholders Management) Mr Sunday Dare said yesterday that there was no iota of truth in the allegation of the senior lawyer.
“For the records, there is no iota of truth whatsoever in the allegation of revenue losses to the tune of N600billion from the telecoms industry.
‘’The NCC’s initiative of implementing a Revenue
Assurance System for the industry was motivated by the Commission’s firm belief that although the telecoms industry currently contributes a significant portion of the National GDP and Government revenues, the industry has the potentials to generate more revenue for government along its value chain than is currently the case.
‘’Also, although the Commission has deployed remarkably stringent processes with which it monitors the industry and collects all due revenues, we considered it necessary to enhance the effectiveness of these processes by proactively blocking any potential gaps, through the use of available and proven cutting-edge technology solutions.
‘’The Revenue Assurance System is therefore to provide an additional layer of assurance that our licensees
continue to meet their obligations without failure.
The wildly exaggerated “loss” of N600billion annually” to non-implementation of a particular system by a particular vendor as alleged in the said publications is therefore simply not true’’, Mr Dare said in a statement.
He said the proposed figure is the projected revenue that consultants claim can be gotten.
Until a proof of concept (POC) is done, he said, this figure is in the realm of imagination.
He added: “We also wish to
clarify that having made the decision to implement a Revenue Assurance System, the NCC has been painstakingly following all mandated due process in its procurement, including
engagement with the Bureau of Public Process, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the ICRC. We hope that this clarification further assures our esteemed Stakeholders who were justifiably alarmed by the unfounded claims made in said publications.’’