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The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ntel, Mr. Kamar Abass, on Thursday cried out that the unavailability of foreign exchange (Forex) for telecommunications firms is fatally affecting telecoms service delivery in the country.
Speaking in an interview on the challenges of the telecoms industry and the need for increased broadband access to address poor service quality, among other issues, Abass said, “There are issues of poor service quality, occasioned by the economic recession, which the country is currently facing”.
“We are providing the best of telecoms services, but infrastructure is a challenge because we do not have the required number of base stations that will give full telecoms coverage across the country,” he added.
The ntel CEO stated that since the commercial launch of the telecoms firm last year, the firm has been able to do the much it could given the prevailing circumstances posed by the recession.
“We raised money to acquire the business, we also raised money to commence the first commercial rollout, and since then we have been in the business and we are now about to begin the process of raising another money to expand the business beyond our existing three cities,” he said.
The ntel CEO believes ubiquitous broadband will drive telecoms growth in the country, and noted that telecoms operators are not yet on the priority list of the federal government for those sectors that should have easy access to foreign exchange.
Telecoms regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said it is doing all it could to make forex available for telecoms firms to ease the business of the operators for them to deliver on the quality of service key performance index.
“We are in a world where we have to deal with issues affecting us. But if the NCC is making efforts to create a window of opportunity for telecoms operators in the forex market, we will welcome it as a good development because it will come with some forms of relief,” said Abass.
“The truth is that telecoms operators, alongside the ministries of communications and finance, have been lobbying for easy access to foreign exchange (Forex), and as a priority sector that needs to purchase the needed equipment in foreign currencies, the telecoms operators need such window of opportunity to enable us have access to Forex.
“Although it is an ongoing discussion between NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), but we are yet to benefit from it, because the telecoms operators are not yet on the priority list of the federal government for those sectors that should have easy access to foreign exchange,” he further stated.
The ntel boss, however, hopes that ongoing negotiations will yield positive results.
“The negotiation is ongoing and we are glad that the ministries are supporting our request to be part of the priority list of the federal government for access to forex,” Abass said.