democracy in 1999, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, has said.
Juwah, who said this at a send-off organised for some retired commissioners of the regulatory agency in Abuja on Friday, also said the number of active subscribers in the industry had hit over 113 million.
He also said the much-awaited Mobile Number Portability, which NCC had earlier announced earlier, would take off by the end of March.
Number portability allows subscribers to migrate from one network operator to another without having to change their Subscriber Identity Module card numbers.
The NCC boss also informed the audience that the registration of SIM cards initiated by the agency would soon be concluded.
Juwah said, “Although the commercialisation of the sector began in 1992, Nigeria still could not boast of 450,000 active lines by the year 2000, which was powered by a paltry $500m investment portfolio until the coming of democracy in 1999 when the then President had to pick men and women of sterner character to turn the fortunes around.
‘‘Presently, investment in the telecoms sector stands at about $25bn and active lines are well over 113 million, and still counting. This couldn’t have been possible without the team members are seated here with us today. Once somebody has done well in this country, we should be able to appreciate that person.
“The coming of democracy marked the beginning of a remarkable journey and by the time the former board was leaving in 2010, an industry celebrated globally had been firmly established. Telephone was no longer for the rich; it has become the menu on every table, whether in the city or in rural dwellings.”
He attributed the tremendous growth of the industry to democratic rule, adding that without civil rule, the sector would not have recorded the breakthrough that it had achieved.
