The lingering high Right of Way (RoW) charges across different states of the federation have negatively impacted the required expansion and roll out of fiber optic across the country, the necessary ingredients for broadband penetration.
With Nigeria still struggling to hit 30 percent broadband penetration, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) believes that the harmonization of RoW will increase investment and expansion of critical transmission infrastructure.
Currently, Nigeria needs 120 kilometers of fibre network interconnection across the country are necessary to achieve a pervasive broadband penetration. Put simply, only 38,000 kilometers have been covered so far.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta last week called on federal government to help the telecom operators in the country by asking the state governments to harmonize the (RoW) charges.
He said: “The Right of Way issue refuses to go away despite the existence of a document guiding charges. Currently, nobody is complying with the provision of that document.
”We cannot compel the state governments to charge N 145 per meter for fibre. But the Federal Government can meet with the governors and extract a commitment from them, to ensure that NEC’s provision is strictly adhered to,” he added.