Mohammed Shosanya
The Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC),has appealed to States and Local Government Areas in Nigeria to reduce taxes imposed on telecom companies to enhance their growth as well as attract foreign investors into the country.
Dr. Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),who stated this at a media parley in Abuja,disclosed that already between 50 to 55 per cent taxes are imposed on telecoms operators.
He maintained that it would be difficult to attract foreign investments into the sector in line with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to the Commission.
He said: “We are going to be going on an advocacy campaign to see how we can convince the states to remove some of these obstacles like Right of Way and multiple taxations because I have seen some studies which indicate taxation is almost 50% getting to 55% in some areas in this country.
“And you would agree with me that if we are trying to bring in foreign investment that is not a good picture to paint.”
He appealed to states to re-consider the long-term benefits that would come to them, if they allowed massive investments in the sector as job opportunities would be created alongside other value chains in the sector
He assured that the Commission would collaborate with stakeholders to tackle these challenges for the overall development of the telecommunications sector.
Unveiling his new strategies to reposition the telecoms industry, the NCC boss said consumer satisfaction would be at the core of his strategy, as he would put smiles on the faces of consumers.
Maida, who listed the strategies he would deploy to address various issues affecting the telecoms sector, said “my vision is to put smiles on the faces of telecoms consumers in Nigeria by improving the quality of services being offered them by service providers as well as increase investments in the sector.
“Consumers pay for their services and they expect high quality of service from the providers.Everything for me starts with the Consumers. The expectation of the consumers is very simple, which is, high quality of service.
“By this quality of service, we are talking about whole quality of experience for consumers.One of the mandates given to us by the honorable Minister of Communication which he also derived from the President and Commander -in- Chief is that we need to attract more foreign investments into the sector but there is no way we can do that if we are not satisfying the consumers because the consumers are the ones who pay for the services.
“This means the licensees can make their returns and investments, so we are going to be introducing some measures to help in this regard simply to improve the Ease of Doing Business.”
