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The GSM License Fees To Develop
Telecommunications Sector – Nigerians Tell Obasanjo
Lagos Friday November 9, 2001:
Nigerians have called on the federal government to spend a
large part of the money realized from the GSM auction on the development
of the telecommunications sector while the reminder should distributed
among the three tiers of government. They, however, heaped blames on the
government for the high cost of securing GSM services, which has
effectively dashed the hopes of many Nigerians to enhance their freedom of
expression.
These were the views of most Nigerians in a public poll
recently conducted by Media Rights Agenda under its Executive watch
project. The survey was conducted in eight cities in various
geo-political regions of the country. The cities include Lagos, Ibadan,
Benin City, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Kano and the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja. It polled Nigerians of various works of life from the
age of 18 years, irrespective of the educational qualification.
In addition, they said the high cost of securing the GSM
services is steam from the fact of the providers having paid outrageous
fees in the first instance to secure the licenses.
In January 2001, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC)
auctioned four GSM licenses. Four companies namely CIL, MTN, Econet and
NITEL won the bids for the licenses at a cost of $285 (N31.9 billion)
each.
Although the federal government believed it had made a good
bargain, some sections of Nigerians believed that the amount charged on
each licenses by the federal government was outrageous and would probably
not made the average Nigerian have access to GSM. They were also worried
that the extra investment that would be made by the license operators to
provide necessary infrastructure for service development would further
push up the price of GSM. The Federal Government justified the fee saying
the amount it charged is a fair cost in relation to other countries
especially taking cognizance of the size of the market available in
Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has said that it would
use $400m (N44.8b), to finance its Supplementary Budget while the two
other tiers of government would share the balance.
However, there is a contrary position being canvassed by
some Nigerians who are insisting that the government should spend a large
part of the proceed on the development of the telecommunication sector,
which they argue is operating even without the basic infrastructure. The
rest, they say, could be split among the three tiers of government.
Responding to a question which asked: Do you think the cost
of GSM license was rather too high, of the total number of 6.942
respondents, 6.002 (86.4%) said they think the cost of GSM license fees
was rather high, while 901 others (13%) said the fees were not too high.
Thirty-nine others (.6%) were undecided.
Specifically also, in a question which asked: Do you think
the charges by GSM providers in their services is too high?, 6,049
respondents representing (87.1%) said ‘Yes’ while 865 (12.5%) said ‘No’
Twenty-eight others (0.4%) were undecided.
In a similar vein, 5,361 respondents, representing (77.2%)
said they think the high charges by the GSM service providers is as a
result of the amount they paid to obtain their licenses. One thousand
four hundred and sixty seven respondents (21.1% said they do not think
high GSM tariff is justified by the licenses fees paid by subscribers.
Another 114 respondents (1.7%) were undecided.
Responding to a question which further probed respondents
who shared the view that the high cost of GSM services is a result of the
huge license fees, whether they thought it was a sufficient justification
considering that the government reduced by over 70 per cent duties on GSM
equipment, 4,425 sub-group respondents (64%) said ‘yes’ while 2,077 others
(30%) said ‘No’ four hundred and forty other (6%) were undecided.
Asked how respondents would want the federal government to
spend the GSM licence proceeds against the backdrops of the popular
position of some arms of government, 2,290 respondents (33%) said they
support the federal government proposal to use the money to finance its
supplementary budget and share the remainder to the states and the local
government.
But a majority of respondents 4,565 (65.7%) said they
prefer a larger chunk of the money being used to develop the
telecommunications sector and the reminder shared between the three tiers
of the government.
Contact:
Ademoyewa Johnson
Campaigns officer
Tel/Fax: 01-4930831
E-mail: pubs@mediarightsagenda.org |
