 The Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, says Nigerian needs $1 billion to breach their shortfall in telecom services in the country. He said this during a public telecom service hearing in Abuja on Monday. Plus TV News' Immanuel Ihegene report is presented from us to you. As Nigeria continues about to the shortfall in availability and affordability of telecom services, hours of representatives at the committee commenced investigation into the availability and usage of mobile telecommunications activities throughout the country. Executive Vice-Chairman NCC Professor Omar Dambata in his submission before the committee says $667 billion are an equivalent of $1 billion is required to quickly breach the gap in parts of the country where there is no access to telecom services. Professor Dambata for the stated data study by the commission to identify a cluster of telecom services in the country, observed that 37 million Nigerians could not have access in rural, served and un-served areas in the country. He said the commission has, however, been able to reduce this number to 27 million Nigerians in 2022 after the deployments of the necessary telecom infrastructure do not desirable. I indicated additional things was worked on to be able to bridge these gaps. And I'm giving an analysis of the amount of money that will be required to completely bridge the 97 clusters of access gaps in the country. He urged the federal government to declare a state of emergency in the sector to enable all Nigerians living in every part of the country to have access to telecom service and not be left out. Arising from the deterioration of the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dola, we have a figure of close to 700 billion Naira. In the total amount required to completely bridge you know gaps within the clusters that I have stated earlier. Earlier in a keynote address, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Femmin Bajabiamila, who was represented by the Deputy Chief We of the House Honourable Nkiruka Oyejocha described the telecommunications industry as the largest sector in the information and telecommunications sector critical to national development. He advised that the sector should not only be concentrated within the urban areas but also amongst rural dwellers. The Nigerian Communications Commission as the independent regulatory authority to the telecommunications industry needs to live out to its expectation and create an enabling environment as well as ensure the promotion of qualitative and efficient telecommunications service delivery throughout Nigeria and not some specific areas as what we experience today. On its part, the chairman of the development, security and property elevation. He says Nigeria should not be lacking behind the due to the numerous opportunities present in the telecommunications sector. One of the major drivers of poverty eradication or elevation is communication access, telecommunication access, internet access to the populace. The House of Representatives is committed to getting to the roots of all bottlenecks or hindrances which may have made it impossible for us to attain desired targets until now. And I want to assure you Mr. Speaker that we're going to do a thorough job in line with the mandate which the House has given to us and turn in our report in due course. The airing is expected to last four three days with a salient issues and the telecoms is expected to be discussed with a view of finding our lasting solutions to them.