 Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2017 here in Busan and the Republic of Korea. I've got the great pleasure of being in the studio today with Professor Umar Gabbard Dabmata who is Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission. Professor Dabmata thank you very much for being with us in the studio again today. Thank you very much my pleasure. Lovely to see you again. Thank you. Now I'd like to start off by talking about broadband. I think broadband is a key subject here in telecommunications and I think it's certainly something very much in your sights. I wanted to ask you about the latest progress of the national broadband network in Nigeria. Well thank you very much Max. As you are aware the National Broadband Plan for the years 2013-2018 mandated the Nigerian Communications Commission to supervise the deployment of broadband infrastructure across the whole country and we are also mandated to ensure we attain 30% broadband penetration by the year 2018. According to figures the recent figures released by the ITU UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development we are at 22%. So we have 8 percentage points to go. It's not looking like a tall order at all but to achieve the target of 30% penetration we still need to deploy more and more infrastructure across the country and it is for this reason that the Nigerian Communications Commission supervises the deployment of broadband infrastructure in seven zones of the country. We deliberately divided the country into seven zones and each zone has been assigned an infrastructure company to deploy broadband infrastructure. We have in the first phase of this exercise licensed two zones already. The Lagos zone which is our ICT hub in the country and the North Central zone of the country where the capital of the country is located. So we have five more zones you know to license and these are three zones in the southern part of the country the south south southeast and southwest and two more zones in the northern part of the country the northwest and the northeast zones. So as with respect to broadband we don't have any problem with that all the available broadband that is needed to ensure the penetration you know takes place that is the target of 30% you know we have since assigned the spectrum you know to interested operators. So the Commission and as I'm speaking to you does not even have any more spectrum you know to assign you know with a view to achieving the target what we needed to assign in order to ensure attainment of the target has been done. What remains to be done is the broadband infrastructure. The interesting thing about this deployment is you know this is going to be a deployment that is going to be done you know consistent with a public private partnership initiative. There is even a subsidy component attached you know to the license and condition for the improper license you know and the Commission will be there to monitor what we call guided deployments because we know where the gaps are in the country you know we're ready for this exercise you know we're interested in ensuring we achieve our target by 2018. So the Commission to that extent has established a broadband implementation monitoring committee in order to ensure like I said guided deployment where we have gaps what we call FIBA broadband FIBA gaps in the country and as soon as the exercise of assigning you know the licenses you know is completed then we'll you know move into action to ensure you know we monitor the deployment and release the subsidies consistent with milestones. I was going to ask you what are the key challenges to the national broadband rollout. The major challenges you know one of the major challenges is right of way. We have a document you know and this document you know is a document that came about when the national economic council under the chairmanship of the vice president of the country met and agreed on a regime of taxes to be charged you know in the process of deployment of ICT infrastructure across the country. So this is what we call harmonized regime of taxation of taxes if you like but unfortunately signatories you know to this document are not respect to provisions of the document. You know we have state governments and local governments charging prohibitive amounts for deployment of FIBA. This is you know a major challenge. We have willful you know damage you know to existing broadband infrastructure, willful unintended road constructions. Okay and this is like setting us you know back even as we try to deploy more what has already been deployed on the ground is being subjected to all kinds of you know destructions at times you know willful other times you know unintended. So those are the challenges. Another major challenge is that you know the there is a challenge of scarcity of foreign exchange. Okay when we want the foreign exchange that is necessary to import you know equipment even the FIBA itself even though it is cheap by the way the FIBA is cheaper compared to the amount of money you pay to dig you know trenches you know for for the FIBA. Okay so so so these are challenges you know that we have to contend with you but we are not really you know we are not discouraged by them we engage you know the federal government the state governments as well as the local government you know to ensure that we sensitize them or the importance of embracing this important project you know for the country you know because when you in the fine analysis compare the benefits of broadband services when eventually these are rolled out you know to the limited benefits you get you know from taxes okay you know you can be able for yourself to you know to decide which one you think will outweigh the other obviously when you have broadband services be a rollout empower and citizens okay and so on and so forth you get more money you get more revenue compared to the limited amount you get you know from info than taxes on telecommunications companies you know who want to deploy more broadband infrastructure and what about broadband policies and regulations perhaps you could share some of those that might that you're implementing that might help to accelerate so that the rollout the the policies by government are not limited to broadband they are relevant to broadband quite okay and I will give you an example recently the federal government introduced what we call the economic recovery and gross plan and in this plan there's an important role assigned to the Nigerian Communications Commission again okay to ensure you know the flowmen of broadband infrastructure and the attraction of those provisions of this plan I'm talking about the economy recovery and gross plan of the federal government is you have you know incentives for investors to come in you know including certified send reduction in company income tax you know plus a list of other incentives waivers of you know on you know income duties for infiltration of you know the infrastructure equipment and so on and so forth so we have been you know informing the the investors at this important forum about all this you know very good incentives by the Nigerian government as well as the ease of doing business you know this has you know really improved significantly there's an executive order as I'm talking to you on transparency and efficiency in public service delivery and this is intended to ensure that approvals are granted you know without delay there's even you know a disciplinary measure that can be brought there to be our own agencies of government deliberately you know refusing to grant approvals then access to agencies you know like the Nigerian Communications Commission by investors to the Nigerian investment and promotion council this is easily facilitated information is available we have a one-stop shop where you can acquire all the items of information I'm giving you you know and this is very viable and you know we're waiting for the investors to come in you know join us in a public partnership you know you know basis to ensure you know we attain our targets talking about investment obviously you've made an investment here at ITU telecom world you've got a lovely pavilion here Nigeria has a great pavilion here this one's to find out what's the value of attending events such as this it is very important you know to attend events you know like the ITU telecom world and we have been doing this you know way back you know our relationship with ITU you know you know it's way back I don't know I think it was established even before I was born okay so it was established many many years ago and there's a reason why we attach great importance to attend and such this event one is to be able to learn from global best practices you know in a way and manner that we can bring this to via you know in our country to solve contentious problems of you know that you know problems that conspire to degrade among other things you know quality of service right of way issues okay and so on and so forth we also learn from what fallacies you know other countries you know you know have in place which we think we can either you know bring in total and implement same in our country or modify to adopt peculiarities you know in our country so the the benefits are immense you know that you know we come with our SMEs you know our small and medium scale entrepreneurs last year we came with about eight this year we have come with fix too short but what innovative ideas they have put together are now showcasing in this event you know have attracted a lot of attention and they have generated a lot of interest so we will continue to put premium on attendance you know at these you know events because we feel it is an important way of showcasing our achievements in the sector as well as you know getting ideas on how best we can move the telecommunications sector in the country well thank you very much for showing your valuable insights here with us we're very pleased that you're here and look forward to catching up with you again in the future and thank you very much for being with us in the studio today thank you very much I appreciate it thank you thank you