Nigeria adopts open access model

GOVERNMENT

By Lukas Ajanaku, Lagos, Nigeria

In a bid to attract foreign investment into broadband development in the country, the Federal Government has said it will open its doors to the international investing community through the adoption of what it termed the “open access model” of broadband infrastructure development.

Speaking at a special lunch organised by the Nigerian delegation to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) World 2011 held in Geneva, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of Nigeria's telecoms sector regulatory body, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Eugene Juwah, said the adoption of this model is to forestall current challenges posed by some operational issues and the complexities arising from roles of different agencies, including urban and regional administrative setups which impinge on the right of way of facility deployments.

“The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has decided to explore the “Open Access Model” for the effective deployment of a national fibre network that will ensure an even platform and playing field for the retail service providers and enhance the achievement of the nation’s “e-economy” goals”, he said, submitting that this model is a framework for infrastructure sharing.

The Nigerian delegation, which hosted the world leaders' lunch that attracted ITU Secretary General, Dr. Hamadoun Toure and the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim, was led by Omobola Johnson, the Communications Technology Minister.

A major attraction to the strategy, as indicated by the NCC boss is that government will offer subsidies to enable broadband services to the under-served and un-served areas of the country where it may not be economically viable to deploy fiber and the strategy will also ensure that investors make decent profit.

Dr. Juwah said in using this model, the plan is to unbundle the broadband market structure into three layers namely: the passive infrastructure layer, the active infrastructure layer, and the retail service layer in an arrangement which will determine the roles to be played by the different types of services providers in the broadband market.

“To ensure vibrancy of the market and prevent dominance, no company will be allowed to play in more than two of the service layers,” he assured.

Dr. Juwah also said that the implementation of this model would bridge the gaps in broadband deployment, eliminate last mile issues, reduce the price of bandwidth for end users and unlock the market for massive broadband usage in Nigeria. During the implementation, the Commission will issue licenses in the passive and active layers respectively while price caps will be implemented in these layers using cost based pricing.

Discussions on the Nigerian broadband strategy also featured at the Nigerian Pavillion, where companies at the pavillion showcased their strengths with the attendance of the ITU scribe who spoke glowingly about Nigeria’s performance in the ICT sector where she led in growth terms in the continent and in the world for upward of five years.

“Nigeria has always made us proud and has consistently taken the lead for upwards of five years. It is not a joke to be the leader for five years. I commend you and I implore your leadership to continue to support the industry for continued growth and consistent support for the enabling environment for more investment and sustained success,” he said.

Recasting government’s objectives as recently indicated by the Communications Technology Omobola Johnson, Dr. Juwah indicated that Nigeria’s expectations by 2015 is to achieve 12% broadband penetration, 80% mobile penetration, 2% fixed line growth, 34% internet growth and 12% PC penetration.

“Going by my knowledge as the industry regulator, it certainly will take huge local and international investment to achieve these goals. This we believe presents great investment opportunity for serious players,” he said, while inviting prospective investors to exploit the opportunities presented by Nigeria.