By George Okorocha

Nigeria Communication Commission(NCC) declared on Monday that it has a projection to generate over N500 billion for the Federal Government in 2023 fiscal year.

Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof.Umar Danbatta made the disclosure at an interactive meeting on 2023-2025 MTEF-FSP, organised by the Senate Committee on Finance.

He said the projected revenue would be realised from the auctioning of two 5G spectrums,noting that the bidding process for auctioning of the spectrums for 2023 had began.

The Vice Chairman also disclosed that NCC had generated N257 billion in the first quarter, of 2022, while N195 billion was remmited to government coffers.

Danbatta further said from April to August, N318 billion was generated, while N214 was remmited.

According to him, the fund realised was occasioned by the auctioning of two 5G spectrums at the rates of N263 million and N273 million dollars.

He said NCC from 2017 to 2021 had also generated N799 billion and remmited 423 billion to government.

On broadband penetration in Nigeria, he said stood at 44 per cent, saying that about 150 million Nigerians have access to the Internet, with over 80 million having access to high speed internet.

According to him, the target was to hit 75 per cent penetration in 2025, adding that it was hopeful of achieving 50 per cent penetration by end of 2022.

He advised Nigerians to make use of the 112 emergency national number to report issues of emergency like fire outbreak, accidents,among others and toll free number 622 to lodge complaints on issues relating to drop calls.

The Chairman of the Committee,Sen.Solomon Adeola said the Senate would continue to encourage NCC to improve its revenue generation profile to Federal Government.

He also advised that NCC to continue to help in facilitating the process of other revenue generation agencies via its operations,where necessary.