(Ecofin Agency) - With over 200 million telecom subscribers, Nigeria is one of Africa's largest telecom markets. As the sector continues to grow, the government wants to capitalize on the growth to get more revenues. 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) signed, Friday (June 17), a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement with  3R Company Nigeria Limited to deploy revenue assurance solutions (RAS). 

The new solutions will be connected to the IT systems of licensed telecom operators. They will then collect and report on the operators’ billing activities in real-time to calculate the accumulated annual operating levy operators have to pay the NCC. With the RAS, the calculations will be as accurate as possible with little to no room for errors. 

According to NCC executive vice-chairman Umar Danbatta, the idea for RAS is timely, as it comes in a context where the government’s resources are dropping gradually. 

“It is our belief that if we can be able to deploy RAS and ensure we get the true picture of what the Mobile Networks Operators (MNOs) are supposed to be paying by way of AOL [Annual Operating Levy], we would have accomplished an important milestone in the area of revenue generation for the Commission as well as for the government,” he said.

Let’s note that in 2020, the telecom sector contributed 12.45 percent to the national GDP. The following year, it generated NGN3.247 trillin (about US$7.74 billion). 

Isaac K. Kassouwi