Nigeria’s President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, has been urged by telecoms companies operating in the country to create a better regulatory environment and enact predictable policies in order to further advance the industry easily.
Speaking through the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the telecos their business can only thrive on sustainable policies and implementable regulations.
Gbenga Adebayo, ALTON President, said: “For Nigeria to be competitive in a world where competitiveness is determined by knowledge, the necessary policies, laws and regulations, the enabling environment must be created to maximize private sector investment in the ICT sector.”
According to him while investment in the sector is significant, government actions are increasingly becoming a disincentive. According to him, to address the situation, there is need to present to the government empirical evidence that will show clear indisputable statistics of the sector’s contribution to the economy.
He said the Nigerian government should understand the negative impact of its actions and inaction on the development of the sector, negative effects of high cost of doing business in Nigeria as relates to telecommunications and the need for focused policy direction.
“There is still a lot to be done for Nigeria and it’s populace to derive full benefits of ICT,” he said. “We hope things will get better, we expect better regulatory environment because investment thrives only where there is right environment. We will continue to invest, investors will continue to be interested in the development of telecoms in Nigeria where there are clear regulations and predictable policies.”