Nigeria still need $136billion fresh investment to expand the telecommunications sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday said this.

The CEO of the Commission, Prof Umar Dambatta, stated this in his keynote at the Telecom Executives and Regulator Forum (TERF 2019) organized by the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) at Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos

Stating that over 40 million people still remained disenfranchised across the country in terms of access while the so-called served areas are yet to enjoy the full benefits of telecoms.

He said so many areas are still covered by 2G while the world is moving towards 5G.

According to him, funding will be needed to bridge the service gulf.

Represented by the Director Policy Competition and   Economic Analysis Development at the NCC, Mohammed Babajika, the CEO said in 2000, connected lines were 450,000 while investment was $60million. This investment level moved to about $32billion in 2014 while connected lines moved to over 151milliom.

Prof Dambatta said, “Telecommunications constitute a significant portion of the world economy, as the global market value of the sector passed the $2.5 trillion mark in 2010. “Undoubtedly, everyone should be interested in the sector that generate such figures.

“Therefore, robust telecommunications network is important for economic growth, which is achievable through investment.

“$68 billion investment in Nigeria is huge, but it is by no means adequate for one of the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world.

“The capital intensity of the industry, the need for service providers to increase their infrastructure deployment to satisfy the ever-increasing demand, create room for double the size of this investment in the next 10 years.

“We have about 40 million Nigerians yet to be reached with basic infrastructure and services.”