Chairman of MTN Nigeria and former executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe has recalled the regulatory and infrastructure challenges that confronted Nigeria’s telecommunications sector before the GSM revolution of 2001.
Ndukwe said spectrum availability was one of the biggest hurdles facing the industry at the time, stressing that access to frequencies was essential to establishing functional mobile networks.
“Without frequency, it is impossible to build a mobile or wireless network,” he said in a recent interview.
According to him, spectrum allocations had previously been distributed unevenly among operators, with some companies holding 5MHz, 7.5MHz or 10MHz.
He said regulators had to recover the fragmented allocations and create a transparent system that would give operators a level playing field as Nigeria prepared to open a new chapter in telecommunications.
“It was determined that for fair competition at the start of the new telecom market we were trying to birth, all operators needed to have the same size of spectrum through a transparent licensing process,” Ndukwe said.
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He recalled that the process was not without resistance, as some companies challenged the regulatory decisions in court, but the authorities eventually recovered sufficient spectrum in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands for the rollout of GSM services.
Ndukwe identified inadequate telecommunications infrastructure as another major obstacle to the sector’s development.
He said Nigeria had a severe shortage of telecommunications infrastructure despite its population of about 120 million at the time, with the country having only about 400,000 fixed telephone lines and 20,000 analogue mobile lines.
“Nigeria was severely short of telecommunications infrastructure, which made it necessary to quickly commence a licensing process capable of attracting the right private companies to build out the network,” he said.
The former NCC boss said the infrastructure operated by the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) was not sufficient to meet the country’s growing communications needs, making private sector investment critical to expanding access.
He said the licensing framework therefore had to attract operators with the financial capacity to deploy large-scale telecommunications infrastructure while also ensuring that they operated within a credible regulatory environment.
Beyond the initial GSM rollout, Ndukwe said infrastructure maintenance has remained a major challenge for telecommunications operators, with power supply, insecurity and right-of-way issues continuing to affect network operations.
“The biggest challenge has been how to run the infrastructure on ground amid security, power, right of way challenges,” he said.
He noted that the high cost of powering telecommunications infrastructure remains a major burden for operators, while fibre cuts, road construction and security concerns can also disrupt network operations and increase maintenance costs.
Ndukwe, who was instrumental in the early development of Nigeria’s modern telecommunications regulatory framework, also reflected on the impact of the GSM rollout and the dramatic changes it brought to the country.
He recalled the first official GSM call in August 2001 as a defining moment for Nigeria’s telecommunications industry, saying the rapid expansion of mobile services transformed access to communication across the country.
“We could immediately see the happiness of the Nigerian public as telecommunications services became easily and widely available. For me and the other members of the Commission at the time, it was a dream come true, and it showed that Nigeria could hold its head high among the comity of nations,” he said.
Twenty-five years after the GSM revolution began, Nigeria’s telecommunications industry has grown from a severely constrained system into one of the country’s most important economic sectors.
Ndukwe said the progress achieved over the years was rooted in the regulatory reforms, spectrum management and private investment decisions made during the industry’s formative years.
He stressed that addressing the sector’s persistent infrastructure challenges would remain important to sustaining the gains recorded since the introduction of GSM services.
About the Author
Cecilia Attah is a tech analyst with a degree from Benue State University. She covers tech news and startups at TechRegard with a focus on how technology is transforming Africa and shaping the global landscape.
