Nation
NCC Puts Inactive Telecomsline At 44.6m
The inactive telephone lines in the telecommunications industry stood at 44,647,096 in the first quarter of the year.
In the monthly Subscriber Data made available to Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) posted on its website, the connected lines as at March was 161,928,765, while the figure of the active numbers was 117,281,669.
Our correspondent reports that the inactive lines were 38,518,699 in the last quarter of 2012..
NCC said that additional 6,128,397 lines were dormant, thus jerking the number to 44.647,096 in March.
The Subscriber Data showed that of the 44,647,096 telephone lines, Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) network had a total of 31,061,267.
Also, the mobile section of the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) had a total of 11,544,933 inactive lines, while the Fixed Wired/Wireless network had 2,040,896 dormant lines.
From the 117,281,669 active telephone lines on the operators’ networks in the first quarter, the GSM had a share of 114,172,440.
The CDMA had 2,703,604 active lines, while the Fixed Wired/Wireless network had 405,625 subscribers.
The installed capacity in the industry increased by 25,589,978 from 211,808,092 in last quarter of 2012 to 237,397,890 in first quarter of 2013.
Our correspondent reports that installed capacity refers to the total infrastructure that a network put in place to accommodate a certain number of telephone lines without having congestion or poor network quality.
The GSM networks had an installed capacity of 182,065,415 in the last quarter of 2012, which increased to 207,653,213 in first quarter of 2013.
The CDMA had an installed capacity of 18,400,000 in the first quarter of 2013, unchanged from the figure of last quarter of 2012, while the Fixed networks had 11,342,677 lines in last quarter of 2012.
It, however, increased to 11,362,677 in first quarter of 2013.
Teledensity of Nigeria’s telecommunications industry climbed to 83.77 per cent in first quarter 2013, compared to 80.85 per cent in the last quarter of 2012.
Teledensity measures the percentage of a country’s population that has access to telecommunications services as determined by the subscriber base.
Nigeria’s teledensity is currently calculated by NCC on a population of 140 million people.
The data showed that although operators were working aggressively to increase subscriber base, some SIM card holders were not activating the SIM cards they bought.
It would be recalled that the increase in the GSM installed capacity showed that the operators’ were ready to accommodate more subscribers, even as the CDMA operators had decided to maintain their 18,400,000 capacity.
The Chairman of Malumfashi Local Government Council of Katsina State, Maharazu Dayi, has been impeached.
Maharazu Dayi was impeached yesterday by 11 out of 12 councillors, barely two days before the local government elections in the State.
The councillors reportedly took action following allegations of misconduct and poor governance against the chairman after a dispute over the distribution of the council’s Paris Club funds.
The development has sent shock waves across the local government area, especially as the impeached chairman is among those who failed to secure the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest in the forthcoming election.
The Rumuwoji Ultra Modern Market Traders Association, Mile 1, Port Harcourt, has urged the state government to utilise the available spaces within the area to build phase 3 of the Rumuwoji Market in order to solve the ever increasing needs of traders.
The association, which said this at a media briefing in Port Harcourt, also described as a welcomed development the decision by the state Governor to open the phase 2 of the market for business.
According to the association, “We consider it as an answer to the various cries of the people, because he is a man on a mission who is out to place the interest of Rivers people first. It is a dream come true for the first time for the market to be dully allocated and open for business”
Chairman of the association, Hon Godspower Wobo, who briefed the press shortly after a meeting of the association in Port Harcourt, also urged the public to disregard the activities of some persons whose stock in trade is to cause disaffection in the market.
He said the attention of the association was drawn to the activities of some strange fellows who went about misforming the people about situation in the market, stressing that apart from his association, no other group exists in the market except subdiary unions.
Wobo also tasked the reallocation committee to tread with caution so as to avoid being deceived by any group.
According to him, time has come for the state government to engage in robust discussion with aggrieved shop owners who went to court and those who paid monies to the state coffers and issued with allocation certificates for the overall interest of peace.
He also advised the public to deal directly with his association, stressing that the meeting was to review activities for the last year as well as unveil their new Constitution.
Also speaking, former Chairman of the association, Deacon Kenneth Eze urged the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara to open the phase 2 of the market, as it is long overdue.
Eze who is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the association also urged the public to do business with only the Rumuwoji Ultra Modern Market Traders Association as it is the only union recognised by the traders.
The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina, has debunked reports linking him with the race for Nigeria’s presidency in 2027.
Reacting to the report on his X handle yesterday, following a recent interview with Arise TV, the AfDB boss said his quotes were misrepresented and misinterpreted in several Nigerian media reports.
However, the AfDB president denied the media reports, stating that he never said that he wanted to contest for President.
“A segment of my recent interview on @Arise TV has been both misinterpreted and misrepresented in several Nigerian media outlets. What I said was, “I will be available to serve in any capacity, globally, in Africa, anywhere, including my own country.”
“A listen to the substantive and robust interview, which is available online, will show this to be the case. For clarity and for the record, I did not say that I am running for the office of President of Nigeria,” Adesina said.