The Nigerian Communications Commission has said 25 million, out of the 200 million Nigerians, are still not connected to telecoms services.

This is coming about 20 years after the liberalisation of the telecoms sector.

The NCC said it has brought down the figure of underserved and unserved from 217 access gap clusters to 114.

The Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof Garba Danbatta said a total of 40 million people were originally captured within this bracket, adding that the figure has been narrowed to 25 million.

“So far, we succeeded in bringing down the access gap clusters from 217 to about half. We have about 114 at the moment. 

“We have also succeeded through this effort in bringing telecoms services to more Nigerians that were hitherto did not have access to telecoms services from the 40 million Nigerians who hitherto did not have access to telecoms services as a result of these clusters of access gaps.

“This large number has gone down by about 15million. So, we are down to 25million. Even that figure is not acceptable to us at the NCC because no part of the country should be denied access to telecoms services.

“This is consistent with that important mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government that states that there must be inclusiveness in the provision of telecoms services. Therefore, these services should be ubiquitous or pervasive across the country,” Danbatta said.