The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in 2019, pioneered the trial of Fifth Generation (5G) technology in Nigeria, becoming the first telecoms regulator in West Africa to begin such a historic trial towards unleashing a greater digital revolution in the country in its proactive regulatory approach.

Consequently, 5G trials have been conducted in Abuja, Calabar, and Lagos and the coming years can only be more exciting for Nigerians, who will, through 5G network deployment, have access to faster broadband speed to carry out personal and official activities. This will bring about more efficiency, effectiveness, and growth.

Also, one of the flagship projects which the Commission was commended for in 2019 was the resolve of the Prof. Garba Danbatta-lead NCC leadership to pay greater attention to the implementation of the Emergency Communications Centre (ECC) project.

During the year under review, the NCC activated and increased the number of operational ECC to 17 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital (FCT), Abuja – 18 ECC in all. The list includes the FCT, Benue, Kwara, Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, Imo, Anambra, Enugu and Adamawa.

Subsequently, the commissioning of the National Emergency Toll-Free Number “112” and the Katsina State Emergency Communication Centre for the North West Zone was successfully carried out on September 23, 2019. Necessary preparations and arrangements are, however, ongoing towards ensuring successful launch/commissioning of such centers, including publicity and enlightenment in the remaining five (5) geopolitical zones and the FCT.

In recognition of this important role, the NCC’s Danbatta was recognized as Nigeria’s Goodwill Ambassador in Security and Emergency Management while NCC, as a corporate body, was conferred with the award of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Security and Emergency Management.

They received the awards earlier in December at the maiden Security and Emergency Management Awards hosted by the Emergency Digest, a publication of Image Merchants Promotion Limited, in conjunction with the Centre for Crisis Communication.

Closely linked to the NCC’s efforts in implementing the ECC Project to boost Federal Government’s drive to promote the security of lives and property, was also the Commission’s ongoing efforts towards sanitizing the country’s SIM database for increased security in the country.

Also in 2019, over 24 million invalidly-registered subscriber records were scrubbed (deduplicated) by the Commission via Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) in fulfilment of the mandate to establish a credible database of telephone subscribers.