The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has signed a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with its consultants, 3R Company Nigeria Limited, for the execution of the Revenue Assurance Solutions (RAS) to strengthen and manage the integrity of revenue generation in the telecoms industry.
The Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said the deployment of RAS would enhance monitoring and regulatory activities on the Annual Operating Levy (AOL) administration in the telecoms and confer higher integrity and fidelity on the AOL figures in the industry.
AOL is two per cent of mobile operators’ (MNOs) yearly profit after tax usually paid to the Commission.
The solution will bring about transparency in what is actually earned, declared and what is finally paid as AOL to the Federal Government.
“It is our belief that if we can be able to deploy RAS and ensure we get the true picture of what the MNOs are supposed to be paying by way of AOL, we would have accomplished an important milestone in the area of revenue generation for the Commission as well as for the government,” Danbatta said, adding that the decision to opt for RAS was to bolster the efforts of the Federal Government in increasing revenue generation, especially now that the resources available to the government shrink daily.”
The ceremony, which took place at the Commission’s Head Office, Abuja over the weekend, was witnessed by representatives of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), which has been guiding the partnership implementation to give expression to the decision to procure the RAS solution within a PPP framework due to the project’s scope.
Danbatta commended the ICRC for the guidance provided in the process of consummating the partnership. He also praised the Project Delivery Team (PDT), comprising staff of the Commission, who worked tirelessly in ensuring the project was brought to fruition, for their efforts. He urged 3R Company Nigeria Limited to ensure effective deployment and implementation of the project within its scope, objective and government’s expectations.
While Danbatta signed the agreement on behalf of the Commission, the Chief Executive Officer, 3R Nigeria Limited, Mr. Raymond Wodi, signed on behalf of his company.
Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, in a statement, said Wodi thanked the Commission for the opportunity given to the company to serve the industry and the government through deployment of 3R’s technology solution to ensure a more effective revenue generation from telecom licensees. He also assured the stakeholders that 3R is ready to meet and exceed expectations on the assignment.
Director, Internal Audit, ICRC, Mr. Togunde Dada-Hammed, who represented the Director-General of ICRC, Mr. Michael Ohiani, commended the NCC for the bold decision to deploy RAS. He said with ICRC in the picture, it would ensure support for the process in order to ensure that the project’s objectives are realised for the betterment of all the parties involved.
“Anybody that is familiar with the trends around the world, especially in Nigeria with respect to the revenue challenge that the country is facing, will know that the deployment of RAS is the right way to go, as demonstrated by the NCC,” Dada-Hammed said.
The EVC commended the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami for his role in presenting the NCC RAS project to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting where the final approval was given for the implementation of the solution.
The RAS project is designed to be connected to the licensed telecom operators’ systems and will have the capability of capturing and reporting in near real-time billing activities by the operators for the purposes of computing and assuring with minimal or no error margin, the accrued AOL payable to the NCC by the licensees. When deployed, the NCC RAS will bring a lot of solutions to the industry, including a more effective and enhanced monitoring and regulation of the licensed telecommunications operators by the Commission.
Before now, the Commission has engaged and fully sensitised MNOs, licensees within the telecoms Value Added Service (VAS) chain, officials of the Commission and other industry stakeholders on the Commission’s plan to deploy RAS that will instill greater transparency and increased accuracy in the administration of AOL in the sector, as enshrined in the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003.
It will be recalled that the NCC’s desire to deploy the most appropriate RAS in the telecom industry began in 2015 when the Commission published an invitation to bid, for entities that may wish to offer RAS services. The 3R Company Nigeria Ltd emerged the preferred bidder and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), offered no objection to the process and its outcome.
Due to the scope of the project, it was reasoned that the objective will be better achieved through a PPP arrangement. This understanding explains the invitation sent to ICRC to guide the process, as mandated by its regulations.
Accordingly, the Commission set up a Project Delivery Team, which worked with a consortium of legal advisers, financial modelers and PPP experts with the guidance of ICRC, which ensured that appropriate steps required were complied with in keeping with the ICRC Regulations 2005.
Part of the process included ensuring due diligence of the preferred partner, which received a clean bill of health from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). The Commission also subjected the software and hardware components of the proposed RAS to the certification of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
