The Federal Government has waved the Right of Ways Charges for all Telecommunications Sector till December 2022 as palliative to the Sector.
This was made known by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami during a media parley with Director of News and Editors of Print, electronics and online media in Abuja on Thursday as part of his one year in office.
It will be recalled that one of the challenges in the ICT sector in Nigeria was the issue of Right of Way, which hand hindered broadband penetration for 13 years.
Pantami’s efforts, commitment and engagements with relevant stakeholders were able to unravel the challenges associated with the Right of Way.
The Minister also said that State like Ekiti where the ROW charges were N4500 has now been reduced to N145/Meter. He said that in Kwara State, an estimated cost of connecting two Local Government Areas was staggering N560Million before the implementation of the Right of Way resolution and now, it costs approximately N150,000.
The Minister also spoke on vandalization of Telecommunications equipment and the intervention of his Ministry resulting in approval of President Buhari classifying Telecommunications equipments as Critical National Infrastructure. Henceforth, security agencies are to protect all Critical National Infrastructure; therefore Mobile Network Operators, telecom providers and other broadband companies also heave a sigh of relief regarding their infrastructure and services.
 The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, who also marked one year in office, thanked the Minister for making him work remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On his part, the Executive Secretary of Universal Service Provision Fund, Prof. Ayuba Shaibu said that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy has demonstrated common capacity to move the Ministry forward as he has extra ordinary gift which the industry need. The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC represented by the Director of Technical Services, Babale Maska said no Minister has achieved Minister of Communications has achieved what Dr. Pantami has achieved in one year in office.
The NIGCOMSAT, Mrs. Abimbola Alale said she was not surprised at the achievement of the Minister as he has touched every sector of the economy especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “His vision for Nigeria is beyond what we understand, Alele said. The Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone, Professor Muhammed Abubakar, he said that Dr Pantami within 7 months identified the mission and vision of the Ministry and included Digital Economy. He also talked on the National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy 2020-2030 which was developed to address some of the prolonged concerns in the Communication Sector to support the Digital Economy.
Malachy Uzendu, the Daily Editor, Authority Newspaper and coordinator of the Abuja Editors Forum  thanked the Minister on behalf of the Forum and Director of News present at the media parley and look forward to a more cordial media relations with the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
