Orange Group to commence operation in Nigeria – NCC

The Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC revealed that France’s telecommunications giant, Orange Group would commence operation in Nigeria, anytime soon.

The NCC said, Orange group hand stressed its willingness to provide services in areas of mobile, data, fixed and financial technology support.

According to a statement by the NCC,
a six-member team of Orange Middle East and Africa, led by Mrs. Victoria Adefala, met with the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Umar Danbatta, to chat a way forward.

Nigeria’s over 206.4 million mobile market with 150.7 million active internet users has become the focus of Orange group, saying that they share with other service providers after the company launched it’s Middle East and Africa expansion campaign with special focus on Nigeria and South Africa in 2020.

Adefala told the Nigerian authority that, “We are here to ensure steady investment for a long term. We also want to support the vision of the Commission in driving broadband penetration for a robust digital economy and leverage on local content development initiatives.

“The delegation including Orange’s Africa Director of Regulatory Affairs, Mr. Jean Chalhoub, sought clarifications on several regulatory and policy issues that will engender the company’s speedy entry into the country.

“The large market potentials buoyed by the huge population, impressive Gross Domestic product (GDP) figure, proximity to our operations in the neighbouring African countries, as well as the appreciable friendly operating environment are great motivators for our expansion plan into the Nigerian telecom market.”

Danbatta told Orange that the federal government’s Economy Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and regulations have been designed to protect investors.

He said there are deliberates regulatory steps aimed at improving the operating environment such as the ongoing collaboration with Nigerian Governor’s Forum (NGF) to reduce Right of Way (RoW) charges on telecom infrastructure deployments.

The NCC boss said the NCC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with various government and institutional stakeholders across the country.

“We welcome more investments into the Nigerian telecom sector. We have enabling laws and regulations that help us to engender a highly competitive telecom market that benefits both the service providers and the consumers.

“The NCC is here to ensure we support our licensees to thrive while also ensuring that they comply with Quality of Service (QoS) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set by the Commission because Nigerians will patronise an operator that provides them with affordable services at highest quality,” he said.