Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Bitrus Nabasu, flanked on the left by the Director, Spectrum Management, Engr. Joseph Ananaonye and on the right by the Director, Radio Monitoring and Survey, Engr. Kilyobas Binga at the two-day stakeholders’ sensitisation on Sustainable Frequency Spectrum Management and Development for Non-Commercial Radio Frequency Users organised by the Ministry in Lagos, Monday.

The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has given all radio frequency spectrum license holders who are in breach of their statutory obligations and so many other illegal users of the frequency up to 90 days to regularise their licenses and allied issues or face severe sanctions.

The government has also lamented an annual loss of over N1billion in the last 10 years arising from non-payment of renewal fees by many organisations, which hold these licenses, insisting that the worsening state of insecurity in the country was partly fuelled by the illegal use of radio frequency spectrum by bandicts.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, handed down the ultimatum in Lagos, Monday at the ongoing two-day publicity and sensitisation programme for stakeholders with the theme: “Sustainable Frequency Spectrum Management and Development for Non-Commercial Radio Frequency Users.

Another segment of the event covers Spectrum Personnel in Maritime Operation: Global Maritime Distress and Safety GMDSS, Safety of Lives at Sea SOLAS of the International Maritime Organisation IMO.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Bitrus Nabasu the Minister disclosed that in line with its statutory mandate of managing the country’s radio frequency spectrum for non-commercial users, the Ministry is faced with myriads of challenges ranging from unauthorised use of radio frequency spectrum by non-commercial operators as well as the fact that many of the frequency users have yet to regularise their operations.

Available statistics show that out of the 300 frequencies that were monitored recently, 106 of them were discovered to be operating without licenses while most of the users of the unlicensed radio frequencies identified since 2019 and were requested to regularise their operations have yet to comply more than two years after.

Other challenges include the several cases of complaints received by the Ministry over interference from different organisations within the last five years  while a total of 242 companies using the radio frequency spectrum have failed to renew their licenses between 2020 and now.

The Ministry has also lost over N10billion in the last 10 years on accumulated renewal fees accruable to it, over 32 organisations in the last five years have failed to pay for their frequency assignment fees, several cases of under-declaration of the number of radio stations while all the organisations, whose waivers were withdrawn and were directed to regularise their operations have yet to comply with the directive more than two years after.

These rather ugly developments have had far-reaching negative effects on the subsector with the attendant threat to national security, severe revenue loss to the government as well as the increasing cases of interference to authorised users.

The Minister said: “These implications are impacting negatively on spectrum management for non-commercial users, thus becoming a herculean task that government alone cannot tackle. Consequently, it has become imperative to engage the general public and the stakeholders to brainstorm on the way forward.

In a bid to serve our customers better, the Ministry has introduced numerous measures and policies that drastically reduced the duration for obtaining licensed and time of sending of renewal bills to our customers.

“In line with Federal Government policy, all payments in licensing processing is with the Remita platform. The Ministry has since discouraged any form of cash payment to improve service delivery. The Ministry is also well ahead in ensuring a robust automated licensing process in place. The goal is to make the license acquisition process easier and better.

“In view of the foregoing, I therefore charge all licensees and organisation that are in breach of the regulations as highlighted above to please adopt voluntary compliance as part of civic responsibility and approach to the Ministry to regularise their operations, renew their licenses and pay arrears of their outstanding renewal bills.

“All non-commercial radio frequency spectrum users that have defaulted and are in breach of the regulations are therefore given three months of grace to regularise their operations and process their radio communication licenses. Therefore, the Ministry will be constrained to employ legal means to address these issues”.

Key stakeholders at the event were the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, represented by Engr. Olu Aladesi of the Maritime Standards and Seafarers department of the agency, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, among several other stakeholders.