Address RoW Concerns in CNII Implementation, telecoms expert tells Govt

The Chief Executive Officer of Lifinet, Mr. Abraham Oluwambe, has urged that reduced right of way charges for telecommunications operators should be included in the implementation of the recently passed Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) Order.

The federal government recently designated telecoms and ICT assets in the country as critical national infrastructure to guarantee their safety and protection through the passage of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc,) Amendment Act 2024.

While addressing a select journalists in Lagos on Tuesday, Mr, Oluwambe, a telecoms expert in the Internet Service Provider (ISP) space, said the effective implementation of the CNII provision should not just protect deployed assets but also guarantee seamless rollout of more backbone infrastructures for digital economy drive.

He said: “The passage of the CNII is commendable and with it, we hope to see a respite from incessant attacks on our infrastructure. Operators have suffered huge losses dealing with theft, vandalisation of telecoms and ICT facilities or arbitrary shutdown of our sites by state agencies.

“More importantly, I believe achieving reduced right of way charges and imposition of different taxes on operators in the course of rolling out services should also be a major consideration in implementing the CNII.

“If there is any bottleneck that should be removed to accelerate the rate of bridging digital access gaps in Nigeria, it should be RoW abolition at best or its reduction to a reasonable amount, at least.”

He added that inflated RoW charges that remain a major challenge in many states of the federation is inimical to investment appetite in the ISPs space, thus, creating a barrier against robust connectivity in the hinterlands and remote areas.

“The new CNII regime is expected to lead to safety of telecoms facilities and protection of operations of telecoms companies, given that the advocacy to have the Bill passed lasted more than a decade.

“Now that it has been passed, stakeholders must work in tandem with the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), the body saddled with the implementation tasks, to make the passage count for something.

“As they do this, the industry must pay close attention to the issue of right of way charges imposed by state actors so that our state leaders can be made to see things differently.

“A city that is well connected is where businesses will move into and thrive; and what is made by the state from the charges of RoW will later come in as bigger revenues for the state as taxes from the successful businesses.”