BY EDMOND ODOK – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a new revenue generation template for the Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC) and the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMCDE) to assist raise about N1.2 trillion in the next ten years.
Referred to as the Revenue Assurance Solution (RAS), the design, finance, build, operate and transfer (DFBOT) public-private partnership (PPP) model was approved following the review and issuance of compliance certificate of the Full Business Case (FBC) by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).
Meant to span a 10-year period, the RAS template, designed by the NCC and the FMCDE to boost the collation and collection of Annual Operating Levy (AOL) from the digital network operators in the country, is expected to aid increased revenue accruals from AOL to about N1.21 trillion within the period.
The ICRC said in a statement that with the FEC’s approval and the mandatory vetting for regulatory compliance by the Federal Ministry of Justice, the next stage would be the commercial close–contract execution, with Messrs 3R Consortium as the Private Partner.
According to the ICRC, the NCC proactively initiated the process for the deployment of a RAS with the aim of blocking revenue leakages from the system, by ensuring there would be no errors in computing and collection of the AOLs due to the Federal Government.
The ICRC’s statement further said; “The RAS is expected to block possible gaps in revenue accountability, using cutting-edge technology solutions and shall provide an additional layer of assurance that the licensees of the Commission pay the correct Annual Operating Levies and meet other regulatory obligations without any miscalculations and/or exemptions based on faulty and inaccurate data and information.”
Assuring that the RAS platform deployment will remarkably enhance the NCC’s current AOL revenue computation and collection system, among other benefits’’, the statement added that the AOL regulations came into force via a 2014 gazette by the Federal Government as an addendum to the NCC Act of 2003.
The statement signed by ICRC’s acting Head of Media and Publicity, Manji Yarling, said the NCC Act of 2003 stipulates in part that: “Every Licensee that is a Network Operator shall pay to the Commission an Annual Operating Levy assessed at two and a half percent of the Licensee’s Net Revenue for the relevant period being its Gross Revenue less its Roaming, Interconnect and Bandwidth Costs for the period”.
Furthermore, the Act states thus: “Every Licensee that is a non-Network Operator shall pay annually to the Commission an Annual Operating Levy assessed at one percent of the Licensee’s Net Revenue for the relevant period being its Gross Revenue less its Roaming, Interconnect and Bandwidth Costs for the period”.
