Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), at the weekend told lawmakers in the House of Representatives that Nigeria lacked adequate 3G technology capacity required for electronic transmission of election results.
Specifically, the industry regulator to the lawmakers of the lower house of the National Assembly while responding to questions raised by lawmakers that less than 50% of the country currently had inadequate 3G technology spread which can facilitate effective electronic transmission of election results.
The position of the commission on the issue of electronic transfer of election results which was made as deliberations on the ongoing debate by the lawmakers on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill was made clear by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Engr. Ubale Maska and the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Mr. Adeleke Adewolu, both of who represented the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta.
The Commissioners explained to the legislators that the commission had earlier in 2018 carried out a survey of 109,000 polling units, of the country’s 119,000 polling units which were covered.
Maska, who spoke on behalf of the team said that the surveyed polling unit areas were covered mostly by the 3G and 2G networks, which represented about 50.3% of the country while about 49.7% of the national spread did not have Internet coverage, which will be required for real-time electronic transmission of electoral results.
Reacting to the lawmakers’ question on if 2G technology could be used for electronic transmission of results, the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services said that though he wished the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was around to respond to the question, stressing that only 3G could transmit results effectively.
It would be recalled the House had on Thursday, July 15, 2021, invited the NCC to brief it on the nation’s network coverage before continuing debate on the contentious issue of electronic transmission of results during elections.