The Nigerian Communications Communication (NCC) has greatly helped to ease pressure that would have attended the introduction of cashless policy into financial transactions in the country.
The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Commission, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, said this in his remarks at the 2023 World Consumer Rights Day, held in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said the impact of surge of the cashless policy, fully introduced in late 2022, on transactions would have been greater, but for the intervention of the regulatory agency.
The NCC EVC stated that the Commission was able to mitigate such a pressure with the introduction of various connectivity platforms on which electronic transactions became robust.
He said the robustness of the connectivity platforms was able to absorb and reduce the surge in demand for cashless transactions.
Going down the memory lane, Professor Danbatta said the Commission unveiled its year-round plan for implementing initiatives for realising the theme of the 2022 World Consumer Right Day, “Fair Digital Finance”.
He added: “In the period between March 15, 2022, and today, NCC carried out its mandate in a manner that further strengthened consumer protection, while safeguarding the interest of telecom consumers.”
Danbatta said the Commission did not relent but continued to implement the policy that ensured improved access to broadband connectivity.
He said the NCC has constantly been alerting consumers to cyber threats that could have led to the compromise of their financial profile through the execution of malicious codes by threat actors.
This, he said, the Commission was able to do through the Nigerian Communications Commission’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT).
“By the time cashless banking fully took off in late 2022, the connectivity platforms on which electronic transactions ride have become robust to the extent of being able to absorb the surge in demand for cashless transactions,” he added.
Danbatta assured that the successes of the 2022 initiatives would further propel the Commission to work for the realisation of this year’s theme, “Empowering Consumers through Clean Energy Transition”.
He said the theme was geared towards delivering a smooth transition for consumers experiencing a high cost of living as the globe responds to the ongoing energy crisis caused by supply and climate issues.
“This theme is very relevant, given Nigeria’s recent licensing of the 5G spectrum networks, which consume twice as much energy as 4Gs, although they are more energy-efficient per gigabyte,” he said.
The EVC said there would be an increased demand for energy consumption with the recent licensing of the Fifth Generation (5G) Spectrum.
He noted that, with the development, the country will witness an increased deployment of telecom infrastructure to satisfy the wireless service coverage requirement for 5G services.
“This anticipated growth in the number of 5G coverage will trigger high demand for data services.
“[This] will result in increased energy consumption for the network infrastructure, especially the Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), Internet of Things (IoT), 5G Customer Premise Equipment (CPEs) and mobile devices for example,” he said.
Danbatta said the industry will this need to look for green and sustainable power solutions required for the connectivity of IoT devices and network optimisation.
“All over the globe, telecom companies are among the biggest energy users, as a result of the stiff industry competition which causes them to try to satisfy their consumers by providing higher-speed networks,” he added.
Danbatta said to mitigate the rising utility costs, it has become critical for telecom companies to reconsider the sustainability of their operations by lowering the operational impact on the environment.
“This is more so because it has been found that implementing energy efficiency measures could potentially reduce the operating costs of telcos by up to 20 per cent.
“Some of these energy-efficiency measures include the redesign of the Radio Access Networks (RAN) of Base Stations which were initially built to maximise connectivity, not energy efficiency.
“More than 75 per cent of the time, the radio base station resources remain unused because of the hardware components activated at all times to transmit system information and synchronisation and reference signals.
“Therefore, to avoid waste heat, some of 5G’s newest RAN is equipped with an energy-saving measure allowing for the automatic switching of components.
“Some other energy efficiency measures can also include the use of renewable energy sources (hydrogen, wind, solar etc) to supply the energy needed,” he advised.
