The Nigeria Communications commission, NCC, says it can not give 100% guarantee on electronic transmission of election results.
Officials of the Nigerian Communications Commission on Friday, July 16, 2021, were summoned and questioned by the House of Representatives over the suitability of the use of electronic devices for the transmission of election results in the country as part of ongoing discussion in the House as being provided in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The House had also on Thursday, July 15, 2021, invited the NCC to brief it on the nation’s network coverage before continuing debate on the contentious provision of electronic transmission of results during elections.
The Commission was represented before the House members by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Engr. Ubale Maska and the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Mr. Adeleke Adewolu.
Maska, who spoke on behalf of the team, told members that less than 50% of the country enjoys 3G Internet coverage for which electronic transmission of results could rely on.
He said as at 2018, when the Commission carried out a survey of 109,000 polling units, of the country’s 119,000 polling units were covered, he explained that the surveyed polling unit areas were covered mostly by the 3G and 2G networks, which represents about 50.3% of the entire country, about 49.7% of the national spread.
