Telecommunications companies that wish to install broadband infrastructure in green areas would only be required to pay N14.50 as Right of Way (RoW) fees, according to Mohammed Bello, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Green areas, according to Bello, are sites in the FCT that are devoid of any form of telecommunications equipment.
In different regions of the nation, telecom providers had been paying varying amounts per meter, ranging from N4,000 to N8,000.
However, as a result of the federal government’s harmonisation of the Right of Way fees in 2017, telecom providers now pay N145 per metre to lay fibre optic cable anywhere in the nation.
Compared to the standard N145 per meter fees, the FCT minister’s N14.50 fee for green areas represents a 90% discount.
The new lowered prices, Nairametrics reports, will begin to apply on December 1, 2022, and will last for the next two years
A right-of-way fee is a tax that telecommunications companies pay to state governments in order to bury cables that transport Internet traffic beneath roads and install other telecommunications equipment.
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