The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N653,886,584 for the purchase and deployment of hybrid spectrum monitoring system for the South-Eastern part of the country.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, disclosed this to State House correspondents shortly after Wednesday’s FEC meeting.
He further disclosed that spectrum monitoring was presently being done in five out of the six geopolitical zones in the country, leaving out the South-East.
Pantami said that 320 frequencies were discovered during an eight-month investigation in the five zones, out of which 106 were found to be illegal.
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According to the minister, those responsible for the illegal frequencies would be charged to court.
Pantami said, “The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy sought the approval of council for deployment of hybrid spectrum monitoring system, most importantly to focus on the South-Eastern zone of the country.
“From January to August 2020, within the period of eight months, we discovered 320 frequencies being used all over the country and of this 320, 106 were illegal.
“This is very worrisome because the usage of this illegal spectrum or frequencies will compromise our security and safety in the country.
“It is because of the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari, on promoting security that we came up with this initiative of monitoring the usage of frequencies and uncover the legal and the illegal ones.”
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The minister added, “For the legal ones, it is to ensure they renew their licenses annually and for the illegal ones, necessary actions are being taken according to the gravity of the offence.
“We discovered that our monitoring did not cover South-East part of the country. It covered five zones – North-East, North-West, North-Central, South-West and South-South, however, South-East has not been covered.
“It is because of this that we presented our memo, seeking for council’s approval of N653,886,584 to procure and deploy hybrid spectrum monitoring system that will cover the southern part of the country, most importantly the South East.”