Telecoms companies operating in Nigeria have asked the incoming Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for a better regulatory environment in addition to predictable policies. When these are guaranteed, it becomes much easier to further advance the industry.

According to the operators who made the demands through their representative body, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), they said their expectations are necessary because business can only thrive on sustainable policies and implementable regulations.

ALTON president, Gbenga Adebayo said, “For Nigeria to be competitive in a world where competitiveness is determined by knowledge, the necessary policies, laws and regulations, the enabling environment must be created to maximise private sector investment in the ICT sector.”

Adebayo, who gave an annual report of the association to members at an AGM, explained that while investment in the sector is significant, government actions are increasingly becoming a disincentive.

He said to address the situation, there is need to present to the government empirical evidence that will show clear indisputable statistics of the sector's contribution to the economy.

Adebayo stated that government also needs to know details of negative impact of its actions and inaction on the development of the sector, negative effects of high cost of doing business in Nigeria as relates to telecommunications and the need for focused policy direction.

He added there is still a lot to be done for Nigeria and it's populace to derive full benefits of ICT.

"We hope things will get better, we expect better regulatory environment because investment thrives only where there is right environment. We will continue to invest, investors will continue to be interested in the development of telecoms in Nigeria where there are clear regulations and predictable policies," he said.

"So, we are hoping that with the right regulatory environment, we would have been able to attract more investors to the various networks, and things will get better not just in terms of quality of services but also in terms of service offering on the entire national networks,”