By: Remmy Nweke


The executive commissioner of NCC, Stephen Bello, gave this indication at a one-day workshop for telecommunications operators in the country, held in Lagos.

"We want to see how we could start commissioning by June," he declared.

Bello also said that the NCC is tinkering with some emergency numbers including 999, 111, 123 and 555, adding that operators would be required to connect the eventual chosen numbers together in a way that if an emergency number in Lagos is engaged or is down, the one at the neighbouring state like Ogun could automatically be used to contact security and emergency agencies on the spot.

According to Bello, every base station to be used for the emergency numbering should be configured in a way to recognise emergency calls and make room for such calls in any base station no matter how busy at all times.

In addition, he said, that plans are underway for the establishment of emergency centres at the six geographical zones of the country as well as in the states.

He also revealed that the on-going consultation by NCC with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is expected to come in phases and cut across four levels, namely interaction with telecom equipment vendors, operators, response agencies and governors.

This, he said, is in addition to a generic stakeholders' meeting on emergency numbering before the commissioning could take place.

The NCC, he said, has created a special unit at its Abuja office to give the required attention to the issues at stake.

"There would be a public forum and this is just the beginning," he said.

The consultation, he further disclosed is anticipating that operators would work toward having emergency numbers that could be accessed through the possibilities of Short Messaging Service (SMS) and voice calls.

He said a database of all emergency services in the country is being compiled including their geographic locations and numbers.

He stressed that ambulance organisations, both at the public and private sectors, would not be left out in the compilation to make it handy for Nigerians to know who to contact at a given location that is nearest to emergency incidents nationwide.

The Federal Road Safety Corps, the Fire Service Police, the Police service, will all be identified as the primary responders to emergencies.

Published courtesy of

[28 Jan 2008 12:12]

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