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Nigeria, Niger Sign Border Frequency Agreement

Written by Bunmi Abdulraheem

Nigeria and the Republic of Niger have signed a bilateral agreement for the coordination of frequency utilisation to ensure seamless deployment of services along their borders.

The agreement signing ceremony was one of the highlights of the two-day Digital Economy Regional Conference, hosted by the Nigerian government and facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.

Excerpts from the agreement indicates that, it will help in the effective coordination and sharing of frequencies and channels in the ‘buffer zone area’.

The agreement will also help to address one of the major issues of signal interference regulation that may arise in telecoms signal transmission by terrestrial telecoms service providers.

Part of the agreement says “In case of harmful interference affecting one of the parties, the affected party shall inform the other party in writing for necessary action to be carried out.

“Also, the party from where the interference is originating shall ensure that all necessary means are used to resolve the harmful interference within 30 days of receipt of the notice.” 

The already existing frequencies between Nigeria and Niger transboundary areas are 87.5 megahertz (MHz) to 30 gigahertz (GHz).

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, signed on behalf of Nigeria, while that of Niger was done by the Minister of Post and Technologies, Moussa Baraze.

RN