With the ASF, which became effective from July 15, the Commission hopes to prevent any anti-competitive behaviour, especially among telecoms operators.
The NCC said with the commencement of the implementation of the framework, telecoms licensees are, henceforth, obligated to submit their Regulatory Financial Statement to the Commission in line with the new ASF, within seven months after the end of the licensees’ financial year. Explaining the rational limiting for restricting compliance to only the six operators, Danbatta said this is to ensure the necessary structure is in place for reviewing and analysing the accounts before applying the new framework to all other licensees in the industry.
“Therefore, for full and effective implementation of the Framework, every operator under the ambit of accounting separation is required to prepare an Operator-specific Accounting Separation Manual , containing policies, principles, methodologies and procedures for accounting and cost allocation, which must be submitted to the Commission on or before October 30, 2020, for regulatory approval.”