Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated its willingness to partner organisations and other federal government bodies in its bid to ensure growth and further the objectives of federal government policies towards involving both local and foreign investors in indigenous content development.
Speaking at a forum in Lagos, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta noted that: “The Commission considers stakeholder engagement and consultation as a key strategic regulatory approach hence the success story of the sector is largely attributable to the wide consultations and engagements employed at every step of the sectors journey.”
According to Danbatta, the NCC is vigorously promoting local investment in digital infrastructure and competition in the provision of accessible high speed broadband infrastructure. “This will in turn enable the Commission to deliver on the stipulated targets in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025. Towards achieving the mandate, the Commission has developed a licensing framework to enable infrastructure companies (InfraCos) roll out optical fibre cables for communications in the 774 Local Government Areas that make-up the Federation. The Commission also ensures full utilization of spectrum for deployment of services through Re-farming, Re-planning and Auctioning.”
He noted that as part of ensuring that the objectives are achieved, a policy on content delivery was formulated and being executed by the sister agency, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
In the Policy document, there are clearly defined objectives identified for each focus area with expected significant impact that a concerted implementation would have on the sector and the national economy.
“In addition, the Commission has developed an action plan to help guide the implementation of the Policy. To this effect, the Commission has articulated several targets and high impact interventions, which are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based to address the major policy areas. The focus policy areas are Manufacturing, Software Development, Compliance Monitoring, Licensing, Funding, People, and Research & Development for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” Danbatta explained.
According to the EVC, the Commission has identified several areas of collaboration with other Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations such as National Office for Technology Acquisition & Promotion (NOTAP), Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), National Agency for Science & Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Rockefeller Foundation. “Equally, there are plans towards direct intervention in line with subsisting policies, for example, in the local production of corrugated optical ducts (COD) to cater for fibre requirements in Nigeria and ultimately for export.”
“I would like to assure you that the Commission is wholly committed to realizing the vision of Mr. President for promoting indigenous content in the telecommunications sector as has been done in the Agricultural and Petroleum sectors to achieve our goals of significant participation, preservation of scarce foreign exchange and improving the lives of Nigerians.
To ensure effective implementation of these objectives, we are developing a robust compliance monitoring and enforcement framework leveraging on existing mechanisms.”
The Commission has already constituted a standing licensing review committee that is currently examining all its licenses in an effort not only of modernizing it to reflect the current realities of technology and development but also to consolidate, bundle or un-bundle individual licenses or even create new licenses.
