… Calls For Stakeholders’ Commitment
“We want Nigerians to play a major role in the design and manufacture of devices, in meeting the manpower requirements and in becoming an active part of the telecommunications ecosystem of the country.”
These were the words of the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Garba Danbatta at the Maiden Edition of Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFO-001) on National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Establishing Rules And Laws For The Effective Implementation Of Local Content Promotion Policy In The National Telecoms Sector’, Danbatta explained that Indigenous Content Development in the Nigerian Telecom sector is set to fly, and the Commission is calling on all its stakeholders to come on board to achieve maximum success.
According to him, the Commission is collaborating with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to achieve the objectives of content development in the industry.
“With the constitution of the Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS), the industry should expect new Guidelines and Regulations bothering on indigenous content, local manufacturing of telecom equipment, outsourcing of services, construction and lease of telecoms ducts, succession planning in the telecoms sector, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, among others, as the need arises.”
The EVC reiterated that the relevance of the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content (NPPIC).
“A key mandate of the Commission under the NPPIC is periodic benchmarking with NITDA, our sister Agency. In that regard, it is gratifying to note that sometime in 2013, NITDA introduced Guidelines on Nigerian Content Development for the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
In brief, the NITDA Guidelines set out to introduce content requirements for all companies operating in the Nigerian ICT industry and to achieve a target of 50% local content in the industry. All ICT companies were also required to be registered under Nigerian entities with predominant Nigerian representation. The guideline is not restrictive but is aimed at encouraging local value creation for ICT companies.”
Focus areas of the guidelines include driving indigenous innovation, developing the local ICT industry and establishing intellectual property regulation and standards protection.
The NCC EVC continued: “As we are all aware, the Federal Government has put in place very robust policy and legal framework for local content within the oil and gas sector. Similarly, the advent of local content in the Nigerian Telecoms sector is probably as old as the Nigerian telecoms revolution itself. The National Telecommunications Policy posited that the domestic production of telecommunications hardware and software is desirable for national development. It further states that, Government shall encourage domestic production of telecommunications equipment, components and software to meet local and export demands.”
Prof Danbatta further noted that in giving legal backing to the above policy direction, the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 identifies, as one of its primary objects the encouragement of local and foreign investments in the Nigerian communications industry.
He explained that “Indigenous Content Policy generally means any policy that encourages the development of indigenous skills, technology transfer, use of indigenous manpower and indigenous manufacturing.” Prof Danbatta noted that with advancements in technology, Administrations have come to recognize the need for their indigenes to participate actively in exploitation and transformation of their resources into goods and services aimed at economic growth.
Chairman, Organising Committee of Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFO), organisers of the forum, Mr Omobayo Azeez noted that the forum, part of a new initiative and an addition to the mechanism of policy implementation in Nigeria, drives to support government efforts at indigenous content development.
“You will agree with me that Nigerian archive is replete with good policies across the various sectors of the economy. But poor implementation has always characterized the system.
Our desire is to change this order of poetic policy pronouncement and prosaic execution by creating a midpoint interface between the government and private sector players, where policies can be dissected, digested and driven to effective implementation, and later appraised using measurable metrics to assess their success over time.
He assured that going forward, the forum shall address various other policies across telecoms sector, banking, oil & gas, aviation, agriculture, mining, MSME sectors, among others.
