Of the Nigerian Communications Commission’s leadership in Africa’s digital ecosystem

Modern economies are driven by vibrant communication apparatus aimed at creating cohesion among component parts of the micro and macro economy.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)—characterized by the fusion of the digital, biological, and physical worlds, as well as the growing utilization of new technologies such GSM communication, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet, and advanced wireless technologies, among others—has ushered in a new era of economic disruption with uncertain socio-economic consequences for the country and the continent.

Nigeria, and by a wider range, growing economies, have without a doubt cashed-in on this opportunity with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) consolidating on improvements in the country’s ICT sector which have been largely driven by an expanding mobile ecosystem.

In recent years, the ICT sector, enabled by the mobile telephone revolution in Nigeria has continued to grow, a trend that is likely to continue.

Of late, mobile technologies and services have generated 1.7 million direct jobs (both formal and informal), contributed to $144 billion of economic value (8.5 percent of the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa), and contributed $15.6 billion to the public sector through taxation.

Digitization has also resolved information asymmetry problems in the financial system and labor market, thus increasing efficiency, certainty, and security in an environment where information flow is critical for economic growth and job creation.

Thursday March 31, 2022, until the recent creation of the agency for Digital economy, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) was the backbone of digital interfaces in the country, even after the federal government established the above organ, the NCC has continued to provide independent national regulation for the telecommunications industry in the country.

The Commission is responsible for creating an enabling environment for competition among operators in the industry. An undertaking that has earned it the reputation as a foremost Telecom regulatory agency in Africa.

This is even as it ensures the provision of qualitative and efficient telecommunications services throughout the country.

The Commission in its efforts to catalyze the use of ICTs for different aspect of national development, initiated several programs such as State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI) and Wire Nigeria Project (WIN) to help stimulate demand and accelerate the uptake of ICT tools and services necessary for the enthronement of a knowledge society in Nigeria.

To achieve this, the NCC put in place several licensing and regulatory framework for the supply of telecommunications services, and to support a market driven Communications industry and promote universal access.

This framework not only covers a dynamic regulatory environment that ensures universal access to affordable and equitable services, it also supports the nation’s economic growth.

Our Guiding Principles
It is important to point out that commission’s six core value components is a fulcrum driven by Fairness, Firmness and Forthrightness.

These core values are:
Integrity
Excellence
Professionalism
Responsiveness
Innovation
Commitment

It is essential that Nigeria, with her huge market potentials, is properly guided to ensure the interests of telecoms consumers in the country are well-protected.

In this regard, the Commission must continue to broaden the playing field by issuing more telecom licenses to industry players so as to further enshrine an atmosphere of increased consumer choices and satisfaction.

And like the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, recently said, at the inauguration of Bindawa as Non-Executive Commissioner of NCC’s Governing Board in Abuja, “It is because of this I do hope that you will be another good addition that will support, consolidate NCC’s achievement and also make sure that we have people with diverse experiences to be able to work together, support each other towards the success of the commission. I want to use this opportunity to remind the board of its responsibility, prior to the inauguration of the new member. The main responsibility is to ensure consumer protection.”

As the country joins the rest of the world in the upscaling race to 5G connectivity, there is need for cost-efficient network expansion to ensure optimal support for this traffic growth, with global mobile data traffic reaching a monthly rate of 56.8 Exabyte in 2021, as compared to 3.7 Exabyte in 2015.