COVID-19 : ATCON’s Webinar To X-ray Socio-economic, Political Impact On TMT Sector
By Ifeoma Asika
Umbrella body, the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), has concluded plans to host a virtual conversation(webinar) to discuss the Socio-economic and Political Impact of COVID-19 on the telecommunications, technology and media(TMT) sector in Nigeria, its President, Olusola Teniola has said.
Information on the webinar, communicated to us by ATCON’s Executive Secretary, Ajibola Olude, says the virtual conversation is built for Thursday, June 4, 2020 via Zoom by 10am.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the normal ways of living and transacting business socially, economically and politically, which has now made the organisers realize that Nigeria cannot continue to rely on its traditional means of livelihood, which is revenue from the sale of the volatile crude oil.
For example, ATCON argues, the price of crude oil in the international market fell below the benchmark prize used for 2020 budget and the federal government has resorted to borrowing a huge sum of money from the IMF to cushion the effect of the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.
It is to salvage the situation, ATCON says, there is an urgent need for collaboration from both the public and private sector to jumpstart the diversification and emergence of digitization of the Nigerian economy.
The objectives of the virtual meeting are:
- To ensure effective regulation and development and building of local capacities for the speedy spread of telecom and ICT infrastructure facilities across the country.
- To push for the buy-in of governments at all levels to encourage telecom and ICT infrastructure development in their respective states by encourage rapid investment through incentives such as tax holiday and provision of special intervention funds for the sector by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The high-wire virtual meeting is expected to be graced by top government functionaries, CEOs of Telecom and ICT companies, Directors from both public and private sectors and some media professionals.
