• As Agency Sets To Deepen Growth Of Telecom Sector

 By Angeline Mgbele, Correspondent Abuja

With the telecommunications sector emerging  as a leading contributor to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and as the country readies to launch the Fifth Generation (5G) network in 2022, independent telecoms sector referee, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has organised its 2021 Board and Management retreat.

 Regulator’s information, to which Cyber Era NG is privy, authored by the Director of Public Affairs(DPA) at NCC, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde says, the Retreat  is taking place at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, with the theme, “Expect More, Deliver Result”, and  is being organized as part of NCC’s strategic initiative for strengthening regulatory excellence and operational efficiency to sustain the growth of the sector and it’s contribution to the nation’s economy. The Retreat, Dr. Adinde adds,  is also meant to ensure the Commission innovates its way out of the various challenges confronting the sector within the context of global economic volatility and uncertainties. 

Attended by members of NCC Board of Commissioners and other senior management staff of the Commission, the retreat is taking place in-person and virtually, with some 100 senior management staff participating virtually in compliance with the extant COVID-19 protocols.

The retreat began on Thursday, November 11, 2021 with a welcome address by the Director, Corporate Planning, Strategy and Risk Management at NCC, Felix Adeoye, whose department oversees the organisation of the annual retreats.

At the opening ceremony, participants discussed the responses to the Pre-Retreat Questionnaire and set concrete objectives for the three-day programme.

Speaking at the event, the Chairman, NCC Board of Commissioners, Prof. Adeolu Akande, said the retreat provided an avenue to “assess our achievements and challenges, so that we can brainstorm and determine the most effective and efficient ways to achieve our mandate.”

 Akande affirmed that the telecom industry continued to maintain its place as one of the top three contributors to the GDP from a meagre 8.5 per cent in 2015 to 14.42 per cent as at the second quarter of 2021. He said the sector was also a major employer of labour with a significant catalytic effect on employment, establishment of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), and increased equity and equality among citizenry. 

According to the NCC Board  Chairman, the sustenance and development of other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, education, health, energy, services, finance among others were dependent on telecommunications infrastructure, the deployment of which was being stimulated by NCC, as the sector’s regulator.

 Akande said globally, the sector was now referred to as the ‘new oil’ because of the continual and potential evolutions and innovations, which guaranteed business profitability, growth and viability. However, he stated that while the statement was especially true in Nigeria, considering the dwindling price of oil, it also implied that more was expected from the Commission in terms of contribution to the national coffers.

Earlier in his keynote address, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive  Officer(EVC/CEO)of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, listed the remarkable achievements recorded by the Commission in the past two years since the last retreat. He said that despite the challenges and disruption to normal work process, it was encouraging to see that the challenge had instigated an innovative mindset in getting work done and remaining committed to the achievement of the strategic objectives of the Commission.

 While underscoring the theme of this year’s retreat, Danbatta said the thematic focus was meant to nudge the Commission’s Board and Management team on how the NCC could sustain and surpass its impressive track record of performance over the years.

“We want to see how we can ensure that we continue to expect more than these successes from ourselves to deliver even better results. This is the theme and underlining purpose for this year’s retreat and while we will explore the answer together, over the next couple of days, allow me to set a premise and surmise it in a single word: commitment,” he said.

Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, who was invited to the retreat to share industry insights from licensees’ perspectives with the participants, said the operators continued to face perennial challenges of infrastructure vandalism, lack of seamless access to foreign exchange, right of way (RoW) issues, multiple taxations and regulations, bridging the access gap, among other challenges, plaguing the industry.

Engr. Adebayo called on all participants and stakeholders to forge greater alliance and collaboration as this was required now, than ever before, to defeat the collective challenges and spur the strategic partnerships needed to enhance both the consolidation of the gains and the plan for harnessing rapidly-emerging innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), which Nigeria required to launch fully into the global digital age.

The facilitator of the retreat, Prof. Pat Utomi, recalled the history of the sector, stating with nostalgia how the auction of the first Digital Mobile Licence (DML) took place in the same Transcorp Hilton with fanfare, lots of expectation and with an eye on history in 2001. Prof. Utomi  said so far, the sector had grown significantly and had made the nation proud. However, he underscored the theme of the retreat in context by stating that the Commission must deliver more superlative results because Nigerians expected more. 

Utomi, who emphasized the importance of culture and commitment to sustained organizational success, urged the participants to see the appropriateness and the auspiciousness of the gathering by re-focusing on objectives, strategies , culture and communication as imperatives for achieving the mission and vision of the Commission.