• Pantami, Danbatta, Abdullahi And Abubakar To Highlight Event

By Kingsley I. Ilechukwu, Correspondent Lagos

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has announced its plan to host the maiden edition of Virtual Structured Engagement with Key Stakeholders in the Nigerian Telecommunications, Media and Technology(TMT) Sector on the New National Broadband Plan 2020- 2025 with a theme – Realizing The New Set Target Of 70 per cent Of Broadband Penetration built for Thursday, March 25, 2021.

A statement authored by both the President and Publicity Secretary of ATCON, Ikechukwu Nnamani and Wole Abu, respectively, says the buy-in of the various sub-groups under the membership of ATCON would be leveraged upon to ensure and guarantee that the new Broadband Plan 2020-2025 is adequately positioned to deliver its ultimate purposes for the generality of Nigerians more quickly and strategically.

“Traditionally, ATCON as an organization usually gives its members the opportunity to review and provide insightful approaches and solutions along with Ministry, NCC, NITDA and State Governments as to what needs to be done to support various programmes and projects that are earmarked for the successful implementation of the previous National Broadband Plan under past ministers,” ATCON says.

As per ATCON, the strategic objectives of the virtual event are:

• To compliment the various strategic activities already embarked upon by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
• To achieve the set target of Broadband penetration in Nigeria with great speed.
• To leverage on the wide spectrum of ATCON sub-group for effective participation in the new Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025 by giving them the opportunity to access the plan and suggest various ways to speed up the realization of the established target by the government.
• To serve as a veritable platform to galvanize the needed input that reflect the thinkings of the telecom and ICT sector.
• An opportunity to review the relevance of the Nigerian policy environment vis-a-vis the telecom operating environment.

Minister, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy(FMoCDE), Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami is expected to deliver the Principal Keynote on “Enhancing The Contributions Of Sub-sector In The Nigerian National Broadband Plans Through Enabling Policies” while EVC/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta; Director-General/CEO, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi and Director-General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Engr Aliyu Aziz Abubakar would share their respective commission’s and agency’s perspective via a paper presentation on “Aggregating The Potentials Of The Sub-sector To Meet The New Broadband Set Target Of 70%”.

Each sub-sector,according to ATCON, is seen as an integral part of the entire ecosystem of the Nigerian telecom and ICT sector hence, selected representative of various subgroups would be expected to make a presentation on how the new Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025 is impacting the subsector and list what can be done to make the plan realize its set target on or before the stated period.

Some of the sub-sectors/sub-groups that their inputs would be collated, which are germane to the implementation of the Plan are: Towers/Base Stations Providers, MNOs, Over The Top (OTT) Players, Value Added Services Providers (VAS), Metro-Fibre Operators, Submarine/Undersea Cable Operators, Internet Services Providers (ISP) – Wholesale Segment, Data Centre Operators, Internet Services Providers (ISP) – Retail Segment, Digital Skills/Capacity Building, FINTECH/e-Commerce Operators, Cloud Computing, Manufacturers’ Representative, Satellite Operators, eGovernment Services Providers and Equipment Dealers.

The Association says it is confident that this special engagement would enable stakeholders carry out the industry mapping with respect to the new Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025, adding: “This very important strategic and flagship event would serve as a veritable platform for the key stakeholders in the telecom and ICT sector to brainstorm and proffer solution for the realization of the new set target of 70 per cent of Broadband Penetration more expediently.”