By Jessica Dogo
The Federal Government has no plans to strip the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) of its powers, says the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.
Prof. Isa Pantami said this in his presentation at the 19th Edition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Scorecard from 2015 to 2023, in Abuja.
Pantami, in his presentation, said there was no iota of truth in insinuations that the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was designed to take the powers of NCC.
He said that both the NCC Act 2003 and NITDA Act 2007 were obsolete and long overdue for review due to imperatives of new technologies, as old acts did not address the fourth industrial revolution and emerging technologies.
“We are talking about Fourth Generation (4G) Technology and Fifth Generation (5G) Technology today as well as digital economy.
“The NITDA Act was specifically on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, while the NCC Act dwells more on telecommunications.
“I had a meeting with the Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC and the Director-General of NITDA and I directed them to work together and there was an agreement that both acts needed to be amended.
“NITDA had over 30 stakeholders’ engagements and I am sure NCC were involved and they had their own as well.
“It is unfair that someone will say because I was once Director-General of NITDA and therefore tilted towards NITDA,” he said.
The Minister also said that he stood his ground for the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) over stamp duty issues.
“I protected NCC recently when an agency took 42billion naira belonging to it. The higher authority asked the agency to return the money to the NCC.
“I stood my ground for NIPOST over stamp duty issues and my life was threatened by the late Boko Haram leader when we insisted on the implementation of National Identification Numbers (NIN) and Subscribers Identity Modules (SIM) linkage.”
Pantami said based on assessment of independent consultants engaged by the Federal Government, the ministry’s scorecard was graded “A” in all the eight priority areas assigned to it by President Buhari.
According to him, broadband penetration as of November 2022 stood at 46.2 per cent, quarterly revenue generation from the ICT sector at 408 billion naira.
“Employment generation in the digital economy sector alone at 2.2 million Nigerians within the last three years.
“The National Identity Management Commission, (NIMC) was able to capture NIN of over 95 million citizens on its database within two years.”
This, he said, was a milestone compared to the figure of 39 million Nigerians captured by the same agency for 13 years.
He further said that through the implementation of the e-governance policy of the present administration, over 47billion naira has been saved for the government.
He also said that he inherited only one national policy, but presently, 19 national policies have been implemented by the ministry.
He said 18 Nigerian universities are being provided with unlimited broadband access (free Internet services) and 20 Nigerian markets are also benefitting from such gestures free of charge.
He said that all the policies being implemented by this administration would be concluded before May 29 as President Buhari would also inaugurate the 12billion naira National Centre for Digital Innovation in Abuja.
He said challenges in the telecommunications industry were as a result of deficit in infrastructures and vandalism of fibre optic cables.
He said that in one particular year, about 13,000 cases of vandalism of fibre optic cables were recorded in different locations across the country.
Pantami said the president should be commended by Nigerians for the far-reaching policies implemented by his administration to change the narrative of the digital economy space and improve the living standards of the people.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NITDA Bill is currently before the National Assembly for review. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)