Admin l Friday, March 25, 2021
ABUJA- Nigeria as a country has been called upon to leverage technology functionally to promote the economy and address other critical development challenges.
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta made the call in his goodwill message at the quarterly public lecture of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) in Abuja.
Danbatta who was represented by Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Mrs. Grace Ojougboh noted that during the lockdowns and other disruptions occasioned by COVID-19, Nigeria witnessed, first hand, the potential positive impact of telecommunications and ICTs across all the key sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Quoting statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, he noted that the telecoms sectors’ positive contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Quarter 4 of 2020 is one of the reasons Nigeria was able to marginally exit recession.
Danbatta reiterated the commitment of the Board and Management of NCC in ensuring Strategic Collaboration and Partnership with relevant agencies and stakeholders for a sustainable national development that guarantees economic prosperity for all citizens while preserving Nigeria’s fundamental social and cultural values.
He explained that aside from driving ubiquitous access to telecoms services, NCC takes it upon itself to constantly educate consumers of telecoms services on responsible use of ICT resources for promoting development and engendering national unity.
“This resonates with the Institute’s primary responsibility of harnessing our cultural resources to meet the challenges of social integration, peace, unity and national development”, the NCC boss said, adding that the commission recognizes the power of telecommunications in leapfrogging national development.
This, he said remains the reason the Commission accords priority to strategic objectives in its regulatory mandate hence the NCC ensures proper registration of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards while also ensuring the ongoing implementation of the Ministerial Directive on the linkage of SIM and National Identity Number (NIN) data in order to ensure credible citizens’ database.
According to him, the Federal Government believes that the NIN-SIM linkage, will enhance efforts at curbing criminal activities such as terrorism, banditry, kidnapping while boosting confidence in economic transactions.
Danbatta explained that the theme of the lecture, “Imperial Cultural Illusions, Delusions and Hallucination: Major Sources of Africa’s Contemporary Development Crises” finds cognate expression in technological determinism theory and cultural imperialism conception.
According to him, while the former presupposes that the society’s level of technology adoption determines the development of its social structure and cultural values; the latter is seen as the process and practice of promoting one culture over another and that access to technologies plays a vital role in this.
He explained that over the years, technology has revolutionised our world and daily lives and created amazing tools and resources, putting useful information at our fingertips.
He noted that in recent times, Nigeria has put greater emphasis on digital economy, through her National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2010-2030, courtesy of the visionary leadership of the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami).
