Admin l Friday, August 13, 2021
LAGOS – The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has set up the Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS) for the purpose of implementing the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecom Sector(NPPIC) and President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Orders 003 and 005.
Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta made the revelation in his address at the maiden edition of Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFo-001) on National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector, put together by Business Metrics Nigeria. He explained that relevant portions of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025 as well as the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) are also under the purview of this new office called NODITS.
Danbatta explained that the Federal Government reinforced the local content agenda by putting in place the Executive Order 003 of 2017 and Executive Order 005 of 2018 titled Support for Local Content in Public Procurement by the Federal Government and Development of Local Content in Science, Engineering and Technology respectively.
According to him, among the several measures and strategies put in place to ensure compliance by the industry to the Executive Orders include building local capacity through various initiatives and innovations which are aimed at encouraging digital skills and entrepreneurship as well as building local infrastructure.
Danbatta told the virtual gathering that other departments within the Commission are equally saddled with responsibilities that help to inculcate indigenous participation in the telecom sector such as the Research & Development and Licensing Departments.
“Under the auspices of the Research & Development Department, the Commission has sponsored research efforts in several universities across the country. Notable areas of research conducted include “Development of All Weather Solar Systems For Energy Optimization in a Mobile Communications Base Stations” (at Ekiti State University of Technology), “Design and Fabrication of Meta-material Inspired UWB/MIMO Antenna for the 5G-Sub 6GHz Application” (at Taraba State University) and “Intelligent Autonomous Multi-UAVs (Multiple Drones) Swarm Monitoring for Effective Surveillance and Situation Awareness in the Nigerian Telecommunications Industry” (at Gombe State University).
Through these activities, the Commission, he said seeks to identify with and harness local resources in Nigerian institutions of learning for the benefit of the industry.
“Through R&D, the Commission has also successfully initiated Professorial Chairs in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), University of Ibadan, Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) and Bayero University Kano”, this, he said is informed by the need to establish concrete local linkages to deepen the relationship between the telecom industry and the academia in Nigeria; and to provide the missing integration and collaborative partnership required to galvanise qualitative indigenous solutions in telecommunications in Nigeria.
He said the R&D also supports the development of local Tech-Hubs and hackathon initiatives aimed at supporting indigenous upstarts, App developers and ICT innovators in general.
The Commission, the NCC boss said has identified several areas of collaboration with other agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations such as National Office for Technology Acquisition &Promotion (NOTAP), Small &Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), National Agency for Science & Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Rockefeller Foundation.
“Equally, there are plans towards direct intervention in line with subsisting policies e.g., in the local production of corrugated optical ducts (COD) to cater for fibre requirements in Nigeria and ultimately for export”, he said, adding with the constitution of the NODITS, the industry should expect new Guidelines and Regulations bothering on indigenous content, local manufacturing of telecom equipment, outsourcing of services, construction and lease of telecoms ducts, succession planning in the telecoms sector, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, etc. as the need arises.
“The Commission has already constituted a standing licensing review committee that is currently examining all its licenses in an effort not only of modernizing it to reflect the current realities of technology and development but also to consolidate, bundle or un-bundle individual licenses or even create new licenses.
Earlier in his welcome address, Chairman, Organising Committee, PIAFo, Mr. Omobayo Azeez said the forum was designed by the Business Metrics Nigeria Team to take the promises of the indigenous content policy in the telecoms sector beyond verbal commitment.
“We believe we can only achieve objectives of the policy by creating active dialogue around it to ensure that individual stakeholders understand how they fit into the bigger picture and what role is expected of them to attain these objectives for the greater good of our economy”.
He acknowledged that though Nigerian archive is replete with good policies across the various sectors of the economy, poor implementation has always characterized the system.
“Our desire is to change this order of poetic policy pronouncement and prosaic execution by creating a midpoint interface between the government and private sector players, where policies can be dissected, digested and driven to effective implementation, and later appraised using measurable metrics to assess their success over time”, Azeez said.
