Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta- the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) held an interactive session with the media, the first since his re-appointment by President Muhamadu Buhari in August.
Prof. Danbatta is concerned with how the Commission can best empower Nigerian people and businesses to leverage digital technology to changes lives, generate wealth, and contribute to the growth of the country’s GDP.
It was on the strength of this commitment and sterling performance in office in the last five years that President Muhammadu Buhari, in August, had considered him for re-appointment for another term of five years in office.
During the interactive session which he held with senior media chiefs from the mainstream and online media community, he gave impressive accounts of his stewardship as the Chief Telecoms Regulator in the last five years, while setting priorities for the next five years, promising to cut the cost of data by 60 percent.
The event, held at the NCC’s Communications and Digital Economy Complex, Miatama Abuja, was attended by the top-notch of the fourth estate of the realm both physically and virtually, as well as the senior management of the Commission, including the Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu.
Addressing the forum, Danbatta listed the major policy initiatives which had produced record broadband penetration and enhanced the growth in the telecoms sector, especially in the contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He revealed that on the assumption of office five years ago, the Commission discovered 217 access gaps, a result that had affected 40 million Nigerians – having no access to telecom services. Then he tapped the drum:
“But today, we have reduced the access gap clusters to 114 with 15 million of the 40 million digitally excluded Nigerians now having access to telecoms services. We are committed to addressing the remaining access gap clusters, which are areas outside the frontier of economic viability to ensure the remaining 25 million Nigerians have access.”.
Equally, he talked about capital importation, saying the EVC said in 2015, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the telecom sector stood at $1 billion but declined to $212 million by 2018. He, however, noted that through regulatory efforts, the FDI in the sector had picked up again reaching $930 million according to recent figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He also listed the various consumer-centric initiatives his leadership has put in place to strengthen consumer protection and empowerment in the last five years. These include the declaration of 2017 as the Year of the Consumer, the introduction of the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) 2442 Short Code, the introduction of the NCC toll-free Number 622; the stringent provisions of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) Registration Guidelines, issuance of direction on forceful subscription and data roll-over, among others.
Such initiatives included the constitution of a multi-sectoral committee on e-fraud, revision of the consumer complaints, and service level agreements (CC/SLA) for prompt resolution of consumer complaints by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
Prof. Danbatta receiving an Award
According to him, the careful implementation of the Commission’s Strategic Vision Plan (SVP) in the last five years with a focus on the 8-Point Agenda, had raised the country’s broadband penetration to 42.02 per cent by July, 2020 from 6 per cent in 2015. He pointed out that the telecoms sector’s contribution to the GDP increased from 8.50 per cent in 2015 to 14.30 per cent in the second quarter of 2020. This means that the Q2 2020 contribution translates to N2.272 trillion.
Prof. Danbatta also listed the Commission’s regulatory priority areas for the next five years to include:
- facilitating attainment of 70 percent broadband penetration by 2025;
- consumer protection and empowerment;
- consolidation of spectrum trading to ensure maximum and efficient usage of available frequencies.
- SIM registration audit to provide security and curtail incidences of banditry, kidnapping, and armed robbery;
- creation of Emergency Communications Centres (ECCs) in more states of the federation;
- execution of the counterpart funding agreements with the licensed Infrastructure companies (InfraCos) to facilitate the digital transformation of the economy.
He noted that when he came on board five years ago, there were 47,000 kilometers of fibre optic cables laid across the country. However, five years after, as a result of regulatory focus, there are now 54,725 kilometers of fibre cables laid across the country through the efforts of some private companies in the sector.
“In line with the Federal Government’s target, an additional 120,000 kilometers of fibre are being planned over the next four years. In this regard, the NCC is working on last-mile connectivity to different parts of the country through leveraging the 40 terabyte capacity of five submarine cables on the coastal shores of Nigeria,” he said.
He reiterated NCC’s commitment towards delivering on its mandate of ensuring the quality of service to the consumers, driving investment, and boosting healthy competition in the industry as enshrined in the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003. And he praised the role of the media in the reportage of the telecom sector over the years and urged the practitioners to continue to be objective and constructive in their coverage of the activities of the Commission and that of its licensees.
With the sterling performance by Professor Dambatta in NCC, one needs no wonder much as to why the organization regularly attracts accolades and awards. Some of these awards came in recently in recognition of the critical role the Commission has been playing in keeping Nigerians and businesses connected since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Two of the awards, ‘Human Rights Telecoms Defender’ for the EVC and ‘Human Rights Guard’ for the Commission, as a corporate entity, were presented by Wheel of Hope Human Rights Foundation (WHHRF), a frontline Nigerian Non-Governmental Organisation. The third award, ‘Icon of a Greater Nigeria’ was presented to the EVC by the Youth Coalition Against Corruption (YOCAC), a coalition of Nigerian youths from all walks of life. Coincidentally, WHHRF and YOCAC adduced similar reasons for finding the EVC and Commission deserving of the recognitions.
Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Dr. Ikeckukwu Adinde, who received the awards on behalf of the EVC, appreciated the organizations for their gestures, noting that the three awards will serve as an encouragement to the Commission to continue to strengthen effective, fair, and transparent regulation of the telecommunications industry.
“On behalf of the EVC and Chief Executive of NCC, we thank you for these recognitions. These latest awards will add to the long list of laurels in the NCC’s kitty. There are many initiatives by the Commission, to ensure increased connectivity, improved quality of service and consumer rights protection,” Adinde said while restating the NCC’s commitment to consumer-centric initiatives that promote digital inclusion and advance the digital economy vision of the government.
Jide Abdulazeez, Chairman, WHHRF, said the presentation of the two awards by the Foundation was in recognition of “the leading role the Commission has been playing in sustaining access to telecoms services throughout the period of the lockdown, following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.”
He added that the role of NCC in making the 112 Emergency Number available to Nigerians to report COVID-19-related cases and other emergencies; as well as its efforts in consistently protecting the rights and privileges of telecoms consumers, through effective resolutions of service-related complains, are part of the reasons for finding the Commission worthy of the awards.
In his own part the National Coordinator, YOCAC, Dahiru Umaru, said, “the Icon of Greater Nigeria Award conferred on the EVC is in recognition of his leadership qualities and achievements which have engendered quality regulatory supervision of the telecoms industry by ensuring that telecom consumers are not unduly shortchanged, especially during the critical stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
According to him, the Commission has been contributing immensely to the growth of the Nigerian economy by ensuring robust telecom infrastructure, making it possible for Nigerians to leverage social media and other digital platforms to ventilate their views against corrupt practices in order to ensure good governance in the country.
While NCC has done well in the area of using digital platforms to fight corrupt practices so as to drive good governance in Nigeria, some experts still contend that needs to enthrone a culture Nigerians youth can leverage on online platforms to generate revenues and participate in the gig economy.
They add that the extent to which the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) devices by Nigerians can improve on the quality of their lives will remain low until the youth and many Nigerian small businesses become more productive online.
They made the comment when they were asked questions on the report of a recent study, which ranks Nigeria as fifth in Africa, and 81 out of 85 nations, in terms of improved digital quality of life. a product of Privacy Company, Surfshark,
The study titled Digital Quality of Life (DQL) 2020 was conducted by a Privacy Company, Surfshark. It based its ranking on five pillars– Internet affordability, Internet quality, electronic infrastructure, electronic government, and electronic security, where it ranked Nigeria 85th, 81st, 70th, 53rd, and 53rd.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) informed that there are 146 million Internet users and 80 million broadband subscribers in the country. Statistics from Internet World Stat puts the Internet growth rate in the last 20 years in Nigeria at 62.9 per cent of an estimated population of 206 million.
President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Olusola Teniola, observed that “digital quality life goes beyond just the rising numbers, but we must be productive online.”According to him, there are many things that Nigeria is not doing right.
“Nigeria still counts subscriptions as if they are human beings. A lot of the subscriptions are duplicated SIM cards. There are multiple SIM cards, some are connected to machines, so it doesn’t give a true picture of those who are individual owners of devices with SIM cards who are doing productive stuff.
“The report is saying that having a mobile device doesn’t mean you’re digital native. Consuming YouTube, watching football, watching Big Brother are not productive activities, they are just entertainment and leisure coming from the fibre that is connected to the shows that is bringing traffic into the country. So we are just mere consumers, we have to stop being consumers, but producers.”
The ATCON president noted that digital economy is about creating an economy where you produce in the big markets, and other markets buy from you and revenues are earned.
Some telecoms expert equally decried the low productivity through the vast mobile connections in the country, saying Nigeria must reject the ‘consuming nation’ status placed on the country, which has resulted in it becoming a dumping ground for all sorts of good and services.
Kayode Aluko “It is disappointing and painful that despite the subscription figures, our impact is still very low in terms of productivity on the Internet. There is serious work before the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to make changes. We can’t just continue on a downward trend as a nation,” he stated.
While telecom analysts fume over the low productivity of the digital economy in Nigeria, many Nigerians are praising Professor Danbatta for his giant strides at NCC. And the COVID-19 lockdown period really provided the litmus test for the NCC to show that it is up to its mandate of pushing the Nigerian Digital economy on the watch of Danbatta.
An insight gained from the World Bank Nigeria Digital Economy Diagnostic Report reveals that the digital economy can change the way economies of scale are achieved. In 2016, the global digital economy was worth some $11.5 trillion, equivalent to 15.5 percent of the world’s overall GDP. It is expected to reach 25 percent in less than a decade, quickly outpacing the growth of the overall economy. It can also strengthen people’s trust in firms or governments by enabling some decentralized forms of trust (such as with a blockchain) where centralized authorities are not trusted.
It may allow products and services to be customized and targeted—enabling better inclusion but also easier ways to exclude some too. However, countries like Nigeria were reportedly capturing only a fraction of this growth and need to strategically invest in the foundational elements of their digital economy to keep pace. Professor Danbatta has been working on all these with some notable results.
These results became evident during the economic lockdown and cessation of movements caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, with online service delivery restricted, the digital economy provided a soft landing for both buyer and sellers in a competitive market. And again, it is certain to address the issue of irregular information, solving some principal-agent problems where buyers and sellers are separated by intermediaries or even multiple levels of intermediaries.
Ernst & Young Nigeria, in 2018 defined Digital Economy as the part of the economic output derived solely or primarily from digital technologies with a business model based on digital goods and services. The digital economy is made up of various components, including a platform economy, a gig economy, an industry 4.0, a digital economy, data analytics, robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, 3-D printing, and e-commerce among others.
Nigerians can benefit and make money from all these, most notably youth can take advantage of gig economy. And what is it/? The “Gig Economy” is a new work paradigm that has been gaining in popularity in recent years, largely as more people today rely on a secondary income or struggle to find full-time, stable employment. It describes the proliferation of temporary and flexible jobs that freelancers can pick up for quick pay. It’s a fragmented employment model where a worker has multiple shifts to work in a day or a handful of projects to make an income, being antithetical to the traditional nine-to-five shift that salaried employees would enjoy at a company they may expect to work at for years.
The success of companies like Uber, Lyft, Foodora, and many other players in the flexible workspace make these roles more accessible and popular to both casual freelancers and full-time gig economy participants. Other examples of gig work include freelance writing, doing small tasks for quick cash on a platform like TaskRabbit, and even renting out your property on Airbnb is included.
To make Nigerians benefit immensely from this digital economy, Prof Danbatta is pushing on all fronts to do things that allow Nigerians unlock a world of digital possibilities to improve their economic, psychological, social, and physical well-being, empowering youth to take charge of their own lives. In this way, they are better able to use creativity to build wealth and contribute to the development of individuals, families, communities and the country.
These and other measures are what Prof Danbatta is doing at NCC to make information and communication facilities and services easily affordable and accessible to the common man in Nigeria. And it is only through effective implementation of all these projects that Nigeria can lead or at least secure a seat among the comity of nations in the digitalized global economy. No wonder honour and awards keep flowing to the NCC.
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