L-R: Abubakar Maina, Project Director, Broadband Implementation Steering Committee (BISC); Ubale Maska, Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Chairman, BISC; Dr. Usman Abdullahi, Director, Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure, National IT Development Agency (NITDA) and Vice-Chairman, BISC; Kelechi Okonta, Managing Director, Zinox Technologies Limited; Ibrahim Dikko, Managing Director, Backbone Connectivity Limited, during the first stakeholder consultation with telecommunication industry players on the implementation of the new national broadband plan held in Abuja on Tuesday (November 3, 202)
By JOHN ONAH, Abuja
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has said that government is putting
greater emphasis on continuous engagement of different stakeholders to
secure their buy-in towards achieving the targets of the Nigerian
National Broadband Plan (NNBP), 2020-2025.
Danbatta stated this at the first stakeholder consultation with
telecommunication industry players on the implementation of the new
national broadband plan held at the NCC’s Communications & Digital
Economy Complex in Abuja on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
Represented by NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Technical Services and
Chairman, Broadband Implementation Steering Committee (BISC), Engr.
Ubale Maska, Danbatta said the Ministry and its agencies, as well as
the industry must work together towards the attainment of the set
goals.
In a statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Dr. Ikeckukwu
Adinde, the event, which is the second of the multi-stakeholder
consultation process by the BISC, Danbatta noted that the 30 percent
broadband targets set in the previous NNBP 2013-2018 were met and
surpassed due to “our collective efforts, policy direction, regulation
and financial commitment by industry players.”
He said there were, however, some targets that were not met in the
previous plan because of various challenges that are presently being
addressed.
“The NNBP 2020-2025 has, once again, identified initiatives to be
implemented by different stakeholders in order to achieve the set
objectives of the plan. The importance of broadband to our Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), socio-economic development, and especially the
digital economy, cannot be over-emphasized,” he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice Chairman of BISC, Dr. Usman
Abdullahi, said the forum was to avail the industry players and
representatives of government a veritable platform to collaborate, and
discuss ways to accelerate broadband implementation for sustainable
development of the telecommunications sector and advancement of the
digital economy.
Project Director, BISC, Abubakar Maina, made a presentation providing
information to stakeholders on previous and new targets, timelines,
milestones, strategic pillars, initiatives in the pillars, as well as
governance structure in the new broadband plan.
The forum was well attended by industry operators, especially the
Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) both physically and virtually, who
gave useful inputs for steering the course of implementation of the
new broadband plan to success.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the new
broadband plan on March 19 2020, following the development of the plan
by a committee, set up by the Minister of Communications and Digital
Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami on December 16, 2019.
As a follow-up, on July 9, 2020, the Minister, inaugurated the BISC
which is primarily saddled with the responsibility of ensuring
effective monitoring of the implementation of the new broadband plan.