The efforts of the media in helping to create awareness of the potentials of telecommunications products and services has not gone unnoticed, NewsSpecng learnt.
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Professor Umar Danbatta, Tuesday commended the media, saying it is the major reason why the telecom regulator holds the media at very high esteem.
Danbatta disclosed this while addressing the Board of Trustees of the Nigeria Media Merit Award, NMMA, to flag-off the commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of NMMA as Africa’s foremost media excellence recognition institution.
Danbatta, who was represented at the occasion by the Director, Public Affairs of the NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, said NCC sought greater collaboration with the media describing the media systems of communication as central to social progress and are thus critical partners the commission requires to succeed in its determination to consolidate the gains of telecommunication.
Speaking on the topic, The NCC New Strategic Vision (Implementation) Plan (SVP) 2021-2025: A Transformation Agenda, which signposts the direction of the Nigerian telecom industry in the next five years, Danbatta recalled the trajectory of the evolution of telecoms in Nigeria.
He made reference to the nation’s showing of a paltry 18,724 telephone lines at independence in 1960 to serve a population of 40 million people, translating to a teledensity of 0.5, to the present time (as at July 2022), when “active telecoms subscribers have grown significantly hitting 209 million from about 400,000 aggregate telephone lines in the country on the eve of concrete deregulation in the year 2000.
Danbatta emphasised on the contribution of the telecom and ICT industry to GDP.
“This represents a teledensity of 109.47%. Besides, basic Internet subscriptions have also grown from zero in the pre-liberalisation era to over 152 million. It is also gratifying that the broadband subscriptions now stand at 85 million, representing a 44.49% penetration.
“The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector contributed 18.44 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2022. From this figure, the telecommunications sector alone contributed 15 per cent,” he said.
The NCC boss, also spoke extensively on the policy initiatives of the Federal Government and the continued support of government as crucial to the accomplishment of the feat in the telecom industry. Giving an indication that the Board, Management and staff of the Commission will not rest on their oars and will continue to re-engineer and promote innovations to make the nation to harness benefits that are accruable in a digital economy.
He stressed the objective of the Strategic Vision (Implementation) Plan (SVP) 2021-2025 is to consolidate on the accomplishments of the Commission under the SVP 2015-2020, otherwise called The Eight Point Agenda, the forerunner of the SVP 2021-2025, in order to take the Commission to a greater height where it will make even more superlative contributions to the national economy.
He also stated that the new Strategic Vision Plan 2021-2025 is designed as a transformation agenda for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
The EVC added that the new SVP’s focal objectives are to ensure: Organizational Renewal for Operational Efficiency and Regulatory Excellence; Facilitate the Provision of Infrastructure for a Digital Economy which fosters National Development; Promote Fair Competition, Inclusive Growth, Increased investment and Innovative Services; Improve Quality of Service (QoS) for Enhanced Consumer Quality of Experience (QoE); and Facilitate Strategic Collaboration and Partnership.
Finally, Danbatta said the significance of telecom as an enabler of other sectors’ is growth and its centrality to achieving better quality of life by the citizens.
He underscored the need for a renewed partnership and collaboration with all media of communication.
“For the media, it means the process of news gathering, processing and dissemination will be accomplished faster, thus enabling the media to inform and educate the citizens on happenings around them more timely, accurately, and adequately towards achieving greater socio-economic development in our country,” the EVC stated.
