Minister Denies Stripping NCC Of Its Powers

The Federal Government of Nigeria says it has no plans to strip the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, of its powers.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor  Isa Pantami disclosed this in Abuja while addressing Journalists during his presentation of his Ministry’s scorecard at the 19th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration Scorecard 2015 to 2023 series.

The Minister said there was no iota of truth in insinuations that the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA Bill currently before the National Assembly for review, was designed to usurp the powers of the NCC.

Professor Pantami explained that both the NCC Act 2003 and NITDA Act 2007 were obsolete and long overdue for review due to imperatives of new technologies, as the old Acts did not address the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Emerging Technologies.

Explaining the genesis of the bills, Pantami  further explains:

“We are talking about Fourth Generation (4G) Technology and Fifth Generation (5G) Technology today as well as the digital economy,  but the NITDA Act was specifically on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, while the NCC Act dwells more on telecommunications,” He said.

Professor Pantami advocated for the continuous working relationship among the Ministry’s agencies to achieve the desired goal of the federal government.

“I had a meeting with the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC and the Director General of NITDA at the beginning,  and I directed them to work together. And there was an agreement that both Acts needed to be amended. NITDA had over 30 stakeholders engagements and I am sure NCC were involved and had their own as well. It is unfair that someone would say this because I was once Director General of NITDA and therefore I tilted towards NITDA. 

“I protected NCC recently when an Agency took 42 billion naira belonging to it.  The higher authority asked the Agency to return the money to the NCC. 

“I stood my ground for NIPOST over stamp duty issues and my life was threatened by the late Boko Haram leader when we insisted on the implementation of the linkage of the Subscriber’s Identity Modules (SIM) with the National Identity Numbers (NIN), the Minister affirmed.

Pantami who insisted that the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta should make clarifications on the matter, maintained that what is being done regarding the amendments of the NITDA and NCC Acts are in the best interest of the country.

While highlighting the achievements in the ICT Sector within the past three years, Pantami said that based on an assessment of independent consultants engaged by the Federal Government, his Ministry’s scorecard stood at “A” in all the eight priority areas assigned to it by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He listed broadband penetration as of November 2022 at 46.2 percent, quarterly revenue generation from the ICT sector at 408 billion naira, and employment generation in the digital economy sector alone at 2.2 million Nigerians within the last two years.

On the Issue of National Identity Numbers (NIN) enrollment, He said that the “National Identity Management Commission,  NIMC,  was able to capture the NIN of over 95 million citizens on its database within two years compared to a figure of 39 million Nigerians captured by the same agency over 13 years”

The Minister further explained that through the implementation of the e-governance policy of the present administration over 47 billion naira has been saved for the government, stressing that he inherited only one National Policy, but as of today, 19 National policies are being implemented by the Ministry.

On the challenges in the telecommunications industry, Professor Pantami said they were a result of the deficit in infrastructures and vandalisation of fibre optic cables, adding that in one particular year, about 13,000 cases of vandalisation of fibre optic cables were recorded in different locations across the country.

The Minister gave the assurance that all the projects executed by the President Buhari Administration would be concluded before May 29 this year as President Buhari would also inaugurate the 12 billion naira National Centre for Digital Innovation located in Abuja.

Pantami said the President should be commended by all well-meaning Nigerians for the far-reaching policies implemented by his Administration to change the narratives of the digital economy space and improve the living standards of the people.

Under the Buhari administration, 18 Nigerian universities are being provided unlimited broadband access ( free Internet services) and 20 Nigerian markets are also benefitting from such gestures free of charge,  Pantami asserted.