Nigeria has made much progress in telecom sector – ITU

 The Sectary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Houlin Zhao has said that though half of the population of the world are yet to enjoy the benefits of telecommunications and information technology, Nigeria has made much progress in the sector.   Zhao made the disclosure during a meeting he had with top officials of telecommunication operators in Nigeria at the headquarters of the Nigerian Communications Communications (NCC) in Abuja last week.

He added that developing countries like Nigeria have made consistent efforts in the telecommunication sector but will need more infrastructure and funding to match the progress recorded by other developed countries like France, Britain USA, China amongst others.   The secretary general added that the ITU are working with her sister organization like the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO) on how to facilitate Small and Medium Scales Enterprises (SMEs) on the the use of ICT in such sectors so as to contribute the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)   “We want to build an international platform for SMEs startups in different technological sectors in order to increase local content focus in Nigeria and other countries, which is why we will have a lot of focus on ICT SMEs in the forthcoming International Telecommunication Conference scheduled to hold from 10- 13 September 2018 in Durban, South Africa,” he said.

In his response, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)  Umar Garba Danbatta said as regulators, the commission is planning huge on SMEs affiliated with technology so as to have a very robust development.   “When we went to Busan, South Korea for the last telecommunications conference, we saw what this SMEs showcased which attracted us to have a frame work to get them integrated and to see how we can make them function better,” he said.   Danbatta added that the commission now has a research and development department which will be engaged in research on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can improve capacity development and improve the telecommunication sector as a whole.   

In the aspect of resolution of disputes between the NCC and telecommunications providers in Nigeria, the EVC commended the efforts of the ITU in resolving disputes bordering on regulation and assured the secretary general of their commitment in providing an enabling environment for operators to invest in the sector.  Chief Executive of MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman who spoke on behalf of the operators identified effective usage of spectrum as one of the vital areas to focus in order to record huge success in the sector.  “We are glad that NCC has conducted a study on spectrum sharing for more efficient and effective usage and operations which will increase data and broadband penetration,”   Moolman said one of the challenges the telecommunication providers encounter is the necessary ICT  infrastructure that government will provide for the telecommunication sector to be taken to the next level so Nigerian can align with intentional best practices in the telecommunication sector.  

The MTN CEO said one of the successes they have recorded in Nigeria is the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel which more banks and other organizations to communicate to their customers adding that it is a step taking to move Nigerians from the physical to the digital world.