Professor Umaru Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said I would like to assure you that the Commission is wholly committed to realizing the vision of Mr. President for promoting indigenous content in the telecommunications sector as has been done in the Agricultural and Petroleum sectors to achieve our goals of significant participation, preservation of scarce foreign exchange and improving the lives of Nigerians.
Executive Vice Chairman in his Keynote Speech titled “Establishing rules and laws for the effective implementation of local content promotion policy in the national telecoms sector” was delivered at a maiden Virtual Policy Implementation Assisted Forum event (PIAFo) on the National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector, held earlier today
He further stated that Nigerian Communications Commission is pleased to collaborate with Messrs adding that Business Metrics and their partners to deliver this great maiden initiative of its Policy Implementation Assisted Forum on the National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector (aka PIAFo-001).
The Commission considers stakeholder engagement and consultation as a key strategic regulatory approach hence the success story of the sector is largely attributable to the wide consultations and engagements employed at every step of the sectors journey, he added.
To ensure effective implementation of these objectives, Danbatta disclosed that we are developing a robust compliance monitoring and enforcement framework leveraging on existing mechanisms. We are spurred by the words of Mr. President:
“… we want Nigerians to play a major role in the design and manufacture of devices, in meeting the manpower requirements and in becoming an active part of the telecommunications ecosystem of the country.”
“Indigenous Content Development in the Nigerian Telecom sector is set to fly, and the Commission calls on all its stakeholders to come on board to achieve maximum success.
Professor noted that Indigenous Content Policy generally means any policy that encourages the development of indigenous skills, technology transfer, use of indigenous manpower and indigenous manufacturing. According to him with advancements in technology, Administrations have come to recognize the need for their indigenes to participate actively in exploitation and transformation of their resources into goods and services aimed at economic growth.
NCC Boss said the Federal Government has put in place very robust policy and legal framework for local content within the oil and gas sector.
Similarly, he stressed that the advent of local content in the Nigerian Telecoms sector is probably as old as the Nigerian telecoms revolution itself adding that the National Telecommunications Policy posited that the domestic production of telecommunications hardware and software is desirable for national development. It further states that, Government shall encourage domestic production of telecommunications equipment, components and software to meet local and export demands, he noted.
“In giving legal backing to the above policy direction, the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 identifies, as one of its primary objects the encouragement of local and foreign investments in the Nigerian communications industry.
“With the steady evolution of Telecommunications in Nigeria, the industry and its infrastructure are appreciated as the infrastructure of infrastructures, positioned to drive growth and efficiency in every other sector (both private and public) by supporting the optimization of institutions and processes in the ecosystem. Accordingly, he said the development of effective local participation at all levels of the value chain becomes a sine-qua-non to the overarching national economic development and market success.
