The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta has reiterated the commission’s position that the media is a strategic partner in its drive to achieve the Strategic Vision Plan (SVP) 2020-2025.
Prof. Danbatta, who was speaking at an ICT Growth Conference & Awards, organised by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) in Lagos yesterday, also hailed the media for its role in the growth of the telecom industry, which he revealed contributed 12.45 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product in last quarter of 2020.
“We are also pleased to always identify with NITRA, a very important professional association of ICT journalists in the country, which has, over the years, remained a strategic partner of the Commission. Indeed, strategic collaboration and partnership is a key element of my Strategic Vision Plan (SVP) 2020-2025, and consistent with that, NITRA stands tall as a major stakeholder in our drive for the advancement of the industry,” said Danbatta, who was represented at the conference by the Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde.
He believes that the thematic focus of this event: “Harmonising ICT Sub-Sectors towards a Digitised Nigeria” is quite timely and apt, as it provides the telecoms industry regulator opportunity to share its thoughts on how it can collectively create synergy among the various sub-sectors of the ICT industry towards achieving accelerated growth of the industry.
According to Danbatta, the various sub-sectors of the entire value chain of the ICT industry, including the telecoms, software, hardware, infrastructure, Value Added Services (VAS), fin-tech, innovation and technology startups are witnessing various degrees of growth with the rapid evolution digital technologies.
Each of these sub-sectors of the ICT industry, he argued is very critical to the sustainability of the growth and contribution of ICT industry to the national economy. “As a nation, developing the ICT industry remains a crucial agenda in our quest for sociology-economic development in general and in the process of regional and global economic integration in particular,” he added.
The ICT Growth Conference/Awards was conceived by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) for stakeholders in the information and Communications Technology to chart ways for the growth and development of the sector as well reward some organisations that have played significant roles in the growth in the sector.
Giving his welcome speech, the Chairman of NITRA, Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi, noted that the theme of this year’s event was chosen based on the fact of the need to coordinate different sub-sectors’ efforts in the industry to achieve a digitalized economy.
“Sub-sectors of the industry are interdependent for instance; telecommunications services require software, fintechs depend on telecommunications to operate and so does Data centre, cybersecurity among others,” he said.
He argued that in line with efforts of the federal government through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to digitalize the economy, there is a need to harmonise policies and growth initiatives in different areas of the ICT sector to achieve desire growth and development.
