By Kester Omu
The new Executive Council of the Nigeria Internet Group, as part of its effort to reposition and boost Internet growth in Nigeria, has met with the Nigerian Communications Commission, National Information Technology Development Agency and the National broadcasting Commission.
At NCC, the NIG team, which was led by its President, Destiny Amana thanked the Commission for its forward looking poster and consumer-centric drive to ensure quality of service. Specifically, Amana congratulated the Commission for the recent launch of the 63 toll free emergency customer care numbers.
He appealed to the Commission to revisit the existing MoU between the NIG and the NCC on the Internet for Jobs Initiative (I4J), which he recalled, gave birth to organizations like budget, that are today contributing their quota to Nigeria’s socioeconomic development.
Also, commenting, the Vice President of NIG, Dr. Bayero Agabi reiterated that the NIG was committed to using the internet to build capacities and ensure job creation hence a close working relationship with the NCC was critical. He also used the opportunity to inform the Commission of the nomination of the Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta into the Nigeria Internet Group Hall of Fame for his outstanding achievement in regulatory affairs, noting that the rectified nominees would be inaugurated at a ceremony to be announced later.
Receiving the group on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman, Engr Haru Alhassan, Director, New Media and Information Security at the Commission assured the body of the NCCs commitment to explore partnerships that will help the Commission to achieve its set mandate.
He also promised the NIG of the Commission’s willingness to collaborate with the group to foster Internet growth as a way of expanding synergies with stakeholders in the Telecoms ecosystem.
At the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), NIG Exco reminded the Director General, Engr. Kawu Modibo of his position as a statutory member of the bodies Board of Trustees (BoT), urging him to take advantage of the wider membership and cross sectoral representation of the NIG in working together to achieve the goals of both organisations.
The Exco expressed delight on the progress the NBC has made so far in the DSO project.
An elated Modibo, while commenting, stressed that with the new NBC licensing regime will further boost content creation and consumption, especially with increased Internet bandwidth and penetration. He noted that Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) will change viewing patterns, hence collaborating with the NIG was pertinent at a time like this.
Modibo further briefed the NIG Exco on some of the Commission’s initiative to help push the government quest for job creation and economic diversification adding that the NBC will ensure that local content is sustained hence the production of Set up boxes for the Digital Switch Over are locally provided.
Also visited was the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA.
The Nigeria Internet Group is a Nongovernmental organization with the mandate to promote internet in Nigeria, and to achieve this mandate, the Group has to engage itself in numerous activities, and some of these activities include policy advocacy, and awareness creation and education awareness creation.