The development of indigenous content in Nigeria’s telecoms sector is set to fly as industry stakeholders have come together to chart a way forward on actively participating in the exploitation and transformation of indigenous resources into goods and services aimed at driving economic growth and development.
From the just concluded maiden edition of the Policy Implementation Forum (PIAFo), a new dialogue platform for industry stakeholders towards the drive for effective implementation of various policies in the country, stakeholders identified that promotion of alternative solutions that come with the ease of doing business can help stem $2.6 billion annual capital flight in the telecoms industry.
At the virtual event monitored by Business A.M., Omobayo Azeez, chairman, Organising Committee and Convener, PIAFo, in his opening remark, stated that the forum has been designed to take the promises of the indigenous content policy in the telecoms sector beyond verbal commitment. He said the objectives of the policy can only be achieved when active dialogue is created around it to ensure that individual stakeholders understand how they fit into the bigger picture and what role is expected of them to attain these objectives for the greater good of the economy.
“You will agree with me that the Nigerian archive is replete with good policies across the various sectors of the economy. But poor implementation has always characterized the system. Our desire is to change this order of poetic policy pronouncement and prosaic execution by creating a midpoint interface between the government and private sector players, where policies can be dissected, digested and driven to effective implementation, and later appraised using measurable metrics to assess their success over time,” Omobayo said.
Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), who was represented by Babagana Digima, team lead and deputy director, Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under the purview of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to stimulate the development of indigenous content in the telecommunications sector of Nigeria, said 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 revealed that 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.
Speaking on the roadmap for implementation of the policy for the promotion of indigenous content in the Nigerian telecom sector, Dambatta spoke about NCC’s collaborative partnership with National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to introduce content requirements for all companies operating in the Nigerian ICT industry and to achieve a target of 50 percent local content in the industry. All ICT companies were also required to be registered under Nigerian entities with predominant Nigerian representation. The guideline is not restrictive but is aimed at encouraging local value creation for ICT companies.
“The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) emphasizes the effectiveness of ICTs for the sustainability of indigenous contents amongst member States. By the very nature of telecommunications, a large aspect of the content and procedures is global in nature, yet significant aspects are also local. ITU recognizes the need to sustain the balance between local and global content in the sector.
“This search for a balance presents opportunities and challenges for the regulator. In that regard, there is a pressing need to find a middle ground between optimizing indigenous participation in ICT and maximizing the benefits of a globalized ICT ecosystem. For us in the Commission, we agree with the notion that such a balance is achievable through purpose driven policies that create an enabling environment towards local innovation, local participation, local job creation, local investment and local ownership,” he stated.
Dambatta assures of a commission wholly committed to realizing the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari for promoting indigenous content in the telecommunications sector as has been done in the agricultural and petroleum sectors to achieve the goals of significant participation, preservation of scarce foreign exchange and improving the lives of Nigerians.
He stressed that to ensure effective implementation of these objectives, the NCC is developing a robust compliance monitoring and enforcement framework leveraging existing mechanisms.
