The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy of Nigeria, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, had meetings at Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (Space X) headquarters in Hawthorne, California, as well as a meeting at the World Bank Headquarters and another meeting with Google Corporation in a bid to strengthen partnerships for the development of Nigeria’s digital economy.

The meetings with the World Bank and Google were held on the sidelines of the US-Africa Leaders’ Forum (USALF), which took place in Washington DC, United States of America, while the visit to Space X was a follow up to the events at the USALF.

Pantami was received at Space X by Samuel (Chad) Gibbs IV, the Vice President of Business Operations, on behalf of Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of Space X. At the visit, both parties discussed how Space X can expand its presence in Nigeria, following their entry into the Nigerian market through the Starlink broadband service.

The Honourable Minister also asked the Space X team to consider sourcing some of its engineers from Nigeria’s digital talent pool.  During the visit, the Honourable Minister and his team were given a personalised tour of the SpaceX Rocket Manufacturing Facility, Starlink Assembly Line, and Product Development Facility.  He also witnessed the live Space X rocket launch of 2 telecom satellites into orbit.

On the invitation of the World Bank Group, the Honourable Minister had a meeting with top officials of the Bank, including Vyjayanti Desai, the Practice Manager for the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) and Digitizing Government to Person Payments (G2Px) Programs.  Also at the meeting were Franz Drees-Gross, Director of Infrastructure, World Bank West African Region and Michel Rogy, World Bank’s Digital Development Practice Manager for Africa and the Middle East.  The World Bank team commended the Minister for his great leadership, which has led to significant development in Nigeria’s digital economy sector. The meeting also discussed how the Bank can further partner with Nigeria to strengthen the digital economy ecosystem in areas such as infrastructure, skilling, cybersecurity, and digital identity.

Pantami also had a meeting with Karan Bhatia, Vice-President, Government Affairs, and Public Policy at Google.  Mr. Bhatia was full of praise for the Honourable Minister for the significant progress that has been made in the digital transformation of the Nigerian economy.

He also commended the Minister for Nigeria Startup Act, noting the potential of the legislation to serve as a catalyst for rapid development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

The Google Vice-President discussed the company’s growing focus on Africa and looks forward to expanding partnerships with Nigeria in areas such as skilling, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, among others.

The Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, under Professor Pantami’s leadership, remains committed to implementing the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) in order to ensure that Nigeria’s digital economy remains a leading light, both in Africa and across the globe.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has named the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta as its Special Ambassador in its renewed war against narcotics and use of other dangerous substances leading to addiction in the country.

Commander for Narcotics at the NDLEA Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammed Ajiya, who announced the Ambassadorial recognition by the agency during a courtesy visit to the Commission in Abuja last weekend, said the objective of the NDLEA’s visit was to partner with the Commission in order to reduce the number of drug addicts in the country through sensitization programmes.

He said one of the aims for this collaboration is to explore the use of telecom platforms to disseminate information about its activities to sensitize the citizens. He said this has become strategic as nearly all Nigerian youths are telecom subscribers who interface with telecom platforms from time to time. Ajiya said NCC comes readily to mind as a good partner to the NDLEA to achieve the latter’s mandate of reducing cases of drug addicts among the Nigerian youths.

“The NDLEA has rehabilitation centres across the country. This shows that we do not only apprehend the drug addicts, but we have rehabilitation centres where we monitor and guide them until they are fully rehabilitated” he said as he expressed appreciation that the NCC boss considered and accepted this role in the fight against drug addiction in Nigeria.

NCC’s Director, Human Capital and Administration, Usman Malah, who received the NDLEA’s delegation on behalf of the EVC of NCC, assured the visiting team of the Commission’s commitment to supporting the drug agency in eradicating drug abuse and sensitizing the citizens especially the young generation, majority of whom are telecoms consumers, on the effect of drug.

“Strategic collaboration and partnership is one of the key pillars of the two regulatory roadmaps of the Commission – the Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2020-2024; and the Strategic Vision Implementation Plan (SVP) 2021-2025 – and we would convey the NDLEA’s message to the Commission’s management to see how we can explore the areas of collaboration being requested by your agency,” Malah said.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has embarked on a regulatory step to sensitise the industry about the need for proper and continuous risk identification with the view to managing such risks before they affect the health of the industry.

To this effect, the Commission has hosted a two-day maiden conference at its headquarters in Abuja, where its Executive Vice-Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said it has become imperative to minimize risks in the industry to ensure that services are not disrupted, and that consumers obtain the best services that are globally available.

The conference with the theme: “Nigerian Telecommunications Industry: Managing the Emerging Risks and Embracing Risk Opportunities,” called for collaboration between the regulator and other stakeholders in the industry, to achieve multi-stakeholder strategies aimed at identifying and addressing emerging risks in the telecommunications sector to ensure sustainable and impacting growth.

Director of Policy, Competition and Economic Analysis, Yetunde Akinloye, who stood for the EVC, said the essence of the forum was to examine myriads of issues that challenge the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030, and to enhance the development of a sustainable ICT sector in Nigeria.

“The focus of this conference is to bring to the fore the ever-rising uncertainties in the global economy and the attendant regulatory/operational risks in the areas of increased data security regulations, new partnerships and transforming business models, fast-changing mix of mounting capital expenditure (CAPEX) burdens, shifting market structures, newly emerging disruption scenarios, regulatory and policy challenges amongst others,” Danbatta said.

The EVC told participants at the event, which also featured virtual participation, that the Commission has been at the forefront of ensuring that the telecoms industry is not adversely impacted by these uncertainties/risks.

He stated that one of our Strategic Visions is to ensure a competitive market for the communications services that foster fair inclusion of all players, promote local content and innovative services in ways that facilitate new investment, job creation and consumer satisfaction.

Danbatta said the NDEPS is the guiding document for the Federal Government’s activities to maximise the immense opportunities that are inherent in digital technologies to nudge the diversification of Nigeria’s economy and attain the key national objectives of improving security, reducing corruption, and expanding the economy.

“While risk management has been critical in our regulatory service delivery, we acknowledge that all stakeholders must be concerned about the varied uncertainties that confront the industry. There is no gainsaying the fact that the Information and Communication Technologies Sector is inherently filled with several business and technology risks,” Danbatta said.

“It is, therefore, important that regulatory risks be minimised to ensure that services are not disrupted, and consumers obtain the best and latest services that are globally available. The Commission in a bid to ensure that operators in the industry enjoy a conducive operating environment has had cause to seek government interventions and collaborate with other Agencies of Government in addressing major sectoral risks.

“These risks include cybersecurity and online fraud, regulatory burden, multiple taxation, vandalism of telecommunication infrastructure, right of way challenges, access to foreign exchange, inter-industry indebtedness, among others,” he said.

In his paper presentation titled ‘X-raying Telecommunications Risk Radar: The Operators’ Perspective’, a facilitator at the event, who spoke to issues of concern to operators, Eniola Olugboyega, said that risk-taking can have positive or negative impact on businesses.

He also stated that most common losses from improper management of risk in the sector include customer dissatisfaction, fines and litigation, product failure, and loss of business opportunities, among others.

According to him, effective risk management aids effective decision making, prevents financial and reputational loss and addresses potential threats.

Thus, telecommunication risk from the operators’ perspective includes regulatory risk, insecurity, data breach risk, foreign exchange risk, rising CAPEX risk, human resource risk, and the inability to take advantage of new business models.