Rising from a recent meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the European Union (EU) has declared support on the way and manner the Commission has been handling the sale and management of Spectrum in Nigeria.
Key words in their commendation were transparency and due process.
The meeting with the Vice President of EU’ Digital Single Market was convened to share with Nigeria and her relevant telecommunications and ICT agencies the story and experience of the Digital Single market of the EU. The benefits of creating digital registers towards achieving digital identity and related digital applications and solutions formed the core of the meeting.
The meeting had in attendance the Minister of Communications, Honourable Adebayo Shittu, the EVC NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, and representatives of NITDA, Galaxy Backbone Plc and Nigeria Computer Society.
Leader of the group, Mr. Andrus Ansip, the EU’s Vice President of the Digital Single Market, made the observation; Nigeria is doing very well in this aspect compared with what obtains in other African countries.
“I want to commend the transparent manner the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, under Prof. Danbatta has handled with transparency the sale and management of Nigeria’s Spectrum,” he added.
Ansip announced at the meeting that his group is on the verge of injection up to 350 billion Euros to support Africa’s digital revolution, particularly in digital governance and single market for the African Union.
He also revealed another funding window coming from the EU Multi-national Trans-Saharan Fiber Project being administered by the African Development Bank, ADB.
A statement sighted at the EU Digital Single market website noted that “The internet and digital technologies are transforming our world. But existing barriers online mean citizens miss out on goods and services, Internet companies and start-ups have their horizons limited, and businesses and governments cannot fully benefit from digital tools. It’s time to make the EU’s single market fit for the digital age – tearing down regulatory walls and moving from 28 national markets to a single one. This could contribute €415 billion per year to our economy and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs’
It would be recalled that the EU had been following digital developments in Nigeria and has been assisting the continent in the sector over the years.
