The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Danbatta, has assured that “the Commission is wholly committed to realizing the vision of Mr. President for promoting indigenous content in the telecommunications sector as has been done in the Agricultural and Petroleum sectors to achieve our goals of significant participation, preservation of scarce foreign exchange and improving the lives of Nigerians.”
Presenting his Keynote Speech on ‘ESTABLISHING RULES AND LAWS FOR THE EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF LOCAL CONTENT PROMOTION POLICY IN THE NATIONAL TELECOMS SECTOR,’ at a maiden Virtual Policy Implementation Assisted Forum event (PIAFo) on the National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector in Abuja, he averred that “To ensure effective implementation of these objectives, we are developing a robust compliance monitoring and enforcement framework leveraging on existing mechanisms.
Earlier, he stressed that “As we are all aware, the Federal Government has put in place very robust policy and legal framework for local content within the oil and gas sector. Similarly, the advent of local content in the Nigerian Telecoms sector is probably as old as the Nigerian telecoms revolution itself. The National Telecommunications Policy posited that the domestic production of telecommunications hardware and software is desirable for national development. It further states that, Government shall encourage domestic production of telecommunications equipment, components and software to meet local and export demands.
“In giving legal backing to the above policy direction, the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 identifies, as one of its primary objects the encouragement of local and foreign investments in the Nigerian communications industry.
“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, 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.
According to him, “We are spurred by the words of Mr. President: “… we want Nigerians to play a major role in the design and manufacture of devices, in meeting the manpower requirements and in becoming an active part of the telecommunications ecosystem of the country.”
He revealed further that “Indigenous Content Development in the Nigerian Telecom sector is set to fly, and the Commission calls on all its stakeholders to come on board to achieve maximum success.”
