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Danbatta Pledges Support to New WATRA Leadership

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Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has promised the new leadership of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) of the unflinching support of the Commission towards advancing the socio-economic agenda of the Assembly for the sub-region.
Danbatta gave the pledge during a recent courtesy visit of the new executives of WATRA, led by its new Chairman, Sekou Oumar Barry of the Republic of Guinea. Barry came to vist Danbatta in company of the first and second Vice Chairmen of the Assembly, representing Mali and Sierra Leone respectively; as well as the Executive Secretary of WATRA, Aliyu Aboki, among others.
“In my capacity as the immediate past Chairman of WATRA, I promise my commitment to always share ideas with the new leadership of WATRA towards consolidating the successes so far recorded by WATRA under my leadership.
“I will give advice that will make you succeed as a friend and not the one that will undermine your authority,” Danbatta said, while welcoming the WATRA team in his office.
Speaking further, the EVC urged the new WATRA chairman to ensure diligent implementation of the new Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2022-2024 developed for WATRA. The EVC also emphasized that the strategic vision plan is expected to guide the activities of the Assembly over the next years.
According to Danbatta, the past one year of his tenure as former chair of WATRA has been eventful with a lot measures put in place towards deploying the power of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for advancing socio-economic development of the sub-region.
Danbatta acknowledged the important role WATRA has been playing in creating policy, legal and regulatory frameworks in the sub-region since the mid-1990s and commended the synergy among member states that has resulted in significant growth to the ICT ecosystem.
“I would like to congratulate my dear brother, Sekou Oumar Barry, on your emergence as the new WATRA chairman and to express, in very clear terms, our commitment as NCC and in my capacity as immediate past Chairman of WATRA to support your leadership to succeed in consolidating on existing achievements of the Assembly towards taking WATRA to a greater height,” he said.
Reinforcing his delight, Danbatta said, “This is an action in the right direction because we cannot deny the fact that successes are needed and financial and human resources are crucial to achieving success in any organization and WATRA with 16 member countries is not different.
“The expectation of our citizens is very high, especially in the area of ICT and we must strive to meet and surpass their yearnings.”
He further tasked the new WATRA executives to roll their sleeves and deepen the work they had started towards achieving the mandate, vision and mission of the Assembly.
“If we work together as a team, I believe we would make a lot of difference in a manner that will result in the socio-economic transformation of our sub-region in order to improve the standard of living of our people as we have seen this done successfully in many countries. So, we can repeat the same feat here in Africa,” he said.
In his response, Barry, who thanked Danbatta for making giant strides during his one-year tenure as Chairman of WATRA, assured of his readiness to work closely with member states and the EVC for valuable advice and guidance to collectively take WATRA to the next level over the next one year.
He pointed out that his leadership will focus on four key areas of priorities. These, according to him, include ensuring that the SMP is finalized and fully becomes operational, ensuring that member fees contribution is revised upward so that WATRA will have adequate resources to run its operation, build its permanent structure, and ensuring that the regional roaming policy for the sub-region becomes a reality.
“We want to ensure that the plan you started is not going to stop. We understand that the time left for us is short.
“We know we cannot do everything and that is why we are going to be focusing on the four key priorities areas as itemized above so that at the end of the tenure we can say we have succeeded on those priorities,” Barry said.
Danbatta handed over to Barry as the new WATRA Chairman during the 19th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Assembly which took place from March 29-31, 2022, in Conakry, Republic of Guinea.
The Assembly currently has 16 members states including Togo, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Nigeria, Niger Republic, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Republic of Guinea, The Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Ghana and Liberia.
WATRA, among other objectives, serves as a platform through which telecommunications regulators work together to broaden access to ICT services in the sub region. It also promotes the adoption of best global practices that stimulate investment in telecommunications infrastructure and services, deliver cheaper services to more citizens and connects people, societies and economies across West Africa and beyond.

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Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

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PAT Taps Osi as CEO

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Pan African Towers (PAT), a Nigerian infrastructure provider serving 9mobile and Spectranet, has appointed Echezona Osi as chief executive officer.

PAT Taps Osi as CEO

Echezona Osi

Adefolarin Ogunsanya, company’s, board chairman,  explained in a statement that Osi would succeed Oladipo Badru, whose tenure lasted nine months in acting CEO position. Osi has more than 28 years of experience in the telecommunications sector across various regions of Africa.

Prior to his appointment as CEO, he had served as the head of network deployment at Airtel Nigeria, operations director and chief technical information officer at MIC Tanzania, chief technology officer roles at IPT PowerTech Nigeria, Rhino Niger Networks and Biswal Nigeria.

He obtained a degree in electrical/ electronic engineering from the University of Benin and a postgraduate diploma in data science and business analytics from the University of Texas.


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NCC Introduces N10m Licence Fee for Bulk SMS Service

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Companies sending bulk international text messages, also known as Application-to-Person (A2P) messages, will now have apply for a licence that costs N10 million.

NCC Introduces N10m Licence Fee for Bulk SMS Service

This is part of new rules introduced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) aimed at cleaning up the system, fighting fraud, blocking spam messages and stopping money from leaving the country unchecked.

These A2P messages are the kind customers get from banks, online stores, hospitals and political campaigns, automated texts sent from apps to their phones.

According to the commission, the bulk international text message system has been poorly regulated, allowing misuse and invasion of privacy.

“The International SMS Service Ecosystem in Nigeria has not been fully brought under regulatory control. It has been observed that the excessive use of the Short Message Service has led to fraud, spam and illegal activities,” the NCC said.

The regulator warned that without action, the problem would worsen as more people use mobile phones and digital services.

To solve this, the NCC is creating a central platform, or gateway, through which all international bulk text messages must pass through.

The agency said this would help to monitor messages in real time, ensure proper fees are paid, and make sure the money stays in Nigeria where it can contribute to the economy.

As part of the incoming change, service providers must follow strict rules, including strong data protection, spam filters, and message encryption.

Also, they must also work with local mobile networks and make sure all messages come from a verified sender

The NCC warned that any message without a proper sender ID will be blocked and not delivered to users.

To protect users from unwanted texts, the new rules say companies must get clear permission before sending any promotional content.

The rule also says people must also be able to choose whether they want to receive such messages or not.

Companies are now required to keep records of all messages for at least six months and must clearly state all charges involved.

The NCC said fees for help requests, cancellations, or service info must be transparent and not include hidden charges.

The commission will issue licences to several providers to encourage healthy competition but may limit new licences if needed.

Only companies that show they can stop fraud and safely deliver messages will be allowed to operate. They must also regularly report their message traffic and finances to the NCC.

It warned that any company that breaks the rules risks getting fined, suspended, or having its licence revoked.

Offences like charging illegal tariffs, ignoring security rules, or avoiding taxes will be punished, the NCC said.

The commission added that the new rules follow the Nigerian Data Protection Act 2023 and support the federal government’s goal of strengthening cybersecurity and controlling Nigeria’s digital space.

The framework will also be reviewed from time to time to keep up with new technology and market trends.


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MTN Nigeria Targets $1Bn Cloud Market with Largest Modular Data Centre

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MTN Nigeria has launched what it claims is the country’s largest prefabricated modular data centre, marking a bold push into the country’s fast-growing cloud market and taking aim at global giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

MTN Nigeria Targets $1Bn Cloud Market with Largest Modular Data Centre

Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.

The shift comes as demand for cloud services in Nigeria soars — driven by the uptake of mobile apps, fintech tools and e-learning platforms — while foreign providers have become costlier in the wake of the naira’s sharp devaluation.

“This is one of the biggest data centres in West Africa and probably one of the biggest in Africa,” said Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.

He described the new Tier III-certified facility, with locally hosted cloud services, as “transformative for the technology ecosystem in Nigeria and very supportive of the federal government’s agenda”.

MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecoms provider, has so far invested $120m in the first phase, delivering an IT load of 4.5MW. A second phase, set to double capacity to 9MW, is budgeted at $135m.

“We already have data centres that are running our existing capacities,” Toriola said.

“We will go to 9MW in short order, possibly 14MW, and we can expand even further.”

He said the facility would allow local hosting for tech developers, large enterprises including banks and oil companies, and government agencies — markets long dominated by foreign cloud providers.

“Multinational companies such as Netflix, Facebook and Instagram can also host a lot of their data here. That improves the quality of service and reduces the cost of storage,” he added.

 


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