Telecom
FG Inaugurates NITDA, NIPOST, NIGCOMSAT Boards
The Federal Government Wednesday inaugurated the Management Boards of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, and the Nigerian Communications Satellite, NIGCOMSAT.
Adebayo Shittu, Minister of Communications, who inaugurated the 36 member board of the agencies at Obasanjo Hall, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, urged them to justify the confidence reposed in them by the Buhari administration by turning around the fortunes of the agencies for the better.
Shittu said the performances of the agencies are critical to the commitment of the present administration to move the economy from oil and gas paradigm to the development of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
Government efforts, he said, have started yielding results as more than 10 percent of the nation’s GDP comes from the sector.
The Minister said: “The ICT sector is one of the key pillars of the Nigerian economy contributing more than 10% of the GDP. The sector has great potentials for contributing significantly to Nigeria’s economic recovery and Growth through economic diversification, creating opportunities for social inclusion, job creation and youth empowerment, improving human capital and facilitating economic competitiveness.
“It has been suggested that the Devices, Software Solution and e-Commerce sector alone could employ well over 45 million Nigerians and rake in significant revenue.
“The major challenges to the sector have been lack of an integrated framework for coordinated development, inadequate infrastructure leading to low access of Nigerians to the benefits of ICT, poor local content in the ICT industry, inadequate investments in the sector and low Capacity including lack of globally competitive skills.”
According to the Minister, the agencies would be restructured in line with the vision of the present administration to enable them to maximize their goals, pointing out that government would ensure that the enabling laws backing their operations are also fine-tuned and updated.
Shittu said the government is currently embarking on the upgrading of ICT infrastructures to ensure that they are capable meeting the challenges of the modern economy.
The Minister said: “Increased ICT infrastructure will also help to solidify national security, strengthen sovereignty and promote good governance. We are well on our way there with the kind of infrastructural investments that we envisage including regional fibre –optic links and metro rings.
“Recently, the Federal Executive Council approved the implementation of the National ICT Infrastructure Backbone II project.
“Considering the large youth population in Nigeria, one of the most critical success factors for ICT sector development is the issue of skills development. However, Skills issues remain a major constraint to the employment of Nigerians in the sector.
“Employers in the sector are increasingly finding it difficult to source for emerging 3rd platform technologies such as cloud, mobility, security and big data/Analytics which is where the world is going now.
“Considering the large youth population in the country, we will work with the Ministry of Education to integrate ICT effectively into education curricular through the use of ICT to facilitate education using smart devices, e-Content as well as increase the uptake of ICT as a subject”.
Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) is planning to encourage geo-political regions that grants zero charges for ‘Right of Way’ approvals as well not implementing arbitrary charges on telecommunications base stations in their regions with zero tariff.
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON disclosed this to Nigeria CommunincationsWeek against the backdrop of incessant closure of base stations in some states.
He said that operators believe that the way out of this arbitrary charges and high cost of RoW approvals is regional tariffs.
“Operators are advocating for a regional tariff which means that geographical regions of Nigeria where cost of doing business for telecommunications operators is extremely high will attract high tariff compared to regions where there is low operating cost.
“Our advocacy of regional tariff is not based on a particular state but on regions. As at today there are regions where we have zero cost of “Right of Way” and low cost of doing business. Tariffs should reflect on operating environment. This means that national rate plan should consider high and low cost of doing business.
“If this is implemented, in a long run we could witness some regions having zero tariff because operational cost in such regions are friendly to operators,” he said.
It would be recalled that Kogi State recently shut down some operators’ base stations on account of local levies which raises the call for discriminatory tariff among geographical locations.
Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has hit back at Meta Platforms Inc, warning the tech giant that its threat to exit Nigeria will not erase its legal responsibilities or liabilities under the Nigerian law.
Meta said earlier today, May 3, that it “may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”
Meta’s warning came after it lost a legal bid last week to overturn a ₦220 million fine imposed by the FCCPC for violations of data protection and consumer rights laws.
Reacting to Meta’s threat, FCCPC, in a statement on Saturday, May 3, described Meta’s statement as “a calculated” move aimed at “inducing negative public reaction and potentially pressuring the FCCPC to reconsider its decision.”
FCCPC said that Meta threatening to leave Nigeria does not absolve the company of liabilities for the outcome of a judicial process.
“These infringements included denying Nigerians the right to control their personal data, transferring and sharing Nigerian user data without authorisation, discriminating against Nigerian users compared to users in other jurisdictions and abusing their dominant market position by forcing unfair privacy policies,” FCCPC wrote on X.
“Interestingly, Meta had been fined for similar breaches in Texas ($1.5b) and only recently was asked to pay $1.3 Billion for violating E.U. Data Privacy Rules.
Elsewhere in India, South Korea, France and Australia, Meta had faced varying penalties for similar breaches. But Meta never resorted to the blackmail of threatening to exit those countries. They obeyed.”
Meta may shut down its Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in protest against the substantial fines imposed by multiple government agencies.
The tech giant has been ordered to pay nearly $300 million in fines in Africa’s most populous nation, following regulatory demands which Meta described as “unrealistic.”
In July 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), imposed a $220 million fine on Meta for allegedly discriminatory and exploitative practices against Nigerian consumers.
The commission stated that Meta had failed to engage a Data Protection Compliance Organisation and had not submitted a Nigeria Data Protection Regulation audit report for two consecutive years.
Similarly, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), demanded $37.5 million over unapproved advertising, while the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), announced a $32.8 million fine for an alleged data privacy breach.
Meta challenged the decisions at the Federal High Court in Abuja but was unsuccessful, as the court upheld the fines in a ruling delivered last week.
The court directed the company to comply with payment by the end of June, but Meta has indicated it may not do so, according to the BBC.
“The applicant may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures,” the company stated in court documents.
Responding to the NDPC’s assertion that Meta’s data processing could expose Nigerian users to health and financial risks, the company said the agency had failed to “properly interpret the laws guiding data privacy.”
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