Forum Seeks End to $2.6bn Telecom Capital Flights

Business Metrics Nigeria, a business and tech-dedicated news platform is assembling IT experts across public and private sectors to fashion out ways to stem over $2.6bn spent by telecoms operators in the country in search of foreign solutions and inputs.

The organisers of the forum Tagged “Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFo)”, explained that the initiative was borne out the need to stimulate effective implementation of the National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sectors recently launched by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the conveners of the event scheduled for Thursday, August 5, 2021, by 10:00 am, would be led by Dr. Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy is expected to deliver a keynote address at the forum.

While PIAFo is designed in series to bridge policy implementation gaps in the country, the forthcoming maiden edition is theme National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector.

Mr Omobayo Azeez, Managing Editor of Business Metrics and Chairman, Organising Committee, PIAFo-001, assured that participation of stakeholders across the concerned sector has been secured to chart a way for the effective implementation of the policy which seeks to stem $2.6 billion annual capital flights in telecoms industry by promoting alternative solutions that come with ease of doing business.

According to him, the forthcoming forum combines the criticality of the telecoms sector as an enabler of the economy and that of promotion of local contents which is an economic catalyst to bridge the policy implementation vacuum in Nigeria.

“The general impression expressed by people on a daily basis that Nigeria is only good at policy pronouncement but often fails in implementation is about to become a thing of the past.

“PIAFo is dedicated to stimulating, implementation and tracking progress with measurable metrics.

“We have discovered that policy execution failure which has been experienced over the years is ascribed to many factors such as poor awareness, shallow stakeholders’ engagements, lack of monitoring and poor periodic assessment to track progress.

“To change this narrative, PIAFo is equipped with strategic objectives to serve as a brainstorming platform for policy assimilation; to identify demands of government policies from individual stakeholders involved; to coordinate multi-stakeholder efforts towards achieving policy objectives; to ensure effective policy implementation and to assess implementation level of policies over time,” Mr. Azeez said.

Meanwhile, the objectives of the indigenous content promotion policy in focus was to create a framework for supporting indigenous telecom businesses to become world-class service providers; to ensure compliance with existing regulatory guidelines for indigenous content; to highlight and promote indigenous capacities in the telecommunications sector, and to foster collaboration between global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) engaged in the manufacturing of telecommunications equipment and indigenous players.

Others are to ensure strategic partnerships with relevant regulatory agencies to create joint efforts to promote indigenous content; to enable the indigenous telecom industry to contribute significantly towards the overall development of the telecom industry, and to encourage and incentivise the participation of indigenous telecom institutions in relevant Standards Development Organisations.