Telecom
NITDA Mulls Partnership with Army to Establish Simulation Centre
The National Information Technology Development Agency has indicated its willingness to form an alliance with the Land Forces Simulation Centre Nigeria, a formation of the Nigerian Army to establish a simulation Centre for the military.
Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general, NITDA disclosed this on Thursday when he hosted Major General Garba Sani Abdullahi, director general, LFSCN, at the Agency’s Corporate Headquarter, Abuja.
The DG observed that the adoption of technologies in executing warfare has become pronounced more than ever before as war are not being fought by physical presence but through technology.
“We can work with you to develop a simulation centre where arms and ammunition could be simulated and used for training,” he said.
Mallam Abdullahi stressed that NITDA is organising Innovative Challenge for youths to come up with home grown innovations and we can integrate the idea of coming up with simulating military hardware for the centre.
He said, “We are working on innovation challenge. We can call on people to compete and bid for such ideas and we work with them to develop something. NITDA will be willing to assist the startups to come up with solutions that can be developed into products, he added.
He stated further that the Agency would as well help the formation to build the capacity of its personnel on identified area of skill gaps.
“On capacity building, we can do that. NITDA’s mandate empowers us to build the digital skills of Nigerians. We urge you to work with our team to identify your capacity building needs.
“We can do some training online through our virtual learning platforms and some could be done physically.”
He further said, “We have a lot in common because technology makes your work efficient and effective. We do research and develop the IT sector.
“Our regulations cut across all sectors because everybody needs technology to survive. So you can avail us the type of digital capacity you would want to build so we can come up with it or develop a generic curriculum for you in those areas.”
Earlier, Major General Abdullahi said that the Centre decided to visit NITDA to advance discussion on possible areas of interventions it could get from the Agency, adding that war is now technological fought now than before.
He said that new strategies to prosecute war are now accelerating the acquisition of digital skills, adding that simulation training has become imperative in order to save resources for government.
He said, “a trainee soldier would require 10,000 round of ammunitions before he could perfect shooting and the resources to provide that is not available hence the need to adopt simulation for training.”
General Abdullahi sought the intervention of the Agency on provision of hardware and software ICT systems, development of customized software-based simulation systems, research industry linkage to assist LFSCN in building adequate capacity of its staff towards the creation of localized simulation platforms, joint NITDA/LFSCN technology acquisition programmes which could be achievable through organisation of conferences and workshops that are aimed at promoting development of indigenous simulation systems and provision of adequate internet bandwidth support for the centre to enhance simulation activities.
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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