New Telegraph

Broadband: ATCON pledges commitment to 2020-2025 plan

…hails NCC’s new management strategy

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has pledged the commitment of its members to the country’s broadband agenda.
President of the association, Mr. Olusola Teniola, who made the promise on behalf of its members, said ATCON would support the Broadband Plan 2020-2025 through more investments in infrastructure and several other programmes.

Speaking during the launch of Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2020-2024 of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Teniola said the new National Broadband Plan would be more successful than the previous ones “because ATCON will collaborate with the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, NCC, NITDA, NigCoMSAT, Galaxy Backbone, USPF, and DBI to work the plan out with all other stakeholders, especially our members through the initiation of programmes to realise it set goals for the industry.”

Commending NCC for coming up with the SMP, the ATCON president said: “I am particularly happy that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) under its supervising Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy which is ably headed by Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has called the entire important stakeholders in the Nigerian ICT and telecoms sector to unveil a plan that would last between 2020 – 2024.

Teniola applauded the plan for taking into consideration the post-COVID-19 crisis in relation to regulation of the Nigerian telecom sector viz-a-viz the expectations of players in the industry.
Speaking at the launch, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, said the new SMP by NCC would be a pedestal to drive the implementation of the Federal Government’s digital economy vision.
According to the minister, the launch of the SMP demonstrates the commission’s serious improvement in the performance matrix and its efforts in accelerating the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and the National Broadband Plan (NBP) 2020 – 2025 of the Federal Government.
“I feel very excited about the fact that there is a serious improvement in the performance of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The launch of this SMP 2020 – 2024 is a clear indication of that.
“When a parastatal is performing, it will create an innovative idea on how to be more successful. When a parastatal is not performing, you will not hear anything on how to implement policies and come up with different strategies and plans,” he said.
Pantami stated that despite the enhanced performance of NCC, there is a need for the commission to redouble its efforts.
“We need to challenge and ridicule our previous successes by setting new records through the implementation of this SMP 2020 – 2024. The NCC management must ensure effective implementation of this SMP,” he added.
Earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the SMP was the fulcrum that will aid the NCC in driving its telecom regulatory mandate in the fast-evolving telecoms industry, in the next five years.
He said it would serve as a roadmap for the future of the Nigerian telecoms sector, taking into consideration the current and emerging trends in the industry and the numerous expectations of the diverse stakeholders.
“The Federal Government’s economic diversification plans are focused on a robust digital economy, which will improve employment generation, as well as encourage innovation. This was prime in our minds during the formulation of the SMP.
“We have invested great time and effort in ensuring that this document is pragmatic, and I am very confident and excited in its completeness to successfully guide the Commission in achieving the set objectives. We are committed to the implementation of this SMP,” the EVC said.

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