The Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has reiterated that the government is resolute to ensure continuous engagement of different stakeholders to secure their buy-in towards achieving the targets of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP), 2020-2025.
He made this declaration at the first stakeholder consultation with telecommunication industry players on the implementation of the new national broadband plan held at the NCC’s Communications & Digital Economy Complex in Abuja on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
Represented by NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Technical Services and Chairman, Broadband Implementation Steering Committee (BISC), Engr. Ubale Maska, Danbatta said the Ministry and its agencies, as well as the industry, must align towards the attainment of the goals.
While speaking at the event, Danbatta noted that the 30 percent broadband targets set in the previous NNBP 2013-2018 achieved and surpassed due to “our collective efforts, policy direction, regulation and financial commitment by industry players.”
According to him, some targets could not be met in the previous plan because of various challenges presently addressed.
“The NNBP 2020-2025 has, once again, identify initiatives to be implemented by different stakeholders towards the achievement of the set objectives of the plan.
The importance of broadband to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), socio-economic development, and especially the digital economy, cannot be over-emphasized,” he said.
In his address, the Vice-Chairman of BISC, Dr. Usman Abdullahi, said the gathering was a deliberate plan to avail the industry players and government representatives a collaborative platform where they can discuss ways to accelerate broadband implementation for sustainable development of the telecommunications sector while advancing the digital economy.
Project Director, BISC, Abubakar Maina, delivered a presentation providing stakeholders information on previous and new targets, timelines, milestones, strategic pillars, initiatives in the pillars as well as governance structure in the new broadband plan.
The event was attended by industry operators, especially the Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) both physically and in the online space who gave useful inputs for steering the course of implementation of the new broadband plan to success.
President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the new broadband plan on March 19, 2020, following the development of the plan by a committee, set up by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami on December 16, 2019. As a follow-up development to the plan, the Hon. Minister inaugurated the BISC, with the sole responsibility of ensuring effective monitoring and implementation of the broadband plan.
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L-R: Abubakar Maina, Project Director, Broadband Implementation Steering Committee (BISC); Ubale Maska, Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Chairman, BISC; Dr. Usman Abdullahi, Director, Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure, National IT Development Agency (NITDA) and Vice-Chairman, BISC; Kelechi Okonta, Managing Director, Zinox Technologies Limited; Ibrahim Dikko, Managing Director, Backbone Connectivity Limited at the stakeholder consultation forum.
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