No Plan To Strip NCC Powers, Says Pantami

Pantami, who spoke at the 19th Editor of President Muhammadu Buhari administration scorecard series (2015-2923) in Abuja, noted that there was no iota of truth in the insinuation that the National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) bill currently before the National Assembly for review was designed to usurp the powers of the NCC.

The Minister explained that both the NCC Act 2003 and NITDA Act 2007 were obsolete and long overdue for review due to imperatives of new technologies such as they did not address the fourth industrial revolution and emerging technologies.

Explaining the genesis of the bill, Pantami said: “We are talking about Fourth Generation (4G) Technology and Fifth Generation (5G) Technology today as well as digital economy, but the NITDA Act was specifically on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, while the NCC Act dwell more on telecommunications.

“I had a meeting with the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC and the Director General of NITDA at the beginning, and I directed them to work together. There was an agreement that both Acts needed to be amended.

“NITDA had over 30 stakeholders engagements and I am sure NCC was involved and they had their own as well. It is unfair that someone would say because I was once Director General of NITDA and therefore tilted towards NITDA.

“I protected NCC recently when an Agency took 42 billion naira belonging to it. The higher authority asked the Agency to return the money to the NCC.

“I stood my ground for NIPOST over stamp duty issues and my life was threatened by the late Boko Haram leader when we insisted on the implementation of the linkage of the Subscribers Identity Modules (SIM) with the National Identity Numbers (NIN).”

Pantami, who insisted that the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, should make clarifications on the matter, maintained that what is being done regarding the NITDA and NCC bills are in the best interest of the country.

Detailing the achievements of his Ministry within the past three years, Pantami said based on assessment of independent consultants engaged by the Federal Government, his ministry scorecard stood at “A” in all the eight priority areas assigned to it by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He listed broadband penetration as of November 2022 at 46. 2 percent, quarterly revenue generation from the ICT sector as 408 billion naira, and employment generation in the digital economy sector alone at 2.2 million Nigerians within the last two years.

He added that the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, was able to capture National Identity Numbers (NIN) of over 95 million citizens on its database within two years compared to a figure of 39 million Nigerians captured by the same agency for 13 years.

The Minister further explained that through the implementation of the e-governance policy of the present administration over N47 billion had been saved for the government.

The minister stressed that he inherited only one National Policy, but as at today 19 National policies were being implemented by the ministry.

Pantami said challenges in the telecommunications industry were as a result of deficit in infrastructures and vandalisation of fibre optic cables.

He noted that in one particular year about 13,000 cases of vandalisation of fibre optic cables were recorded in different locations across the country.

Part of the challenges, he said, also accounts for the poor internet services in the country.

He said all the policies being implemented by the administration would be concluded before May 29 this year as President Muhammadu Buhari would also inaugurate the 12 billion naira National Centre for Digital Innovation located in Abuja.

Pantami said the president should be commended by all well meaning Nigerians for the far reaching policies implemented by his administration to change the narratives of the digital economy and improve the living standards of the people.

Under Buhari administration, 18 Nigerian universities are being provided unlimited broadband access ( free Internet services) and 20 Nigerian markets are also benefitting from such gestures free of charge, Pantami asserted.