Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice-chairman and chief executive officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has stated that ongoing dialogue between the regulator and its various licensees is critical to finding long-term solutions to issues affecting licensee compliance with existing regulations and impeding the telecoms industry's growth.
Danbatta mentioned this during the NCC's 2021 Talk to The Regulator (TTTR) session, which was held over the weekend at the Four Points by Sheraton in Lagos. The discussion's subject is "Improving Stakeholder Satisfaction." The program's Lagos iteration came after a successful holding of a similar conversation in Kano on October 16, 2021.
The goal of the conference, according to a statement released by the commission yesterday, is to gather direct input from licensees on how the Commission, as a regulator, is achieving licensee expectations.
The initiative was also created to identify areas for regulatory reform, highlight areas where licensees are defaulting, and address major industry obstacles that are impeding the full realization of the established goals for consolidating telecommunications sector benefits.
According to Danbatta, who was represented at the forum by NCC Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, the forum is organized in accordance with the Commission's commitment to continuously ensure regulator-licensee interactions in order to develop collaborative solutions and implementation programs to the telecom ecosystem's challenges.
"The Nigerian Communications Act (NCA, 2003) gives the NCC with the authority and responsibility to regulate both technical and market-related elements of Nigeria's telecoms infrastructure and services. Because NCC views consultation as the lifeblood of regulation, we see our role as a regulator as critical to maintaining industry sustainability," the EVC stated.
"We have constantly utilized stakeholder engagement mechanisms including public inquiries, private investigations, written information requests, one-on-one dialogues like the ones we're conducting today, and varied consumer interaction platforms," the EVC added. These tools allow us to guarantee that our interventions are well-founded and that our judgments are based on a thorough grasp of the viewpoints of stakeholders."
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Regulatory Excellence, Promotion of Universal Broadband Access, Development of the Digital Economy, Facilitation of Market Development, and Strategic Partnering are among the five pillars of the Commission's Strategic Management Plan (2020-2024), according to Danbatta.
"The Commission is able to gather useful insights to improve our regulatory output and enable us to promote excellence via regular engagement with our licensees."
The EVC also reaffirmed the Commission's belief that Nigeria will only be able to achieve the national objectives and targets set out in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030, the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025, and other national policy instruments aimed at developing the country's digital economy ecosystem if licensees perform optionally.
"As a result, we intend to use this forum to seek support for many initiatives that the commission has carefully developed in our quest to enhance market opportunities for all our licensees," Danbatta said, emphasizing NCC's belief in collaboration with stakeholders and its licensees to address any concerns that may obstruct the achievement of the relevant policy objectives.
The NCC CEO further stated that the Commission would continue to implement forward-thinking and all-encompassing regulatory actions to ensure that all of its licensees have access to the market. Danbatta also stated that the NCC is committed to reviewing the licensing framework as well as key regulatory instruments on a regular basis in order to keep the Commission's regulatory frameworks up to date and ensure better service delivery for consumers as well as efficient achievement of other national interest goals.
However, according to Danbatta, some licensees are not doing as much as they should. "Several licensees are having difficulty paying their employees, many are unable to meet basic licensing obligations, and several are defaulting on their Annual Operating Levies (AOL), while interconnect and other inter-licensee debt remains unacceptably large."
As a result, we must guarantee that regulatory actions are implemented to resolve issues, bottlenecks, and complaints that may occur among licensees in the future.
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