Prince Osuagwu
5 January 2009
opinion
The new Minister for Information and Communications, Prof Dora Akunyili would be meeting with the telecom stakeholders tomorrow in Abuja. Obviously the press would be there, but not everybody. At least I was not invited.
But who says that I could not ask my own questions from here and well in advance also? The nature of politics and political appointments in Nigeria today, has turned every occasion, even those that have serious national economy concerns to a glorified Owambe where only praise singing reign supreme and hard feelings sniffled.
Otherwise, in a meeting such as this which should provide a litmus test for the new minister, it should be tension soaked. But one would not be surprised if everything turns out tomorrow to be all clapping for whatever the new Minister says. It may not also be surprising if half of the crowd are rented, being the hallmark of the new political arrangement in recent times.
However, the good thing is that those who by error of omission or commission did not make such meetings, can ask their questions, whichever way, without fear of flexed tempers, arrest or the threat of it.
The prying eyes of the SSS or other security agencies who are usually the unofficial umpires to such events can no longer pose threats to such class of people.
So as Akunyili reels out the recipe which the government has prepared to make good telecom or ICT roadmap in 2009, I beg to ask dear Minister, can you please tell us the position of government on the proposed convergence of the Information and Communications industry, in the real sense of it, apart from the mere change in nomenclature that is the case now?
Could there be any plans by the government to upgrade broadband access, as against what is obtainable now and is there any hope for Nigerian subscribers to have an improved quality of telecom services, courtesy of government's policies in 2009? I am sure that Nigerians would want to know.
In early 2006, the federal government woke up one morning and said it has decided to restructure the information and communications industries. The reason according to the government was that being a dynamic entity, it needed to respond to the technological convergence in the Telecommunications, Broadcasting and Information Technology industry as it was happening globally.
Welcome development! And the industry appreciated it. Further argument was that because of technological convergence, Broadcasters and Telecommunications Operators can provide the same services using the same infrastructure as well as the same access terminals. This was considering that the same Information Technology Infrastructures required by Telco's are the same that are required by broadcasters. This is also true of access equipment which could create both the overlap and the room for conflict between the two regulatory bodies Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC and Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, NBC.
Again, each industry because of the parent Ministry/Regulator tends to develop its infrastructure independently of the other which causes waste in the economy.
So, on August 29, 2006, the Federal Government inaugurated a Task Force charged to produce a blueprint for restructuring the ICT sector of the Nigerian economy. The Task Force worked through three Committees one of which is the Committee of Experts whose Terms of Reference are to: (i) Identify areas of modern innovations in the telecommunications, broadcasting and ICT sector that enjoy common mode of operation with a view to ascertaining and stating the implication and viability of establishing a common regulatory regime for such mode of operation;
(ii) Identify stages of telecommunications, broadcasting and ICT convergence as it affects prevailing government policies and regulatory agencies in terms of services provided, market implications, industrial alliance and platforms to be adopted relative to convergence of technology; and (iii) Propose regulatory and policy models that will address the issue of aggressive programme for urban and urban ubiquitous access to telecommunications, broadcasting and ICT facilities.
Mobile Week, gathered that in discussing the terms of reference, the Committee looked at the present set up of the relevant ministries and parastatals, including The Ministry of Communications with its parastatal _Nigerian Communications Commission; The Ministry of Information with its parastatal_National Broadcasting Commission; The Ministry of Science and Technology with its parastatal _National Information Technology Development Agency and The Ministry of Education with its parastatal _Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, CPN .
After evaluating all issues and also having looked at the experiences of other countries such as South Africa, United States of America, Canada, India and Ghana, Vanguard gathered that the committee recommended to the government that among others:
(i)A new Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT) should be formed to replace what was known as the Ministry of Communications (ii)That the Regulatory function of present NCC and NBC, Nigerian Postal Services, NIPOST, Developmental function of the present NITDA and the InfoTech Man power development functions in the present CPN, should be moved to the supervision of the new Ministry for optimal operation.
(iii) That there should be only one strong and Independent Regulator in the Information Technology, Telecommunications and broadcasting Industry which combines the regulatory functions of the NCC and NBC, to create synergies in the licensing and regulatory regime in the country and eliminate conflict especially as regards frequency allocation issues. And that the regulator be given the name: Nigerian Communications Commission.
(iv)That the Infrastructure required by the telecommunications, the Broadcasting and Information Technology Industries shall be planned and developed under NITDA who shall also be responsible for the provision of the enabling environment for the development of the software and content industries in Nigeria.
The Committee which had up to eighteen members with Engr Ernest Ndukwe as Chairman and Mr Steve Pam as Secretary, was said to have met six times after its inauguration, on which it completed its portion of the main assignment.
Among the recommendations, it is only the merger of the two ministries of Information and Communications that the government seemed to have affected but not perfected and since the Yar'Adua government took over in 2007, the public has been left in limbo over what the situation really would look like and that is why Akunyili has a duty to address these questions.
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