Dr. Aminu Maida, the new Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, took office on Tuesday and committed to prioritizing the objective of making affordable and stable broadband internet services available to all Nigerians.
According to a statement released by the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, on Wednesday, the NCC boss informed the senior management team that he intends to reorient the Commission’s regulatory priorities to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda, which is aimed at advancing the country’s digital transformation efforts.
Maida stated that under his leadership, the NCC will ensure “effective broadband infrastructure diffusion across the length and breadth of Nigeria.”
He praised the Commission’s previous chief executives for their significant contributions to the telecommunications industry.
Maida further stated that among his top priorities will be improving service quality on telecom networks and harmonizing with the agenda of the Federal Government and the Ministry of Communications, Innovations, and Digital Economy.
While emphasizing the need to build more telecom infrastructure across the nation, the NCC boss said, “Considering the fact that many people are going more digital and virtual in everything they do, the telecom infrastructure is now under much stress.
“President Tinubu’s vision emphasizes the need to build more robust broadband connectivity that will not only facilitate seamless digital transactions but also serve as the bedrock for e-governance and other socio-economic initiatives,” he said.
“As such, we would align with this aspiration to increase broadband penetration to 70% and to cover 90% of the population by 2025. Therefore, we need to build a reliable telecom industry with impressive quality of service (QoS) indicators and quality of experience (QoE) as our watchword and ultimate goal. This also requires us to address a number of issues, such as the Right of Way (RoW) challenge and ensuring the security of our telecom infrastructure, among others. Efforts must be made to significantly improve service delivery by ensuring the NCC is performance-driven.”
Commenting on Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, Maida said, “The two major areas are job creation and enabling the digital economy. Where we are going in a nutshell is that everything that we do in this Commission has to align directly with the strategic plan of the Hon. Minister of Communications, Innovations, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, and ultimately with the renewed hope agenda of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We would not deviate from that.
“We would not entertain anything that deviates from this direction because my key performance indicators (KPIs) are fed into the Minister’s KPIs and the President’s KPIs come from the electorate that put him into power. The Hon. Minister has said clearly that he is ready to build a robust digital infrastructure and empower three million Nigerians digitally, and we have to do our best to support him in this regard.”
Maida went on to say that the Minister’s Strategic Plan includes a target of training three million Nigerians in digital skills and entrepreneurship. He also emphasized the Commission’s support for the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) as a digital training institution in order to successfully contribute to the government’s youth empowerment effort.
Tinubu named Maida as the new EVC/CEO of NCC in a recent restructuring affecting three agencies of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, who had held the position since August 2015, stepped down as a result of this shift.
