Mr. Andrus-Ansip, the European Union Vice President of the Digital Single Market has commended the transparent manner the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, under Prof. Danbatta has handled with transparency the sale and management of Nigeria’s Spectrum.
Speaking at a meeting that held on Thursday in the Abuja office of the European Union, Mr.Ansip opined that Nigeria is doing very well in this aspect compared with what obtains in other African countries. The meeting with the Vice President of EU’ Digital Single Market was convened to share with Nigeria and her relevant telecommunications and ICT agencies the story and experience of the Digital Single market of the EU. The benefits of creating digital registers towards achieving digital identity and related digital applications and solutions formed the core of the meeting.
The meeting had in attendance the Minister of Communications, Honourable Adebayo Shittu, the EVC NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, and representatives of NITDA, Galaxy Backbone Plc and Nigeria Computer Society.
It was disclosed at the meeting that an European Union Investment Fund to the tune of nearly 350 billion Euros is in place to support Africa’s digital revolution particularly efforts at digital governance and digital single market for the African Union. There is also the EU Multi-national Trans-Saharan Fiber Project being administered by the African Development Bank, ADB.
The EU Digital Single market on its website advances this powerful argument that "The internet and digital technologies are transforming our world. But existing barriers online mean citizens miss out on goods and services, Internet companies and start-ups have their horizons limited, and businesses and governments cannot fully benefit from digital tools. It's time to make the EU's single market fit for the digital age – tearing down regulatory walls and moving from 28 national markets to a single one. This could contribute €415 billion per year to our economy and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.