Test page

Despite the grim challenges arising from the N330b fine imposed on it by telecommunication regul

By all standards, Nigeria had a very impressive outing at ITU Telecom World, Bangkok 2016. This was no accident. Everything was painstakingly organized. Thus the seriousness Nigeria attached to the conference was not only symbolized in the country’s majestic pavilion at the occasion but was also glaringly evident in the caliber of networth individuals assembled to project its ICTs investment potential to the rest of the world. ITU Telecom World represents the ultimate pilgrimage for the top echelons of the industry’s finest. It's where they congregate, brainstorm and make far-reaching recommendations on how to move, unarguably the most dynamic industry in the world, forward. It’s one huge convergence that every nation hopes to explore to flaunt, to the rest of the world, what it has in abundance and thus ready to offer.

Despite what looks like economic downturn, investments in the fast growing telecommunications sector have been put at $68b as at July, 2016.

Of this figure, $35b comes from Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs)

The immediate past Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure as keynote speaker at the Nigerian Telecoms Investment Forum at the just concluded ITU Telecom World 2016, Bangkok, Thailand said these figures recorded so far in Nigeria point to the fact that “the country is certainly a preferred destination for telecommunications investors in Africa”.

Mr. Tony Ojobo, the quintessential public relations guru in charge of public affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), describes it as "remarkable shift" in the history of the leadership of the regulatory body. It's, undoubtedly, not the kind of testimony that you often hear from the mouths of consummate public servants like Ojobo. Yet, there's so far been a notable consensus on Professor Umar Garba Danbatta's one year at the helm of affairs of the NCC. It's gratifyingly positive. And, it bodes well for the future of the industry.

From the Director-General of Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mrs. Dupe Atoki, who once commended the NCC boss for "ensuring that impunity in telecom sector is beginning to be a thing of the past", to the revered Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, who gave him a pat on the back for "already changing the landscape of the nation's telecom regulation for the better", there has never been shortage of approval for Danbatta's leadership at the Commission.