Pantami, Others for Business Metrics Forum on $2.6bn Telecom Capital Flights

By Dipo Olowookere

On Thursday, August 5, 2021, by 10:00 am, stakeholders in the telecommunications industry will gather at a policy forum organised by an online business and tech-focused newspaper, Business Metrics.

The event is part of the platform’s new dialogue platform for stakeholders to drive various policies in the country towards effective implementation tagged Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFo).

The first series of the event slated for next month is themed National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector and will have the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, in attendance. He is expected to deliver a keynote address at the forum.

Also expected to grace the virtual event is the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta; the Director-General of Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi; and the Director-General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, Dr DanAzumi Mohammed Ibrahim.

In addition, the forum will have in attendance members of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) and the Institute of Software Practitioners Organisation of Nigeria (iSPON).

According to the convener of the forum, PIAFo is designed in series and targeted at addressing policy implementation failure which is a major challenge in the administration of affairs across the various sectors that have a direct bearing on the socio-economic wellbeing of the country.

The methodology deployed by PIAFo to achieve its goal derives from a multi-stakeholder engagement and dialogue whereby a policy is dissected and all parties from private to public sectors, who have a role to play in execution, are firstly identified and then brought together at the forum to digest the policy and how they key into it.

The first series of the forum, tagged PIAFo-001 is focused on National Policy for Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sectors, one of the latest policies in the Nigerian telecom industry launched recently by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Managing Editor of Business Metrics and Chairman, Organising Committee, PIAFo-001, Mr Omobayo Azeez, assured that participation of stakeholders across the concerned sector has been secured to chart a way for the effective implementation of the policy which seeks to stem $2.6 billion annual capital flights in telecoms industry by promoting alternative solutions that come with ease of doing business.

According to him, the forthcoming forum combines the criticality of the telecoms sector as an enabler of the economy and that of promotion of local contents which is an economic catalyst to bridge the policy implementation vacuum in Nigeria.

“The general impression expressed by people on a daily basis that Nigeria is good at policy pronouncement but often fails in implementation is about to become a thing of the past. PIAFo is dedicated to stimulating implementation and tracking progress with measurable metrics.

“The policy execution failure that has been experienced over the years is ascribed to many factors such as poor awareness, shallow stakeholders’ engagements, lack of monitoring and poor periodic assessment to track progress.

“To change this narrative, PIAFo is equipped with strategic objectives to serve as a brainstorming platform for policy assimilation; to identify demands of government policies from individual stakeholders involved; to coordinate multi-stakeholder efforts towards achieving policy objectives; to ensure effective policy implementation and to assess implementation level of policies over time,” Mr Azeez said.

To achieve an all-encompassing treatment of the policy, a nexus of topics derived from the theme of the forum would be discussed by managing directors and chief executive officers of MTN Nigeria, Pan African Towers, Globacom Nigeria, VDT Communications, Airtel Nigeria, MainOne Cables, IHS Nigeria Limited and Broadbase Communications Ltd.

Meanwhile, the objectives of the indigenous content promotion policy in focus are to create a framework for supporting indigenous telecom businesses to become world-class service providers; to ensure compliance with existing regulatory guidelines for indigenous content; to highlight and promote indigenous capacities in the telecommunications sector, and to foster collaboration between global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) engaged in the manufacturing of telecommunications equipment and indigenous players.

Others are to ensure strategic partnerships with relevant regulatory agencies to create joint efforts to promote indigenous content; to enable the indigenous telecom industry to contribute significantly towards the overall development of the telecom industry, and to encourage and incentivise the participation of indigenous telecom institutions in relevant Standards Development Organisations.