In order to prevent conflicts and avoidable overlapping regulatory functions between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the federal government has approved the review of NCC Act 2003.
This is coming on the hills of recent frictions between NCC and NITDA over industry regulatory issues that are threatening the effective harnessing of telecoms’ sector potential to Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of the country.
Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, confirmed concluded plans to review the NCC Act 2003 having submitted the first and second draft of the review to Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy for approval, before the final draft would be released.
Danbatta spoke at the Telecom Executives and Regulators Forum (TERF) in Lagos where he declared: “The Nigerian Communication Act is currently being reviewed. The first and second draft has been concluded and the final draft will soon be released. The second draft has been made available to the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani. We had to review the NCC Act to ensure that all areas of conflicts and overlaps can be addressed so that NITDA and |NCC can co-exist without friction of roles.”
The NCC Act 2003, which was signed into law by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo on July 8, 2003, empowers NCC as a regulator to create a regulatory framework for the Nigerian communications industry and to promote the implementation of national telecommunications policy as may, from time to time, be modified and amended.
The NCC Act is however being reviewed, following the proposed NITDA Bill that was sent to the ninth Assembly some months ago, which seeks to convert NITDA from a development agency to regulatory agency.
