Key members of the top echelon of the Management of ipNX, a
licensee of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), were at the
Commission yesterday for a courtesy visit.
The delegation from ipNX, led by the Group Managing
Director, Ejovi Aror, praised the Management of NCC for its superlative
regulatory activities, describing the Commission’s actions as marked by
efficiency and effectiveness.
The Group Managing Director of ipNX, also notified the
Commission that the operation of the company has come to a critical juncture
and ipNX is happy to migrate from the stage where it is now to a more strategic
stage where it will play a greater role in the efforts to expand broadband
infrastructures in Nigeria.
“Therefore, we are here to solicit your support for our plan
to expand our businesses because we are at the threshold of closing a chapter
and moving onto another, particularly in expanding broadband infrastructure
which is critical to national development’, Aror stated with unmistakable
optimism.
Aror also informed the management of NCC about some of its
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. The most central and
significant of them, according to Aror, is the free Internet access to schools
in Lagos and Oyo States.
Importantly, Aror emphasized ipNX readiness to extend such
services to other parts of the country, particularly in schools, because of the
importance of ICT to educational development.
Responding to the ipNX delegation, the Executive Vice
Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who was represented by the Commission’s
Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management (ECSM), Adeleke Adewolu, thanked
ipNX for the visit and for the testimony about how NCC’s regulatory activities
have caused growth in leaps and bounds in the fortunes of the telecom
ecosystem.
Adewolu declared that NCC is particularly gratified by the
remarkable and quantifiable impact of Commission’s activities on the economy,
including increase in the sectoral contribution to Gross Domestic Product
(GDP). Adewolu promised that the encouraging words of ipNX’s delegation will
spur the Commission to put in more efforts towards achieving its mandate.
Putting in context the trajectory of landmarks in the
telecom sector, Adeleke recalled the history of the evolution of the telecom
industry in Nigeria, declaring that Decree 75 of 1992 which established the
Commission, was a great feat. The NCC Executive Commissioner also said the
courageous deregulation and liberalisation of the telecom sector by the Federal
Government in the year 2000 was a masterstroke.
Adewolu said, that action triggered uncommon liberalization
that caused a rare leap in the democratisation of access to telephone services,
from a few hundred hitherto existing fixed lines in 1992 to over two hundred million
subscriptions today.
The ECSM also informed the visitors that the Commission,
with the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, is
ready and willing to partner with stakeholders to accomplish the objectives of
the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030; and the
Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025.
Adewolu, reckoning the correlation between increase in
broadband infrastructure and GDP of economies, asserted that the Management of
NCC is all out to work with all stakeholders, including its licensed
Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos), to expand broadband access, especially to
the unserved and underserved areas of the country.
At the reception of ipNX delegation were other Management
staff of the Commission including Usman Mamman, Deputy Director, Licensing and
Authorisation; Afure Iloka, Special Assistant on Legal Matters to the EVC; Dr.
Omoniyi Ibietan, Head Online Media, who represented Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde,
Director Public Affairs; Abubakar Kurfi, Assistant Director, Licensing and
Authorisation; and Quassim Odunmbaku, the Special Assistant to the ECSM.
Aror, was accompanied on the visit to the Commission by the
Group Executive Director, Commercials, ipNX, Bimpe Olaleye; Divisional CEO,
ipNX Infrastructure Division, Uche Nnakenyi; and Tunde Olorunyomi, Financial
Controller, ipNX.
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