By Johannes Wojuola
Dr. Aminu Maida in commemoration of his 100 days in office met with two segments of the public he deems are critical stakeholders: the CEOs of telecommunication companies and the media.
He used the platform of these meetings to present his Strategic Vision for the Industry. His vision aligns with achieving the Honorable Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani’s Strategic Blueprint and Five Pillars.
Dr. Maida has 5-Drivers of his leadership. These form the engine that would drive the vision he has for the telecommunications industry: Investing in the PEOPLE assets of the Commission; meticulous enforcement of COMPLIANCE, through DATA-DRIVEN decision making; COLLABORATION; and DIGITALISATION of the NCC to achieve optimum efficiency and turn-around time in delivering regulatory services.
His Strategic Focus Areas are built on delivering on the expectations of three identified key stakeholders of the NCC: The CONSUMERS; the LICENSEES/ INDUSTRY, and the GOVERNMENT.
Dr. Maida sums up his intentions for the Consumers in these words: “Our priority is to put a smile on the face of telecom consumers.” For him this means giving telecom consumers a total Quality of Experience; beyond just improved connectivity, speed and tariffs, the NCC boss wants the Consumer to get quality experience from the point of selecting what networks they want to use, to the usage, to the support services they receive, and to the point of closure—where a consumer decides to leave a network.
For the Licensees and the Industry, Dr. Maida intends to reinforce the telecommunication’s resilience to deliver pervasive broadband infrastructure, improved license performance, elimination of industry debts and improved ease of doing business, among others.
Here are five things that he emphasised during his meetings:
1. He wants an improved Corporate Governance Framework for the telecommunications industry.
2. To improve the business conditions for operators, Dr. Maida notes that he has begun advocacy on waiving Right of Way fees, pushing for the designation of Telecom Infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure and eliminating multiple taxation of the telecommunication industry.
3. He wants the NCC under his leadership to be RESPONSIVE and ACCESSIBLE. He plans to make this happen through digitalisation of the Commission’s processes. A big leap has already been made: the License Application Management System (LAMS) is undergoing testing and soon to be launched.
.4 The ultimate goal of the government is that the telecommunications industry grows and thrives. This is atop Dr. Aminu’s goals. He also wants the NCC to play a key role in supporting the Digital Public Infrastructure drive of the government.
5. “Over the past few years, I think the [telecommunication] industry has been in what I would say DEVELOPMENT PHASE, but it is time to push ourselves into a MATURITY PHASE where we will be driving COMPLIANCE.” — Dr. Aminu Maida
Johannes Wojuola is the Special Adviser to the Executive Vice-Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission.
