NCC, African Regulators Push Stronger Collaboration for Evidence-Based Digital Governance

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has urged African telecommunications regulators to deepen collaboration and strengthen the use of data and market intelligence as digital technologies reshape the continent’s regulatory landscape and demand more agile, evidence-based regulation.

The call was made by the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, at the Heads of Regulators Roundtable during the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) Conference of Plenipotentiaries (CPL-26) in Abuja, where communications regulators from across Africa gathered to discuss data-driven approaches to digital governance and regulation.

Maida said communications regulation has become increasingly central to economic growth, digital transformation and national development, making closer cooperation among African regulators essential to addressing shared challenges and unlocking opportunities in the digital economy.

He noted that although countries operate under different legal frameworks and market conditions, regulators across the continent face many of the same issues, including broadband infrastructure development, affordability of digital services, cybersecurity, satellite communications, network resilience and the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence technologies.

According to him, institutionalising knowledge-sharing among African regulators would reduce duplication of effort, accelerate policy innovation and enable authorities to respond more effectively to emerging regulatory challenges.

“Very often, the challenge one regulator is trying to solve has already been encountered, in one form or another, by a colleague elsewhere on the continent,” Maida said.

He described the roundtable’s theme, “Building Africa’s Network Intelligence Ecosystem for Evidence-Based Regulation,” as timely and critical to the future of communications regulation in Africa.

“It gives us an opportunity to consider how better use of data, evidence and market intelligence can strengthen regulatory decisions, and how African regulators can learn more systematically from one another,” he said.

Chairing the roundtable, the NCC’s Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management, Rimini Makama, said rapid advances in broadband connectivity, satellite services, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital public infrastructure are transforming communications ecosystems and demanding more sophisticated regulatory approaches.

She noted that regulators now have access to unprecedented volumes of technical, market and consumer data but said the real challenge is converting that information into actionable intelligence capable of supporting better policy and regulatory decisions.

Makama added that traditional regulatory approaches are no longer sufficient to keep pace with the complexity of rapidly evolving digital communications markets, underscoring the need for greater reliance on evidence-based decision-making and stronger collaboration among African regulatory institutions.

The Heads of Regulators Roundtable formed part of the ATU Conference of Plenipotentiaries’ broader efforts to strengthen cooperation among African communications regulators, promote evidence-based policymaking and build more resilient, innovative and consumer-focused digital communications ecosystems across the continent.