By Dele Ogbodo
The Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Aminu Maida on Wednesday hinted that the Commission is set to roll out strategic plan at the end of January 2024.
The new plan the EVC said will align with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope mantra which is premised on deploying innovative solution to address challenges besetting the sector.
Maida, solicited the support of the media as partners to enlighten Nigerians on what the Commission is doing to deliver on it’s mandate.
While making the disclosure at the instance of a courtesy visit granted the Abuja based Nigeria Telecoms Reporters Association (NITRA), he said: “I want to appreciate your contributions over the years to NCC’s trajectory.
“It is not something we can take for granted.
“I sensed that the relationship has become deep and I assure you that I will take the approach of building on the achievement of previous administrations.
“As a researcher, I believe that you have to prove that what you are doing, nobody else had done it.
“Don’t waste time doing what people had done but build upon what others had done in the past. That is the direction and strategy we are taking.
“We appreciate the role the media plays using technology, though pervasive even in our lives today, it is still a specialized area, you can simplify it but we should not take it for granted that there are a lot of complexity towards it.”
He urged the media to tell NCC narrative from the prism of knowledge and not ignorance, adding, I think, people telling our story should not be ignorant, he added.
“In terms of the direction the Commission is taking, I want to first and foremost thank President Bola Tinubu and Minister of Communications, Digital Economy and Innovation, Dr. Bosun Tijjani for considering me to fill these big shoes.
“The strategy put forward by the Minister was very clear in terms of policy direction and we are determined to achieve it.
“We also need to make sure we are telling the story in a very fair and simplicity, whether to the man on the street or internationally, I see you being very critical in telling that story.
“Be assured that our guiding principle is the Renewed Hope Agenda and the strategic roadmap set out by the Minister and of course there are some aspects that are specific to us that we will add into that.
“At the end of January we will be releasing our strategic plan for the Commission and by and large for the industry in line with the RHA.” He said.
According to him, the number of broadband penetration target set by the Minister to achieve is very clear but what people do not realize is that is thing is a complicated, interrelated system of components that have to come together in harmony for us to move forward.
On telling NCC story, he said: “I think, how we tell that story is very important and also it is going to require a bit of patience for people to trust us.
“We need to tell stories that give people hope so that we can get that space to implement but it is not going to be easy job.
In a remark, the President of
NITRA, Mr. Blessing Olaifa, congratulated the EVC on his well deserved appointment.
Olaifa, said: “We congratulate you on your appointment by the President and confirmation by the National Assembly.
“It has been a long journey that we have been partnering with the Commission, our membership are drawn from across different platforms of the media.”
According to the NITRA President, since Abuja is seat of power, it will be an anomaly for the association to sit back and watch, explaining that NITRA’s relationship with NCC has been very cordial and mutually rewarding.
He said: “Like Oliver Twist, we wish to ask for more partnership to be able to tell Nigeria s what NCC is doing.
“With your appointment, we are confident that you have the capacity and competence to drive this institution to greater height.
“The performances of the former EVC, cannot be underestimated, he took broadband penetration from 19% to over 40%, telecom mobile subscription was about 150 million and left it at about 202 million. internet penetration moved from 80 million to over 150 million.
“These are great achievements. In terms of contribution to GDP growth, the telecoms and ICT in general played leading role in the last three year and we have played our role over theses years.”
He expressed optimism that the EVC will build on what the former EVC achieved not just in telecom but in the media.
“We believe you can partner with us in a mutually beneficial way. In the passing year, we did not have interaction with former EVC for a whole years, we pushed for it but they kept promising us.” He said.