IT NEWS NIGERIA
… to woo more FDI that currently stands at N13.5tn
Staff Writter
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced Monday that it plans to showcase homegrown tech innovators at the forthcoming International Telecommunication Union ((ITU) annual conference as a way to attract investors.
IT NEWS NIGERIA gathered that Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) according to NCC now stands at over N13.475 trillion ($35 billion) in the past 15 years.
Executive Vice Chairman NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta said in Lagos that investors need to be aware of the teaming local talents and harness the potentials by investing in the sector. He was speaking at the stakeholders’ forum for ITU Telecom World 2016.
”We are here to think of ways to convince would-be investors on the potential and capacity of our country; we are here to agree on the future growth of the telecom industry,” he said.
Danbatta said that there was the need to tell the world of the revolution brewing in the area of broadband.
“Our story of successes is very long but we, as regulators, are not resting on our oars. We are not there yet; what we have is work in progress. We have to go to ITU Telecom World to attract more investments. We are here to re-strategise on how we can attract more meaningful investments into our country; we are here to fine-tune our story about the growth and attraction of our sector.
Danbatta said in a speech that “At NCC, we have provided recognition to the young innovators through the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF, but we also want to expose their innovations to the global community at this year’s ITU Telecom World.”
He said that the country was currently at 14 per cent broadband penetration and over 100 per cent thirst for the internet.
According to him, the industry is convinced that, by 2018, the anticipated 30 per cent broadband penetration will not be impossible to achieve.
He said that Bitflux Consortium, the winner of the 2.3 Gigahertz spectrum, had rolled out services toward achieving the broadband penetration target.
”Two Infrastructure Companies (Infracos) have been licenced for Lagos and North-Central, including Abuja.
”Five more licences are underway for North-West, North-East, South-West, South-South and South- East. Our processes are being fine-tuned to actualise the licensing rounds.
”There is a gap, no doubt, which these would-be and existing investors will bridge. The quality of service is not robust yet, but we are assured that we will get it right with more investments,” Danbatta said.
Our Correspondent learnt that one of the innovators the commission intends to promote at the event is Precognition Nig Limited, an integrated IT solutions company. Lead by Sanusi Ismaila, Precognition is an IT company, whose solutions cut across many sectors including education, agriculture, medicine and technology. “We understand technology better and we have built an integrated services company around it. It really doesn’t matter what sector the problem is from, if there is a solution, we can find it,” said Ismaila on the sideline of the stakeholder forum in Lagos.
Mr Austin Nwaulune, the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the ITU Telecom World 2016, said that the event would take place in Bangkok from Nov. 14 to Nov.17.
Nwaulune said that the world event would have the theme “Collaborating in the Digital Economy’’.
He, however, said that Nigeria would adopt its own theme as “Smart Communities: The Key to a Digital Nigeria’’.
According to him, ITU Telecom World is a global forum hosted annually by the ITU to bring together thought leaders, key decision makers, industry players and ministers, among others, to discuss the growth of ICT.
Started in 2009 with the mission to be the most adaptive and professionally competent technology service provider in Nigeria, Precognition is involved in software development, hardware testing, training, products & branding and IT Consulting.
