The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has encouraged the Nigerian government to simplify the regulatory responsibilities of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to handle many rules in the digital sphere.
This was mentioned in the international telecom organisation’s recently released study on Nigeria, “Collaborative Regulation: Accelerating Nigeria’s Digital Transformation,” in Abuja.
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The paper states that, among other things, the two agencies’ responsibilities for creating industry-specific ICT regulations, data protection, and content regulation overlap.
It further stated that a clear understanding of where to draw the boundaries between the duties of NITDA and NCC is necessary, given the growing convergence of telecommunications, IT, and ICTs in general.
Clarifying NITDA’s Role in Nigeria’s Tech Landscape
According to the ITU, the NITDA Amendment Bill, which is currently before the National Assembly, should clarify the mandate and role, even though it acknowledges that there are some overlaps between the NITDA and those of the NCC, the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), and maybe other organisations.
“Stakeholders currently disagree on what the role should be, and the NITDA’s mandate in policy-making and regulation—that is, whether it should be a standards body, a regulatory authority, or a policy-making institution—is unclear,” the statement stated.
“Although the Bill aims to make NITDA’s stance more clear, given NITDA’s broad mission regarding the “digital economy” and the ambiguity surrounding the division between the IT and ICT sectors, it may unintentionally lead to conflict between NITDA and other sector regulators, such as NCC.
According to the ITU, “forum shopping and the duplication of responsibilities, licences, and fees collected by public authorities and payable by ICT sector firms are possibilities if NCC and NITDA roles are not streamlined or explained.
Stakeholders disagree on the NITDA amendment bill
Significant stakeholders in the Nigerian ICT industry perceived the NITDA Amendment Bill as an attempt by NITDA to usurp the authority of other industry regulators, which led to controversy over the bill last year.
Organisations that have specifically denounced the NITDA Bill claim it is an attempt to turn NITDA into a “super-regulator” for the ICT sector, including the Computer Professionals Council of Nigeria (CPN), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), and Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).
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The Role of NITDA in Shaping Nigeria’s ICT Landscape
According to Mr Ayoola Oke, Chief Executive Officer of ICT Derivatives Ltd., the main goal of the NITDA Act of 2007 was to assist the infrastructure and connection of ICT by making it easier for the country’s corporate and public sectors to adopt it.
According to Oke, the new NITDA law aims to re-establish the agency as a regulator and is not an amendment.
He clarified that the agency’s main goal was to foster corporate growth, talent acquisition, and employment creation, pointing out that other organisations were already responsible for ICT industry regulation.