Recently, Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said that Nigeria’s telecom industry is currently exposed to many risks, which all stakeholders must join hands to eliminate.
According to Danbatta, the industry’s risks include cybersecurity and online fraud, regulatory burden, multiple taxation, vandalism of telecommunication infrastructure, right-of-way challenges, access to foreign exchange, and inter-industry indebtedness, among others.
Danbatta called for collaboration between the regulator and other stakeholders in the industry to achieve multi-stakeholder strategies aimed at identifying and addressing emerging risks in the telecommunications sector to ensure sustainable and impacting growth.
He said, “While risk management has been critical in our regulatory service delivery, we acknowledge that all stakeholders must be concerned about the various uncertainties that confront the Industry. There is no gainsaying the fact that the Information and Communication Technologies Sector is inherently filled with several business and technology risks.
Therefore, regulatory risks must be minimised to ensure that services are not disrupted and consumers obtain the best and latest globally available services.
To ensure that operators in the industry enjoy a conducive operating environment, the Commission has had cause to seek government interventions and collaborate with other Agencies of Government in addressing significant sectoral risks,” he added.
