Telecoms Clinic/DigitalSENSE Business News
SINCE the confirmation of his appointment by the Senate on
July 29, 2010, the Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, has not failed to use every avenue to show his ardent
believe in the broadband deployment and its benefits.
This made him to have made notable remarks on broadband
commencing with his six agenda on resumption to include broadband deployment
for national development.
He told DigitalSENSE Business News on assumption of office
that NCC under his watch was planning for massive deployment of broadband
infrastructure, to boost the fixed lines and bring same back to homes, schools,
offices and businesses, insisting that broadband deployment for national development
would enhance competition for improved consumer choice of services.
Broadband policy:
Juwah also in the month of July this year reiterated his
position, saying that as a government, Nigeria is ready to come into it fully,
noting that though NCC had the initiative and now government of President
Goodluck Jonathan through the Communications Technology Ministry led by Mrs.
Omobola Johnson, moved toward the initiative with an open arms and political
will, the Commission led by him aligns with the initiatives completely. Thus,
the Nigeria’s broadband plan aligned also to what NCC has started.
“We will continue cementing this alignment as we go forward.
The important thing is that broadband will aid our economy and as we have being
telling you, broadband is like electricity in the olden days; it will oil the
economy, it will improve the knowledge of Nigerians; it will contribute
significantly to our development,” he declared in one of his outings recently.
Broadband framework:
According to him, most actions of NCC are now linked on
broadband because the Commission want to fine-tune this initiative, hence NCC
is planning towards having a regulatory framework outlook, due to the fact that
the regulator will control what happens, hence there is need to have experiences
from people that have done it before now.
Based on this, Juwah revealed that the Commonwealth
Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has concluded plans to assemble 20
foreign ministers with relevant expertise in October at the nation’s capital,
Abuja; a feat to be repeated in the month of November in Bangkok.
Broadband, center of Presidential transformation agenda:
For Dr. Juwah, NCC is very keen in running with the
Broadband plan of the Federal Government, because it is central to the President’s
transformation agenda. Juwah maintained
that NCC has been consistent since he assumed office that broadband will
contribute tremendously to the transformation agenda of the president. This
much has been realized by Mr. President; “You could see his enthusiasm in
getting it off the table, and we as one of the key agencies to implement it, we
are ready to run.”
The government, according to him, has to approve every step
and if you look at the plan there are indications with the Ministry of Finance
representing the Federal Government to look at funding and appropriate
incentives to the private sector to have their buy-in.
Hopeful Broadband Preacher:
He also anticipated that NCC would repeat the mobile
penetration feat in broadband, asserting, “So, we hope very much that broadband
will become the next revolution in communication in Nigeria, and will also
fetch the same type of profitability for companies that are willing to come and
invest.”
Juwah pointed out that modern economies’ cannot run without
broadband whether it is broadcasting, medicine or government services. So, the
more we delay, the more we fall behind, especially in improving the knowledge
of the Nigerian child.
“… So, it is very fundamental that Nigeria embarks on this
because Mr. President wants development, wants to transform Nigeria, you can
see that he is keen on getting this up there,” Juwah asserted, stressing that
cyber security comes in many forms and these are being addressed as the bills
for them are before the National Assembly and we are pushing, fine tuning with
the National Security Adviser’s office to see that it takes off this year.
Therefore, the issue of cyber security is not being overlooked at all. It is
going to go hand-in-hand with access to information through broadband.
Consequences of Broadband:
Addressing the likely consequences of broadband deployment
in the country, Juwah noted that it will open up the economy, ease the process
of doing businesses from banking to medicine to education and even government.
He emphasised that all aspects of life will be positively
affected; adding that more jobs will be created and Nigerians who are into
content development like software, movies and music would find a very good
platform to market their products, as well as quality of service would improve
and data and video management would improve too.
Just as in the long run, he pointed out that price of
telecoms services from voice to data would crash and those who are hitherto
digitally excluded would be included, because the services would be pervasive.
In other words, it would be a win-win for Nigeria and Nigerians.
Conclusion:
It is not surprising therefore, that today, a search on the
world wide web: “Eugene Juwah on ‘broadband’” would offer you about 144,000
results within 0.29 seconds; an indication that in about 38 months in office,
Dr. Eugene Juwah may have mentioned broadband either directly or indirectly on
average of 3,789 times per month. This goes to show really how important, this
subject of broadband is to him personally and why Nigerian stakeholders,
especially those playing in the telecommunications sector should support this
broadband preacher, more so, now that we have a Broadband Council.
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