NCC Pre Conference Workshop On Distributed Ledger Technology Records Impressive Attendance

• Experts Upbeat Technology Will Improve Economy, Security

By Angeline Mgbele, Senior Correspondent Abuja

Feelers obtained from multidisciplinary experts who are attending a preconference on Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain) Ecosystem, Decentralization, and Adoption Methods as Growth Plan for the Telecoms Sector Development of Bold Blockchain Strategy for Nigeria, show that copiously deploying the technology  will boost the government’s efforts in boosting the economy and tackling the manifold security challenges bedeviling the country.

The New Media and Information Security (NMIS) Department of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is organising the workshop .

Deputy Director, NMIS of NCC, Dr. Chidi Diugwu commented: “Well, this is actually a distributed ledger technology conference with emphasis on blockchain .  The goal here is to introduce this technology to potential users and also to reach down to providers of services.  The most important things, from a regulatory point of view, is to be able to start off a regulatory direction that will ensure that the technology is well regulated.

 From our point of view as New Media and Information Security Department, we are interested in expanding the market.  We are interested in the growth plan of any emerging technology and today, what we have done is: a pre conference workshop designed to get a feel of from different stakeholder groups of their understanding and awareness regarding the technology. Ultimately, we hope to design a robust strategy of growth plan covering innovation, incubation, technology transition and diffusion.”

Administrator, ICT Nigerian Navy and Representative of the Defence Space Administration

Commodore Adekunle K. Olulowo said: “Prior to my current appointment, I was Director Maritime Awareness and Knowledge Diffusion…  We have this technology that monitors all the vessels that operate in our waters at the right moment.  But the way the system is set up is that we have our servers in all the commands and all the units. So we are just getting to realize now that we could apply blockchain technology, because the disaster recovery aspect is what we are really focusing on. 

All our servers are decentralized  and whenever the person in the remotest location can see, we can see it in Abuja here. So it will be very difficult for somebody to commit fraud, maybe you see a ship committing a crime and you want to cover it up,  because what you are seeing other people are seeing it as well.  So in that way, there is a kind of check on the system and we could escalate that to so many of our security functions.  From the knowledge we have gained we can escalate it and apply it in so many areas that will help us in fighting crimes all over the country.”

Board Member of Nigeria’s foremost digital capacity building institution, the Digital Bridge Institute(DBI) Niran Oyekale spoke on the criticality of accessing  blockchain  benefits and developing business case for such, indicating that the institute has a big role  to play especially in helping stakeholders build capacity on all ramifications of the technology.

Attended by participants from the diplomatic, policy, legal, legislative, security, safety and media constituencies, recorded an impressive turnout, nevermind many of the seats had the “Not sit,” tag.