By Angeline Mgbele, Bureau Chief, Northern Nigeria
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called for deeper collaboration among African Telecommunications and Communications Regulators to strengthen the use of data, evidence and market intelligence in driving more effective and responsive regulation across the continent.
This is contained in a press statement e-signed by the Director of Public Affairs(DPA) at NCC, Mrs. Nnenna Ukoha.
Per the statement, speaking at the Heads of Regulators Roundtable during the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) Conference of Plenipotentiaries (CPL-26) in Abuja, recently, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer(EVC/CEO) at NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida said communications regulation had become increasingly central to economic growth, digital transformation, and national development across Africa.
Dr. Maida observed that although regulators operated within different market environments and legal frameworks, they faced many common challenges, including infrastructure development, cybersecurity, affordability, satellite services, resilience of networks, and the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence technologies.
Maida noted that exchanges among regulators often revealed shared experiences and lessons that could help institutions address complex policy and regulatory issues more effectively. He stressed the need to make such knowledge-sharing more deliberate, systematic, and beneficial to regulatory authorities across the continent.
He noted that “Very often, the challenge one regulator is trying to solve has already been encountered, in one form or another, by a colleague elsewhere on the continent.”
The NCC EVC/CEO described the event’s theme, “Building Africa’s Network Intelligence Ecosystem for Evidence-Based Regulation,” as both timely and highly relevant to the future of communications regulation on the continent.
“It gives us an opportunity to consider how better use of data, evidence and market intelligence can strengthen regulatory decisions, and how African regulators can learn more systematically from one another,” he explained.
While chairing the roundtable, NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Rimini Makama stated that, “developments such as broadband expansion, satellite services, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital public infrastructure are making communications ecosystems increasingly complex and requiring regulators to move beyond traditional regulatory approaches”.
Mrs. Makama noted that regulators across Africa now had access to growing volumes of technical, market and consumer data, but stressed that the real challenge lay in translating this information into actionable intelligence capable of supporting better regulatory outcomes.
The Heads of Regulators Roundtable forms part of ongoing efforts by African communications regulators to promote evidence-based regulation, enhance regional cooperation and build more resilient, innovative and consumer-focused communications ecosystems across the continent.
