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The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has advised the Nigerian government to streamline the regulatory roles of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to avoid conflicts and enhance the nation’s drive toward a fully digitalized economy.
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This recommendation was made in the ITU’s recently launched report titled “Collaborative Regulation: Accelerating Nigeria’s Digital Transformation”. The report highlights overlapping functions between the NCC and NITDA in areas such as ICT policy formulation, data protection, and content regulation, and emphasizes the need for clear delineation of their roles due to the increasing convergence in telecommunications and ICT.
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The ITU noted that the NITDA Amendment Bill currently before the National Assembly should address these overlaps. The bill seeks to clarify NITDA’s mandate but might unintentionally create conflicts with other sector regulators, including the NCC, due to NITDA’s broad scope relating to the ‘digital economy’.
Failure to streamline these roles could result in regulatory conflicts, multiplicity of roles, licenses, and fees, as well as forum shopping, which would complicate the operational environment for ICT companies in Nigeria.
Stakeholders such as the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Computer Professionals Council of Nigeria (CPN), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) have expressed concerns that the NITDA Amendment Bill might transform NITDA into a ‘super regulator’ with overriding powers over other agencies.
Download the ITU’s ‘Collaborative regulation: Accelerating Nigeria’s digital transformation’.
