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The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) is seeking to collaborate with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) even as it commends the telecom regulator for its commitment to deepen digital penetration for economic growth and inclusiveness in the country.
The new executive council of NACCIMA led by its National President, Saratu Iya-Aliu, recently paid a courtesy visit to the NCC in Abuja seeking ways to support the NCC in its goal making national broadband accessible and affordable. Iya-Aliu acknowledged the role of NCC in transforming Nigeria into becoming a digitally-driven economy since the liberalisation of the telecoms sector in 2001.
The NACCIMA executives were received by Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau (CAB), NCC, Hafsat Lawal, on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta.
“As the voice of private sector in Nigeria, we have noticed the important role which the NCC has been playing in digitising the economy. It has helped to bring a lot of efficiency into the private businesses and we give you commendation based on this drive,” NACCIMA President, Iya-Aliu said.
She further noted that it was in recognition on this that the new executives of NACCIMA chose NCC as the first organisation to after their recent inauguration, in order to seek areas of collaboration to further increase the frontier of private sector players leveraging digital platforms.
Director General of the association, Ayoola Olukanmi, who took time to explain the vision of the newly-constituted executives of NACCIMA, also commended NCC for the leap it had recorded in digitising the economy, noting that “beyond using digitisation for social interactions, it has also become a powerful tool for enhancing business growth.”
He cited digitisation, women/gender issues, digital training for members as well as startup development, among others, as areas where NACCIMA would like to collaborate with the Commission.
Lawal, while thanking the NACCIMA team for the visit, told them that as NCC deepens access to digital access, the Commission constantly engages in collaborating with various agencies and stakeholders as avenues to deliver on its various mandate of protecting, informing and educating the consumers of telecoms services on their rights, obligations and privileges.
She, however, asked the association to articulate their demands and areas for collaborations and forward same to the Commission’s Management for consideration, assuring them of the NCC’s readiness to deepen stakeholder collaboration and partnership, promote competition and inclusive growth for private sector players represented by NACCIMA in the country.
