By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju and Chinedu James
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) plans to deepen its capacity on cyber security through collaborations with the US War College. This was revealed by the NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Prof. Umar Danbatta when a delegation of United States of America Air War College visited the commission this week. The delegation was at the NCC to familiarize themselves with the workings of the telecom regulator and identify areas of collaboration and partnership.
“[Your visit] goes to show that the activities of the NCC go beyond our national boundaries; to have chosen NCC as one of the agencies to come and visit is an indication that we are playing an important role in the economic development of this country…. We know issues of cybercrimes and cyber threat are major national security issues today,” said Director of Public Affairs Department, Mr. Tony Ojobo, and some staff of the NCC commission on behalf of Professor Danbatta.
Stacy Kihara, Air War College Student; Director Public Affairs Department at the NCC, Ojobo, and Director of Spectrum Administration, Nwaulune
Ojobo took the visitors through an in-depth session on the challenges in the industry ranging from “Right of Way, inadequate power supply, vandalization of telecoms infrastructure and forex and how these impact QoS.”
He also informed on “SIM registration and its security implications, Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) and its mandate of ensuring services reach unserved and underserved areas to ensure universal service and access and, the commission’s openness to international, national partnership and collaboration with relevant stakeholders in the industry as well as creating enabling environment for foreign direct investment influx.” The commission spokesman said the NCC was already collaborating with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on industry experiences and practices.
Director Project Department at NCC, Mr. Bashir Idris, took the delegation through the oversight functions of the regulator while he highlighted the commission’s 8-Point Agenda and how it relates to its Strategic Management Plan 2013-2018. Director of Policy, Competition and Economic Analysis, Josephine Amuwa, spoke on the growth and development of the industry and its contribution to GDP; Director of New Media and Information Security Department, Haru Alhassan, spoke on cybercrimes, threats and NCC’s efforts at combating these problem; and Director of Spectrum Administration, Mr. Austin Nwaulune, offered insight on spectrum allocation, bandwidth and role of International Telecommunications Union.
The visitors thanked the NCC and expressed their willingness to collaborate with on addressing the international menace of cybercrime.
