By 
Nigeria and Britain, this week, strengthened the vista for policy and regulatory reforms in the telecom sector that could impact positively on infrastructure roll outs and digital access to thousands of underserved communities.
The two countries, at a virtual forum on Right of Way (RoW) reforms and planning permits for masts and towers in Nigeria, agreed on a common framework to ease the sector’s challenges and ramp up opportunities for investors to improve connectivity in Africa’s largest economy of over 200 million people.
The event, the first Nigeria Technical Conference on the Right of Way, was organised by United Kingdom (UK) Prosperity Fund’s Digital Access Programme and Greenfields Law in collaboration with Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy.
In his keynote address titled: ‘Right of Way Reforms: Unlocking Nigeria’s Inclusive Digital Economy’, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, told the audience that after receiving briefing from the telecoms regulator and stakeholders in the industry, he discovered that the Right of Way levy was one of the major obstacles to enhancing broadband penetration in Nigeria, revealing that this informed his decision to engage with the Nigeria Governors Forum in order to address the Right of Way imbroglio that had lingered for over a decade.
Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said the input of the conference will assist the government in further reducing the encumbrances bedeviling ICT infrastructure, especially in the provision of resilient fixed infrastructure across the county.
His words: “In maximizing the benefits of digital transformation, resilient telecoms infrastructure is the key enabler in delivering ICT services. Therefore, this technical conference is apt, as it provides effective solutions to Right of Way (RoW) challenges amongst others.”
Danbatta who was represented by the NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, expressed the willingness of the telecoms regulator to “collaborate with the UK Government Prosperity Fund-Nigeria Project, especially on the subject matter of reforming the administration of RoW and planning permits in Nigeria.”
Key stakeholders, who participated at the virtual conference include the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme Adviser and Country Lead, Idongesit Udo; and the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Her Excellency Catriona Wendy Campbell Laing CB who expressed optimism about the actualization of the country’s National Broadband Plan 2020 – 2025 launched by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Others are governors of Ekiti, Katsina, Sokoto, Imo, Plateau and Kwara states. members of the Presidential Committee on Broadband Plan Monitoring and Implementation; industry and private sector leaders in the telecommunications sector, civil society groups and the media.
