By 
By AANUOLUWA OMOTOSHO
Innovation and disruptive technologies, market dynamics, regulatory response, infrastructure and sector challenges in West Africa’s increasingly converging marketplace will form the thrust of stakeholders’ engagement at the 8th WACC holding West Africa Convergence Conference (WACC 2016) holding in Lagos November 30th at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers.
The rise of Over-the-Top Services, growth of mobile internet, increasing acceptance of eCommerce, mCommerce, Mmoney, and the likes is redefining business and social engagements. The thinning lines between once heavily separated regulatory boundaries whether in the financial, health, telecom, broadcast, and other industries is increasingly forcing stakeholders to rub minds on how they can thicken value to end users in their respective industry.
“These challenges and opportunities form the basis for engagements at WACC 2016 in Lagos. This year’s theme is ‘Engage, Regulate, Leverage, Live Convergence.’ WACC 2016 is focusing on how operators and regulators are relating to the dynamics of disruptive technologies as convergence becomes pervasive across sectors,” said chairman of the organizing committee for WACC, Engr. Kayode Gbadamosi.
Already billed to make presentations are the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Both regulators are to lead the regulatory discussions on Convergence and Technology. The NITDA will be making presentation on ‘Convergence, IT Regulation and the Promotion of Local Content’ while the NCC leads talks on ‘Regulation, Technology Neutrality and New Telecom Services in the era of Convergence.’
“More than ever, the need to prevail over market challenges is forcing companies to be more innovative and to deploy technologies that ride on convergence. The frontier for new services and new experiences has never been this explored; and there are lots of new challenges for both regulators and operators finding common ground to best serve the market. The WACC offers the right platform for engagement and to relive the fact of convergence whether on the banking industry, health, broadcast and other sectors,” said Gbadamosi, former zonal director of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
Registration has opened at official event site: www.waconvergenceconference.net.
