The innovative leadership skill of the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta is not only paying off but it is being noticed and recognised by relevant local and international agencies. The latest of such recognition came from the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR)  which named the Commission tops in institutional work processes in the country.

Very strong business organizational structure, policies and practices that facilitate effective and efficient service delivery were some of the high points considered by the Bureau.

Director General of BPSR, Dr. Joe Abah presented the report and plaque to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, at the NCC Headquarters in Abuja, Monday.

In arriving at this conclusion the BPSR boss also listed accountabilities and responsibilities for set Standardized Operating Procedure (SOP) manuals of the Commission’s 19 departments.

Accurate measurement of Responsibilities and Performance assigned to staff were the parameters for the evaluation of the Commission.

In terms of governance, the Bureau said “NCC strategic objectives are prioritized for potential impact using standardized principles including the balanced score card”.

NCC’s understanding of stakeholders needs and contributions are quite robust.

The Bureau said NCC’s vision, strategy and impacts complement other sectors organizational direction, adding that:

• Staff can articulate what the Commission wants to achieve, its role and purpose;
• Strategy is considered by the management team regularly throughout the year because;
• NCC has a sense of where it is going and how it should get there.

The Bureau also rated NCC very high in procurement processes saying the Commission “has adequate systems, processes and experienced personnel responsible for executing its procurement activities in line with extant provisions of the Public Procurement Act”.

The Bureau also commended the establishment of NCC central store at Mbora, Abuja where all procurement records are archived electronically from loss.

The Bureau also listed in its report that “NCC demonstrates that formal performance management processes are clearly understood, constantly applied and seen by all staff to be a valuable activity, that individual performance targets are clearly assigned with the team, business unit and overall organizational performance targets”.

The report that was presented to Prof. Danbatta by Dr. Abah took 15 months to go through evaluation during which period the BPSR team had a meeting with the Human Capital Department (HCD) team of NCC. Based on the approval of the EVC, the evaluation of the work processes took place thereafter whereby top management, senior and junior management staff were nominated to assess the work processes of the Commission under nine main areas covering 117 questions supervised by officials of BPSR.

After the BPSR presentation, the NCC boss, Prof. Danbatta, said as someone from the academia, he is very conversant with empirical analysis and criticisms and welcomed the Bureau’s report.

These bring out the best of the situation.  He thanked the Director General for this rare show of professionalism by making the presentation himself. This conclusion by BPSR has further justified NCC’s position as a foremost regulator in Africa whose robust regulatory activities are based on international best practices. On the grey areas of Quality of Service, Prof. Danbatta said that the Commission will leave no stone unturned to ensure that Quality of Service improves.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that define Quality of Service, have been put in place for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) assessment.  The result of the assessment in the 1st quarter of 2017 has shown improvement in Quality of Service.