With over 3,000 SME ICT entrepreneurs and contributing over $32m to the nation’s ICT and telecoms sector of the Nigerian economy, the Nigerian Communications Commission,  NCC,  has called for a continuous serious working relationship, cooperation and collaboration with the Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association, CAPDAN to add more value to the ICT ecosystem.

This was disclosed by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, who was on his first official working visit to the CAPDAN secretariat in Lagos.

According to Danbatta, the association as an important part of the ICT value chain ecosystem has to cooperate with the NCC to curtail the sale of substandard devices that have not been type-approved, stressing that such equipment affect the quality of Service.

“Since you deal in computer and phone devices, it is not out of place to seek your collaboration and cooperation as some of these devices do not comply with safety specifications and we believe that as an association you have the capacity to help the NCC curtail the sale of these devices.

“We want to ensure that we protect Nigerians and that whatever devices they use are safe and with this we’ll in turn obtain their trust and confidence,” he said.

The EVC added that CAPDAN members should help create the necessary awareness  and ensure the success of the ongoing continuous SIM card registration exercise to help curb criminal acts. “This is an issue that is very important to the nation with regard to its security implications, when we have SIM cards that have not been registered being used to commit crimes”.

Danbatta added that as part the Commission’s CSR, to telecoms based association, the Commission will offer training to CAPDAN members. “We therefore encourage you to take advantage and enrol at least 10 of your members for the National Innovation Diploma Programme in the Lagos campus of the Digital Bridge Institute,  DBI. It is important that you start training young professionals that will take over from you to start getting it right in the areas of innovation, software development etc. ”

Danbatta reiterated the Commission’s commitment to implementing all issues agreed upon by both parties and one of such he said was his visit to Computer Village which he has fulfilled. “We will collaborate to translate the provisions of the Act establishing the NCC into reality and by so doing we’ll be creating jobs,  necessary skills and enterprising group of Nigerians that will be able to make the desired impact in the area of ICT applications in the country”.

On his part, the Executive President CAPDAN,  Ojikutu Adeniyi said the visit by the NCC to Computer Village is very remarkable to the history of the nation and the ICT ecosystem in particular.

“As you are aware,  activities in computer village goes beyond selling of mobile devices,  it is a hub where a lot of technical activities go on. The level of repairs, refurbishment and software related activities that are carried out here entails skills that are at par with the expertise needed for manufacturing mobile devices from scratch. It is the belief of CAPDAN that such expertise should be leveraged on to contribute to the Nigerian economy.  For us it is a time to grow the innovative manufacturing potential of the Computer Village by upgrading it to an African ICT hub or Nigeria’s Silicon Valley or India’s Bangalore”, he said.

Ojikutu added that the major solutions to the various challenges in the ICT sector begins with the visit by the EVC,  of the NCC  and his team to CAPDAN secretariat. “We are pleading however,  that you make more effort to see that more products and services in the sector are produced by Nigerians.”

Photo caption: L-R: Mr. Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs ,Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); Mr. Ojikutu  Adeniyi, President Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria  (CAPDAN); Prof. Umar G. Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) NCC; Mr. Sunday Dare ,Executive Commissioner Stakeholders Management , NCC; Mr. Efosa Idehen, Head ,Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement  ,NCC and  Barr. Usman Malah ,Chief of Staff to the EVC,  during a working visit to Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos, Wednesday, August 23.