NCC, Stakeholders Collaborate to Tackle Rural Connectivity Challenges
Emma Okonji
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has collaborated with the Association for Progressive Communications and other institutional stakeholders towards addressing challenges confronting rural network connectivity in Nigeria.
The collaboration resulted in a two-day workshop, which held recently in Abuja to explore policy framework for enabling community networks towards bridging the digital divide and accelerating socio-economic development in Nigeria’s underserved and unserved communities.
The forum brought together regulators, community leaders, technical experts and potential foreign investors, among others, to examine policy and regulatory barriers, explore innovative funding mechanisms, ensure sustainable renewable solutions and strengthen collaboration with stakeholders.
Addressing participants at the workshop, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, said the workshop was important, aimed at bridging the digital divide in Nigeria and fostering inclusive social economic development.
“The workshop is an opportunity for all of us to harness the expertise, insights, and experiences of diverse stakeholders present here which includes the regulators, community leaders, technical experts and potential foreign providers to address the critical challenges such as affordable devices, access, licensing, spectrum allocation, infrastructure development, sustainability and institutional monitoring,” Maida said.
Maida, represented by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services at NCC, Abraham Oshadami, also said the workshop demonstrated NCC’s commitment to advancing digital inclusion, particularly in underserved and unserved areas.
“At NCC, we recognise the transformative potential of community center networks in achieving this important goal,” Maida added.
According to him, NCC is committed to “this journey and views this workshop as a catalyst for meaningful change,” adding that the expertise, perspectives and commitments will shape the future where every Nigerian, regardless of his or her status, will have meaningful access to opportunities from digital connectivity.
In her remarks, Co-manager of the Association for Progressive Communications’ Local Network (LocNet) initiative, Kathleen Diga, noted the collaboration was to tackle identified hindrances to digital inclusion.
“This is a space where we can be open and exchange ideas of possibilities, opportunities that will remain in realising values of a diversified ecosystem,” Diga said.
“I believe this workshop presents a moment in time that we can explore the bottom-up approach in local communities, small social enterprises, corporative among others, which have the ability to fill some of the digital gaps that remain unfilled,” she said.
She stressed the need to recognise that community centre connectivity exists and they are growing throughout the global south, which, she said, are a “strategic response to digital exclusion.”
