Communications Minister Threatens to Sanction Unproductive Parastatals

Emma Okonji

The Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has warned all parastatals under the ministry to step up their performance and become more productive or risk sanction.

The minister also gave new targets and fresh directives to the chief executives and directors of all parastatals of the ministry, on how best to manage the parastatals and make them profitable.

Pantami, who gave the targets and directives, urged them to significantly improve the level of their performance to reflect the next level paradigm of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He gave the directives recently during his extensive meetings and briefings with the various chief executive officers and directors of all parastatals under the ministry, at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

The minister assured them of the federal government’s support as they discharge their duties and reminded them of his commitment to sanction any parastatal that fails to step up its performance.

The parastatals under the Ministry of Communications include: Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone Plc, Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT).

The CEOs were given numerous targets that they must meet in the course of discharging their duties.

He tasked Galaxy Backbone to improve the reach and coverage of its services in the public sector and to significantly improve the quality of services provided.

The minister tasked Nigerian Communications Commission, the telecoms industry regulator, to bring to an end the issue of sales of pre-registered, unregistered and partially-registered SIM cards, especially as this could help in reducing numerous security challenges the nation faces.

NCC, according to Pantami, must stem the tide of illegal deduction of the data of subscribers and work towards the downward review of the cost of data, and also ensure compliance with the maximum two per cent call drop rate directive to telecom operators.

The minister tasked Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited to significantly improve its level of visibility across the country and to ensure great improvement in the quality of its services.

For the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Pantami charged it to ensure an appreciable improvement in the efficiency of its letter and parcel delivery service, and to increase the effective area of its coverage in the country.

To the other parastatal, which is the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Pantami challenged it to have a greater level of focus on increasing local content development and patronage in the hardware and software sub-sectors; and to strengthen the execution of its Information Technology (IT) project clearance mandate to capture more projects by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.

He equally tasked NITDA to ensure the promotion and adoption of the Nigeria e-Government Interoperability Framework (Ne-GIF) by the MDAs.

Pantami however, did not leave out the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), an arm of the NCC that has the mandate to provide funds and incentives for rural telecoms development and expansion. He charged USPF to ensure there is a sustainability model in place for all the projects deployed and to prepare plan to reduce the access gaps in the rural, unserved and underserved areas.

Pantami emphasised the ministry’s roles of supervision and provision of broad policies for all the parastatals within the ministry.  He informed the CEOs that their performance would be assessed on a monthly basis. He asked them to be passionate, hardworking and ensure that they exhibit high level of integrity in the discharge of their duties. He urged them to follow due process in their activities as championed by President Buhari and also directed them to communicate these values and targets to their staff.

In a statement signed by the Deputy Director/Head, Information and Press Unit at the ministry, Mrs. Phil Oshodin, the minister encouraged synergy, unity and the forging of a harmonious inter-agency relationship among the parastatals.  He also assured them of his total commitment to ensuring that no obstacle stands in the way of the successful execution of their mandates.