The Federal Government of Nigeria has officially declared bandit groups operating in any parts of the country as Terrorists.

The declaration is contained in the Federal Government’s Gazette proscribing their existence and restraining any person or group of persons from participating in activities of any of the groups.

The Official Gazette which was signed by the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN was released today, Wednesday 5th January, 2022.

The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) FBCS, FNCS, FIIM, wishes to convey the approval of the Federal Government to further extend the deadline for the National Identification Number (NIN)-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) data verification to the 31st of March, 2022.

The stakeholders have applauded the Federal Government on the significant growth in the number of NIN enrolments and the increased drive to enlighten Nigerians and legal residents across the country. As of 30th December 2021, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued over seventy-one million (71m) NINs with over fourteen thousand (14,000) enrolment centres set up across the country.

Furthermore, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has also set up enrolment centres in over thirty-one (31) countries to cater for Nigerians in the Diaspora. The unprecedented growth in the National Identity Database to over 71 million unique NINs in such a short period, with about 3 to 4 SIMs linked to a NIN, reflects the concerted effort of the Federal Government, the Nigerian populace and legal residents and this is truly commendable.

Following the request by stakeholders, including citizens, legal residents and Nigerians in the diaspora, the Federal Government has extended the deadline of the exercise to the 31st of March, 2022. This extension would enable the Federal Government to consolidate the gains of the process and accelerate the enrolment of Nigerians in key areas like the remote areas, diaspora, schools, hospitals, worship centres, and the registration of legal residents.

The Honourable Minister has however implored Nigerians and legal residents to enrol for their NINs and link with their SIMs during this period of extension as more services will be requiring the NIN for identification. He also reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to support the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in ensuring that the objectives of the exercise are achieved.

The Honourable Minister, the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, and the Director-General/CEO of NIMC, Engr. Aliyu A. Aziz, on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, wish to thank all Nigerians and stakeholders for their commitment and support towards the success of the project. They also applaud the efforts of the respective staff in ensuring a seamless NIN-SIM linkage and urge citizens and legal residents to complete the process of enrolment, verification, and SIM linkage on or before 31st March 2022.

…As NCC shares regulatory experience

Faith in the operational excellence and regulatory efficiency that have become the marks of Africa’s foremost regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), was demonstrated recently when a delegation from the Congo-Brazzaville Telecommunications Regulations Authority (CTRA) visited the NCC on a benchmarking tour.

The delegation from the central African nation purposively paid a scheduled visit to NCC, essentially to understudy the latter’s policies, practices and programmes that have made it a model telecommunications regulatory authority on the Continent and beyond.

The Congolese team led by CTRA’s Network Director, Benjamin Mouandza, spent three days at the NCC Head Office in Abuja, where it was exposed to key result-oriented regulatory activities, frameworks, programmes and policies of NCC, with the objective to explore how such operational frameworks could be adapted by the African nation noted for its huge rainforest reserves.

In the letter written to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Congloese regulator had indicated interest to gain more insights into three areas of NCC’s regulatory activities, namely, management of issues associated with Quality of Service (QoS), SIM Boxing and Call Masking, as well as telecom equipment type-approval process.

In response to the request, Danbatta had graciously accepted to host the team and further directed relevant departments of NCC, including Special Duties (SD); Technical Standards and Network Integrity (TSNI); and the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement (CME) directorates to interact with the team to provide necessary information sharing that may be useful to the Congolese counterpart.

Addressing the CTRA team, the NCC’s Director, TSNI, Bako Wakil, spoke extensively on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) institued by NCC on QoS and how these KPIs are measured and monitored by the Commission toward ensuring improved service delivery to the Nigeria’s ever-growing telecoms consumers. He said this also helped to improve Quality of Experience (QoE) of the consumers.

On type-approval process, Wakil stated that the Commission had developed a rigorous type-approval process to ensure that telecoms equipment, including terminal devices, manufactured in line with international standards and specifications are brought into the country. The “NCC is serious about type-approval process like other processes, because non-type approved devices and equipment which are also not manufactured to international standards and specifications have negative implications for quality of service delivery on the networks,” he said.

Wakil also spoke extensively, to the admiration of the Congolese team, on call masking and highlighted measures the NCC had put in place to address the menace. He described call masking as “the practice of sending international calls to an operator but disguising the calls as if they were local by sending the calls on the local interconnect route with a local number in the national numbering plan instead of the original international calling number.”

In a related presentation to the visiting team on SIM boxing fraud and efforts being taken by the NCC to combat the menace, NCC’s Director, CME, Ephraim Nwokonneya, spoke on the problems created by fraudulent practice of SIM Boxing, including threat to national security, loss of revenue to service providers and the government. Additionally, he asserted the anti-competitive practices associated with such acts among licensees as well as the general economic implications so evident in revenue loss.

However, Nwokonneya itemised solutions to SIM Boxing fraud from a regulatory perspective. He declared that regulators can deploy anti-SIM boxing and call masking solutions, be proactive and effective in monitoring and enforcement, collaboration with the industry and law enforcement agencies, capacity building through training and skill acquisition programmes, as well as the review of the Enforcement Regulations and enabling laws.

More importantly, Nwokonneya told the Congolese telecoms regulator team that collaboration between the regulator and the industry is required to effectively combat the menace of SIMBox Fraud, Call Masking and Call Refiling in conjunction with deployment of technological solution and well trained staff.

From the presentations, it was made clear that the scale of call masking and SIMBoxing has been on the downward decline in Nigeria while the number of complaints from subscribers on incorrectly displayed calling numbers has also reduced substantially. To prove that NCC processes emplaced to combat the menace are succeeding, Nwokonneya stated that there has been a significant and noticeable improvement in the display of correct international calling numbers into Nigeria networks.

The NCC Directors also reiterated that the Commission is also taking strategic actions on SIM Registration, the National Identification Number (NIN) and the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) linkage policy. The NCC team informed the visitors that a maximum of four SIM numbers are permissible to be registered per subscriber per network requirement. This is another measure deployed by the NCC to tackle SIMBoxing which usually requires multiple SIMs to flourish.

The NCC team emphasised that the combination of regulatory action and deployment of technology solutions have helped to put the menace of call masking and SIMBoxing in the Nigeria’s telecoms sector under check.

Commenting on the benefits of the visit, CTRA’s Mouandza, said the choice made by the Congolese regulator to visit NCC on a benchmarking tour has been worthwhile. “We have come to understand how the regulator in Nigeria has been handling some salient regulatory issues and matters in the country as it relates to telecoms. In the course of this visit, I can say that our objective has been achieved. The experience has been very rich, we have learnt many things. We thank the EVC and his team for accepting to host us. We are more positioned now to replicate some of the things we have learnt in our telecoms market back home,” he said.

The Congolese officials had practical demonstrations of the issues earlier discussed, especially the nature of technologies that have been deployed by the NCC to independently and remotely monitor, measure and validate QoS on the networks of mobile operators in the country.

It will be recalled that the visit by the Congolese team came barely a month after the NCC hosted officials from Sierra Leone’s National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM), who equally visited NCC to benchmark the Nigeria’s telecom regulator’s policies, programmes and regulatory activities.

Over the years, the NCC has constantly received delegations from telecoms regulators in Africa and this trend has remained a major boost for Nigeria’s global ranking as a model in telecommunications regulation. Suffice it to say, that, these benchmarking visits have eloquently reinforced NCC’s leadership status in operational efficiency, collaborative partnership, and commitment to intra-African solidarity in the telecommunications sphere.

Businessman and socialite, Olakunle Churchill has praised his actress wife, Rosy Meurer for making his home the “happiest place” for the years they have been married.

As they celebrate their wedding anniversary on Thursday, they shared loving messages about each other on their respective social media pages.
Sharing loved-up photos of them, Olakunle said, “There’s a reason why they say “home is where the heart is”. That reason transcends luxury furnishings, exotic and vintage ambiences. That reason is the positive energy, peace and comfort that home gives away from all the energies outside. When you are married, that reason is down to “who you make home with” and everything else you create together. Today, I celebrate the one who makes my home the happiest place for the few years of marital bliss. I just want to keep saying “yes I do”. Love you Queen Rosy. @official_rosymeurer Happy Anniversary 🥂❤️

On her page, the actress said, “I’m a complete woman with you. Knowing and marrying you have brought nothing but joy, peace and satisfaction to me. There are so many beautiful things to say to you but most of all I want to say thank you for loving me. Happy anniversary baby ❤️ CHEERS TO MANY MORE YEARS TOGETHER 🥂 I LOVE YOU 😘❤️.”

Credit: Instagram | olakunlechurchill | official_rosymeurer

Ongoing policy directions and regulatory measures being put in place by the Nigerian Government towards bridging identified broadband infrastructure gaps shall be sustained in order to facilitate increased access to the Internet by citizens across the country.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, gave the assurance in their presentations during the recently-concluded virtual African Internet Governance Forum 2021 (vAFIGF2021).

The three-day annual forum which held in-person and virtually, was organised with the theme: “Advancing Digital Transformation in Africa in the Face of Crisis”, and hosted by the Nigerian government. The forum was attended by many stakeholders within the African Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ecosystem.

Pantami, who was represented at the forum by a Director at NCC, who doubles as Adviser to the Honourable Minister on Technical Matters, Prof. Sahalu Balarabe Junaidu, said the objective of the forum was to harness digital technology and innovation, transform societies and economies, and eradicate poverty for social and economic development in the Continent.

The Minister said, with the challenges thrown up by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for Internet services has increased dramatically. He called on African citizens to access the broadband/internet services to carry out their personal and official task more effectively and effectively.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the increased need to embrace the digital culture. So, as Africans, one of the ways by which we can respond to the challenge thrown by the pandemic is to accelerate our digital transformation,” he said.

Pantami explained that the digital transformation strategy for Africa should be established on key foundational pillars which include an enabling environment, policy regulation, digital infrastructure, digital skills and human capacity, as well as digital innovation, and entrepreneurship.

He said critical sectors such as digital trade and financial services, digital government, digital education, digital health, and digital agriculture, are also underlining pillars of the transformation. Additionally, he said the drivers of digital transformation include digital content and applications, digital identification, emerging technology, cyber security, privacy and personal data protection, as well as research and development.

Pantami recalled that Internet usage in sub-Saharan Africa is still not encouraging, according to report by the International Finance Corporation ( IFC ) and World Bank. However, the Minister asserted that Nigeria, with its current over 140 million Internet users, has one of the largest subscriptions in the sub-region.

The Minister said the various policies, including the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020-2030), and the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025, emplaced to address infrastructure challenges and enhance the country’s migration to a more robust digital economy, will also ensure that more citizens are able to have access to the Internet in the coming years.

He mentioned the recent successful auction of 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum band for the scheduled deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) networks as another important policy and strategic step taken by the Nigerian government to boost broadband penetration in the country.

Pantami also listed the enforcement and implementation of the National Cyber Security Policy and Strategy 2021, and the review of the Cybercrimes Act of 2015 to build an inclusive Internet governance ecosystem and boost digital cooperation, as well as the ongoing linking of citizens National identification Number (NINs) with the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) as worthy state actions that will yield great benefits. Other initiatives cited by the Minister include the ongoing effort to address high Right of Way (RoW) charges, tackling multiple taxation in the ecosystem, and increasing stakeholder collaboration.

Meanwhile, the Director, New Media and Information Security, NCC, Dr. Al-Hassan Haru, who represented Danbatta at the forum, reiterated the Commission’s commitment to ensuring broadband penetration through stimulating continuous roll-out of broadband infrastructure. He said the Commission is well positioned to drive government policy direction to tackle digital infrastructure deficit in the telecoms sector, as well as to explore necessary options to improve the nation’s digital ecosystem.  

“The future is digital, and we should be committed to supporting and collaborating with African countries to maximise opportunities inherent in digital technologies. We should also be ready to avoid the pitfalls by instituting appropriate regulations as we are doing in NCC,” he added.

Other stakeholders at the event included eminent policy experts, leading technology managers from the private sector, representatives of governmental organisations, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, the academia, and Internet end-users, who actively participated in the discourses during the three-day forum.

Every year I get to read or hear some i things and they do get me excited and make me laugh. It shows how people are yet to come to terms with the economic realities of such an exodus at this time of the year. Though, the stress might be high but is it worth it? Let’s look at the reasons and They are:

1.Why is it that transport cost to East and Southern South of Nigeria is expensive why is the transport cost of Lagos to Abuja cheaper while that of Lagos to Onitsha more expensive:

The emotional people would go on emotional rant saying : Igbo do not love themselves, they hijack everything, they love money blablabla…

The logical minded ones would say : it is basically economics. The laws of demand and supply and equilibrium. These are the intelligent ones they will explain to you that when demand outstrips supply the price of services and goods go high and now that the people are travelling to east with few buses available and air ticket available, things would be expensive. It is like going to Oshodi from Mile 2 in Lagos and we have few buses, the normal price is about 200 but when there is no buses the prices can hit 500… Its simple demand and supply…

2. People would say that the igbo would be travelling every year and then come back to hutsle January and spend it in village and the cycle continues.

These people might not understand the concept of group economics or capital raperation in economics. During this period the capital that is coming to igbo lend is massive and it spurs the economy. Let’s break this down in a nutshell for those that do not understand the basics of economics. Now let’s take about 20 million igbo hit igbo land during Christmas and New year. They spend about 10,000 in buying food through out the whole period.

The Multiplier effects and dominion effects in South East region would be 20,000,000 x 10,000 = 200, 000, 000, 000 (Two hundred Billion) this is when 20 million people spend only 10k and we know they spend more.

Now imagine what 200 billion would do to a local economy, they demand created would be massive. The real estate sector would be busy, the hospitality sector would be revamped and a lot of sector. Those in events and decor industry in SOUTH East would be in business and the economy would be buoyant. That is when people spend only 10k.

For those that are not conversant with multiplier effect in economics is simply The multiplier effect is an economic term, referring to the proportional amount of increase, or decrease, in final income that results from an injection, or withdrawal, of capital.

While The domino effect refers to how one action can have a knock-on effect to related subjects. … In economics, the domino theory is often used to explain how an economic problem in one country can spread like a contagion or domino effect to similar countries and firms.

So, you can see the economic impact of the igbo travelling to Eastern part of the nation is massive to the economy of the region and should be encouraged not discouraged.

On a social and cultural scale, the end of the year avails the igbo the opportunity to engage, mingle and know the culture of their motherland. In an ever increasing and modernising world, the need to keep the young ones in tune with the cultural realities becomes more imperatives and that is why the igbo go home.

Finally, the period avail the igbo opportunity to network and do so we business connections with relatives, school mates and get new business partnership.

Anthony Emeka Nwosu

– Pegs ITR floor price at $0.045

· New rate takes effect from January

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has determined the new International Termination Rate (ITR) for voice services paid by overseas telecom carriers for terminating international calls on local networks in Nigeria at $0.045.

The new rate is contained in the ‘Determination of Mobile International Termination Rate’ issued by the Commission on November 25, 2021. The $0.045 rate is the floor price for ITR services and shall take effect from January 1, 2022. The rate is to be paid in US Dollar to enable Nigerian operators to receive an increasing rate in Naira terms to accommodate devaluation.

No licensee shall charge and/or receive effective rate per minute below determined ITR floor rate. As such, payment discounts, volume discounts and any other concession that has the effect of bringing the effective ITR lower than the rate determined shall be deemed a contravention of the new determination and will attract sanctions in line with the Nigerian Communications (Enforcement process, etc.) Regulations, 2019.

The ITR Floor is the minimum that can be charged. Operators will be free to negotiate a rate above the floor and this will be entirely left to commercial negotiation between the operators and international carriers/partners.

However, while the ITR only pertains to the cost of bringing traffic into Nigeria, Nigerian operators will continue to pay the regulated Mobile Termination Rate (MTR), the local termination rate among themselves.

The MTR of N3.90 for generic 2G/3G/4G operators and N4.70 for new entrant Long Term Evolution (LTE) operators determined in 2018, will continue to apply for local call terminations until a new rate is determined by the Commission pursuant to its powers as enshrined in the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003.

The subsisting regime of interconnection rates was sustained by the Commission’s Mobile (voice) termination rate issued on June 1, 2018. In the determination, it was stated that the ITR of N24.40 determined in 2016 will continue to apply until a new determination is made.

The ITR, being denominated in Naira had multiple negative impacts on local operators which was further exacerbated by episodes of devaluation of naira which ultimately left Nigeria from being a net receiver with respect to international minutes to a net payer.

The Commission also observed that operators continue to face series of challenges occasioned by the denomination of ITR in Naira, necessitating a need for a cost-based study on ITR. In view of the foregoing and in fulfillment of its statutory mandate of periodic review of regulatory policies, the Commission engaged Messrs’ Payday Advance and Support Services Limited to undertake a cost-based study of voice MTR that is most suitable for the Nigerian telecommunications industry.

Commenting, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said in arriving at the new MTR of $0.045, “the Commission has carefully considered the information provided by stakeholders and taken a view on parameters and regulatory measures in the light of relevant information such as international experience, cost model results, the state of competition in the sector and the Nigerian macro-economic environment.”

He added that the process of arriving at the ITR had been conducted transparently with a view to providing maximum clarity to all parties without compromising the confidentiality of commercially-sensitive information. “We are confident that the result the review will make a significant contribution to the development of the telecoms sector in Nigeria and be beneficial to subscribers, operators and the country at large,” he said.

The EVC, on behalf of the Board and Management of the NCC, extended the Commission’s gratitude to all operators and industry stakeholders, who submitted information relating to the regulation of interconnection rates and the costing models as well as the consultant, for their participation in the process leading to the Determination.