.FG should amend laws governing agencies — NCS
.Must address convergence — ATCON
.It will happen if the Acts allow that — ALTON

By Emeka Aginam

THE planned relocation of three Federal Government agencies, Nigerian Communication Satellite, NigComSat, Galaxy Backbone and National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA from the ministry of Communications Technology to ministry of Science and Technology has continued to attract reactions among the Nigerian IT Professionals.

Already, the Nigeria Computer Society, has condemned the move, saying that such plan would set the nation more than 15 years behind development plans.

According to the  NCS, the missions of NCC, NITDA, Galaxy Backbone and NIGCOMSAT , are related and the focus is more on information and communication technology.

From L-R: NCS President, Prof. Aderounmu; •ATCON President,Olusola Teniola & •ALTON President- Engr Adebayo

The NCS  President,  Prof. Sola Aderounmu  said: “All over the world, countries like Egypt, Singapore, India, United States of America, United Kingdom, among others, NCS argued that Ministry of Information and Communication Technology were created to foster the development of an information society and stimulate the growth of a strong, competitive, vibrant, export-oriented ICT sector.”

“The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is a converged sector for Communications and Information Technology, thus the need to have a converged supervision of the agencies operating in this sector”, Prof. Aderounmu noted.

For the NCS President, it will be counterproductive to separate NIGCOMSAT and Galaxy Backbone from their regulators (NCC and NITDA) in the regulatory framework. This is also contrary to best practices the world over, he said.

According to the NCS President, the need to streamline government expenditure and fight against corruption cannot be realized if the regulator of the communications sector is placed under the supervision of a different Ministry.

Given the importance of ICT to the nation’s economic revival and diversification, NCS strongly recommended that NITDA, NIGCOMSAT and Galaxy Backbone should remain under the Federal Ministry of Communications for better performance, networking, coordination, cooperation and collaboration in order to produce better output.

While urging the Federal Government to amend the laws governing the agencies and Ministry accordingly, NCS also recommended that the government should streamline, merge some agencies under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, adding that the Federal Ministry of Communications should be renamed Federal Ministry of Communication Technology to capture the entire ICT sector.

For Engineer Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, the relocation of the three agencies to the Ministry of science and Technology will happen if the Acts establishing those agencies allow for such.

“If it will make for better efficiency, we will not have any objections , provided there are no political motives behind it”, he said.

In the opinion of Olusola Teniola, President, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, there are merits to having a harmonized and streamlined organization that speaks to the convergence occurring in the wider ICT landscape.

This is something ATCON is advocating to happen within the Nigerian ICT space, he said. “For now the debate should be how do we bring together all disparate entities into one very similar to UK’s OFCOM that deals with broadcasting and communications issues in conjunction with the broader strategic intent of creating a knowledge society.