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Tag: Mr. Adebayo Shittu

  • Nigeria investment market big for investors – Shittu

    Nigeria investment market big for investors – Shittu

    The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, has restated that the Nigerian investment market is big and boisterous enough for prospecting investors.

    Mr Victor Oluwadamilare, Special Assistant, Media, to the minister, said in a statement that Shittu expressed the view in Abuja on Wednesday when he received the management team of YAS RIH Group in his office.

    The group came to present the company’s intention to partner with the Nigeria in the area of digital transformation solutions and telecommunications operations.

    Shittu said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would provide a favourable environment for investment.

    He said the administration had resolved to make Nigeria’s business environment safe and conducive to  investors in its determination to diversify the economy.

    The minister said the country’s regulatory processes were open, effective and transparent.

    He urged the ICT firm to fully comply with all regulatory guidelines set for intending ICT operators by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

    Shittu urged YAS RIH Group to forward a proposal through  NCC and assured it that the government would not hesitate in approving a licence for the firm to operate in the country.

    Earlier, the leader of delegation, Ayman Al Rlfai, who is the Personal Assistant to His Royal Highness, Prince Fahad Bin Magrin Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, delivered a goodwill message of Saudi Arabia’s King.

    Presenting the company’s profile, the Chief ICT Officer, Mr Francois Hannouche, said the group was ready to bring expertise and experience in digital transformation solution and telecom infrastructure operations to impact positively on Nigeria’s economy.

    He said that if given the opportunity to operate in Nigeria, the company would bring both direct and indirect impact on Nigeria’s GDP.

    Hannouche said data was the new oil in the global market.

    He lauded operators in the Nigerian telecom sector, such as MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat, for their international ratings.

    Hannouche said YAS RIH Group supported digital transformation projects.

    The delegation included Abdulmanaf Muhammad, Vice-Chairman of YAS RIH International, Wad Tawil, CEO, YAS RIH International, Dave Cain, Abdullahi Garba, Managing Director, Forsysthia, and Muhammad Saed.

  • N1.04trn fine: Reps reject MTN’s N330bn offer

    N1.04trn fine: Reps reject MTN’s N330bn offer

    The House of Representatives Friday rejected the offer of the service provider MTN to pay N330bn instead of the N1.04 trillion it was fined by the Federal Government.

    In a briefing on the issue Friday, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Communications, Hon. Saheed Fijabi said he wondered why the sudden shift in the position of the NCC offer the issue of MTN fine.

    A March 1, 2016 memo from the Nigerian Communications Commissions, and in possession of our correspondent reads: ” The proposal to pay the sum of N300 billion as against the N1.04 trillion (and subsequently reduced to N700 billion by the Federal Government of Nigeria “FGN”) is not supported by any verifiable justification.

    “When considered vis–a – vis the quantum of fine, the present sum is a far cry and there is no verifiable basis for arriving at the new figure.”

    The lawmaker said the offer of $1.7billion (or N330 billion) by MTN, instead of the total fine of $3.9 billion (N1.04 trillion fine by NCC for violation of SIM card registration laws was unacceptable.

    According to him the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has been summoned by the committee to explain the new development on Monday.

    The committee chair noted that it was wrong to accept a reduction while the House was investigating the ongoing negotiations between the Federal Government and MTN on the fine.

    He said:  “It came to us as a surprise to hear that MTN is paying N300bn. How can they be paying that amount when the minister told us that everything was stalled pending the outcome of our investigation?

    “As a House, we have opposed the reduction of the fine because there is no provision in the NCC’s Act that the fine can be reduced. In fact, section 21 of the Act stipulates that even the CEO of a defaulting firm can be made to pay additional fine of over N200, 000 on each of the lines.”

    The lawmaker said ordinarily, MTN’s total fine “should be doubled to about N3 trillion and not even the N1.4 trillion they were asked to pay.”

  • FG to generate 2million jobs from ICT- Minister

    FG to generate 2million jobs from ICT- Minister

    The Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has said that the Federal Government will create two million jobs from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.  He said investors from China would be investing 15 billion dollars in the sector.

    He spoke at the maiden Nigeria Communications retreat organized by the Federal Ministry of Communications, at International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan on Friday.

    He said: “Information and Communication Technology today creates more jobs than oil and gas and that can further be enjoyed, as investors from China would be investing N15 billion dollars in the ICT sector in Nigeria. So, potential two million jobs will be made available through investments in the sector,” he said.

    The minister also disclosed that 550 post offices in different Local Government Areas in the country would soon start engaging in financial services like internet services, call services apart from the traditional letter posting.

    “The time has now come to fully embrace ICT to enhance our lives, to enhance transparency and good governance if we are to really fulfill the “change” mantra that Nigerians voted President Muhammadu Buhari to bring about,” he said.

    Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, in his address  urged stakeholders in the sector to evolve new ways that will take Nigeria out of the doldrums and re-launch its economy.

    The governor observed that ICT was useful in virtually all aspects of human life, especially now that crude oil price was experiencing a free fall in the international market, thus impacting negatively on the nation’s economy.

    Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics, Ajimobi said that ICT was a major contributor to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with 8.68 per cent, adding that the country was the largest ICT user in Africa, with over 94 million internet users.

    Besides, he noted that ICT had created over 12 million jobs in the country in the last two years, stressing that it could create even more if necessary frameworks were put in place.

    The governor, who cited the examples of United States of America, China and some Asian countries which, he said, had used ICT to re-launch their economies, pointed out that the time had come for Nigeria to transit from an agrarian economy to a knowledge-based one, with ICT serving as the driver.

    “I like to call on all stakeholders to come together to device a realistic blueprint for growth and improvement in employment rate.  America, China and many other Asian countries have used ICT to re-launch their countries and their economy,’’ he said.

    He called on participants at the retreat to develop realistic strategies on how to use ICT, which he described as an imaginative and innovative sector, to create employment or to convert youths to employment generators.

    “We are in the era of change. Ours is a government of change. Let us all come together to make ICT a change agent,’’ the governor said.

    He added that this could be achieved by encouraging Nigerians through regular enlightenment on the benefits of information technology, as well as by fashioning out appropriate legal framework by the National Assembly to develop ICT.

    Ajimobi also called for the repositioning of Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST), rather than crippling it, by aligning it with global development in ICT.

    In his presentation, the Rwandan Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Kamanzi Stanislas, spoke on the evolution of ICT in his country since 2001, saying that his country had benefitted immensely from information technology.

    He said that ICT had been applied in local transportation, automated passenger clearance system at airports, government command centre, robust electronic citizen registry, holding meetings without borders, running a paperless government, as well as offering all government services online.

    He called for collaboration between Nigeria and Rwanda on ICT in order to improve on the bilateral relations and the economy of both countries.

    In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications, Mr. Sonny Echono, said the essence of the retreat was to brainstorm on the development of the ICT sector which, he said, had generic effects on other sectors.