Tag: telecom sector

The Federal Government has commenced a comprehensive review of telecommunications industry policies to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), improve quality of services (QoS) and align with evolving technological developments and innovations in the digital ecosystem.

The policies are to address gaps in the 2003 Act, take care of contemporary issues in the industry and make future projections predictable.

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida said the Minister of Communications, Innovations and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani is driving the review.

According to him, the review becomes imperative given the global outlooks and dynamics of the telecommunications sector and the need to ensure that critical stakeholders, the government, consumers and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are on the same page on regulatory issues, enforcements, QoS, profitability, competition, investments and safety of internet space.

Dr Maida who addressed reporters at Fraiser Suites Hotel, Abuja, on happenings in the industry, said the Commission has noted with concern perceptions of consumers on data depletion, QoS, tariff increase and the imperative of holding accountable service providers in the industry.

 He said from research/study recently conducted by KPMG on behalf of the Commission, it was discovered that consumers’ data are not depleted by service providers, stressing that data depletion is occassioned mostly by the types of devices and applications being used by consumers.

He assured that by the time the review of policies are delivered, the sector would attract more investments and ensure increased revenues to the coffers of government.

The NCC boss also said President Bola Tinubu has abolished the idea of five per cent exercise duty on telecom sector which was suspended by the previous administration, and clarified that Value Added Tax (VAT) still stands at 7.5 per cent.

He said the industry within the two years of his appointment has witnessed growth, ensuring accountability and transparency in the ways things are done, while consumers now have opportunities to make informed choices on data consumption due to the NCC’s policy on data simplification by MNOs.

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He said Mobile Network subscribers has peaked at 172 million, broadband subscribers at 105 million and internet subscribers at 141 million,  while investments in the sector has been far more than the figures ($1 billion) he gave at a recent public engagement.

“This engagement is a response to calls for increased interaction with NCC’s leadership. You spoke, and we listened,” said Dr. Maida.

Outlining several significant developments in the industry, Dr Maida listed tariff adjustments and simplification, the launch of corporate governance guidelines and the successful conclusion of the NIN-SIM linkage audit by the NCC.

He further listed the resolution of USSD debt issues and transition to end-user billing and the introduction of the Major Incident Reporting Portal as parts of the achievements of his leadership.

Speaking of developments in the sector, Dr Maida said: “In the early 2000s, we were regulating voice and text. Now we’re in the information age, with over 1,000 licenses under our purview. Scaling the old model is impractical. We are now complementing regulation with transparency and data-driven competition.”

The NCC boss further explained that the NCC is adopting information disclosure strategies rooted in behavioral economics to nudge service providers toward improved performance.

He announced several consumer-focused initiatives: a public map of network performance to be launched by September, offering transparent access to real-time quality metrics (e.g., download speed, latency) as well as Quarterly network performance reports based on crowdsourced user data.

He disclosed that expansion of accountability beyond mobile network operators to include co-location service providers (TACOs), responsible for infrastructure reliability remains a cardinal priority.

“We see corporate governance as a powerful lever for industry transformation. Transparent, well-governed companies attract investment and perform better. We’re setting the foundation for a Nigerian telecom company that is wholly owned, well-run, and globally competitive,” he said.

The EVC also provided updates on the NCC’s responses to top consumer complaints, such QoS, saying that Revised QoS guidelines now include infrastructure providers, with bi-weekly reviews and network improvement plans in motion.

He pointed out that another major issue is the Failed Top-Ups of data, asserting that a joint NCC-CBN task force has developed a new operational framework to standardize electronic recharge processes.

Dr. Maida appealed to the media for fair, fact-based reporting, particularly on the Commission’s reform efforts.

The Director of Consumer Affairs, Freda Bruce-Bennett shared practical tips to help Nigerians manage their data usage more effectively, including turning off autoplay on social media apps and limiting background data consumption.

In her address, Director of Public Affairs, Mrs. Nnenna Ukoha, underscored the Commission’s commitment to deepening its relationship with the media, describing journalists as “critical stakeholders” whose roles are taken very seriously by the Commission.

She emphasized the importance of forums like this as valuable platform for two-way communication, allowing the Commission not only to share its policies but also to obtain feedback from the media.

Over 20 years after the liberalisation of the telecom sector in Nigeria, dearth of local requisite manpower may befall the industry and set it back, according to operators and other stakeholders.

Over the years, the trend among the mobile network operators (MNOs) has largely been poaching personnel from one telco to another. Thus, some key individuals within the industry have worked either with one telco or the other, yet companies report that skills gaps and an inability to attract talent are the key barriers to transformation, showing a clear need for training and reskilling across industries, according to World Economic Forum (WEF) report.

The Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has raised the alarm over the gradual but steady decline in the availability of skilled manpower in the industry.

Coordinator, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) at ATCON, Mr Lekan Balogun, said the fast rate of the decline should worry every player in the sector, fearing that a time might come in the future where there will be job openings but no one with the requisite skills to take the job.

He said a solution has to be worked out by way of collaborating with tertiary institutions to give the relevant skills of the future to the youth.

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CEO, Internet EXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Mohammed Rudman, agreed no less with him on the slowing demise of requisite persons with the skills to match the jobs of the future in the country.

Rudman, who is also the President of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), however, differed with Balogun on collaboration with tertiary institutions to bridge the yawning skills gap.

He said from past experience, collaborations don’t work if cash is not put on the table of the tertiary institutions. To him, the way forward would be to take the initiative frontally by creating a training portal for those interested to take advantage of it.

Rudma said IXPN currently has a training facility that could accommodate about 30 participants, adding that the facility would give certificates at the end of the training.

ATCON President, Mr Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere, taking a general overview of the state of the telecom industry also highlighted the asphyxiating business operating environment which has stultified growth and profitability.

Emoekpere, who is also the chief executive officer, Anchor Telecoms, lamented the ever increasing cost of energy which is a substantial percentage of the operating cost of business, particularly the telecom industry which has no fewer than 38,288 base transceiver stations (BTS) that run on a combination of power generators fuelled by automated gas oil (AGO) or diesel and alternative power sources such as inverters/batteries, solar which are usually at the mercy people who vandalise them for profit.

According to reports, employers across the world anticipate 69 million new jobs will be created and 83 million eliminated by 2027, as a result of the adoption of new technology and increased digital access.

That was one of the key findings of WEF’s: The Future of Jobs Report 2023, which explored how jobs and skills will evolve over the next five years.

According to the 803 companies surveyed for the report, employers anticipate almost a quarter of jobs (23 per cent) to change in the next five years through growth of 10.2per cent and a decline of 12.3per cent.

Among the 673 million current jobs corresponding to the dataset, this represents a net decrease of 14 million jobs, or two per cent of current employment.

Macro trends − including the green transition; environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards; localisation of supply chains; and tech advancements − are the leading drivers of job growth, the report had stated, adding that economic challenges − including high inflation, slower economic growth, supply shortages and inflation − pose the greatest threat.

The fastest-growing jobs are forecast to be artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning specialists, sustainability specialists, business intelligence analysts and information security specialists. The largest absolute growth is expected in education, agriculture and digital commerce.

MD of the WEF, Saadia Zahidi, said: “For people around the world, the past three years have been filled with upheaval and uncertainty for their lives and livelihoods, with COVID-19, geopolitical and economic shifts; and the rapid advancement of AI and other technologies are now risks adding more uncertainty. The good news is that there is a clear way forward to ensure resilience. Governments and businesses must invest in supporting the shift to the jobs of the future through the education, reskilling and social support structures that can ensure individuals are at the heart of the future of work.”

While technology continues to pose challenges and opportunities to labour markets, employers expect most technologies to contribute positively to job creation.

According to the People’s Charter on Jobs in Africa, heavy investments in the technology and digital industries could see the creation of at least 15 million new jobs in Africa by next year.

SingularityU faculty member in robotics and AI, Dr Suzanne Gildert, believes human-like robots, which have the capability to accrue abilities, skills and knowledge the same way humans do, will in the long-term replace every job under the sun, as a result of advancements in robotics.

According to a report, the fastest-growing roles are being driven by big data and AI, which are expected to create the highest number of future jobs, with 75per cent of survey respondents expecting job growth in this area.

The employment of data analysts and scientists, big data specialists, AI machine learning specialists and cyber security professionals is expected to grow on average by 30 per cent by 2027.

“AI, a key driver of potential algorithmic displacement, is expected to be adopted by nearly 75per cent of surveyed companies and is expected to lead to high churn – with 50per cent of organisations expecting it to create job growth and 25per cent expecting it to create job losses,” it said.

Training workers to utilise AI and big data will be prioritised by 42 per cent of surveyed companies in the next five years, ranking behind analytical thinking (48per cent) and creative thinking (43 per cent) in importance.

Digital commerce will lead to the largest absolute gains in jobs: approximately two million new digitally-enabled roles are expected, such as e-commerce specialists, digital transformation specialists, and digital marketing and strategy specialists, notes the report.

“But while expectations of the displacement of physical and manual work by machines has decreased, reasoning, communicating and coordinating – all traits with a comparative advantage for humans – are expected to be more automatable in the future.”

On the urgent need for reskilling, upskilling, six in 10 workers will require training before 2027, but only half of employees are seen to have access to adequate training opportunities today. At the same time, the report estimated that, on average, 44per cent of an individual worker’s skills will need to be updated.

Strong cognitive skills are increasingly valued by employers, reflecting the growing importance of complex problem-solving in the workplace. The most important skills for workers in 2023 are seen to be analytical thinking and creative thinking, and this is expected to remain so in the next five years.

Commenting on the report, CEO of Coursera, Jeff Maggioncalda, who participated in the study, said: “Our research found that individuals without degrees can acquire critical skills in a comparable time-frame to those with degrees, highlighting the potential for innovative approaches, such as industry micro-credentials and skills-based hiring, to tackle skills gaps and talent shortages. However, it will require collective action from public and private sectors to provide the affordable, flexible reskilling pathways at scale that displaced workers need to transition into jobs of the future.”

Investment in the green transition and climate-change mitigation, as well as increasing consumer awareness of sustainability issues, are driving industry transformation and opening new opportunities in the labour market, according to the report.

It noted that the strongest net job creation effects are expected to be driven by investments that facilitate the green transition of businesses, with more than half of respondents expecting this to occur.

As countries seek more renewable energy sources, roles such as renewable energy engineers and solar energy installation and systems engineers will be in high demand.

 “Investment will also drive growth in more generalist sustainability roles, such as sustainability specialists and environmental protection professionals, which are expected to grow by 33per cent and 34per cent, respectively, translating to growth of approximately one million jobs,” WEF said.