Nigeria has shown serious interest by expressing its intention to field a candidate to lead a strategic arm of the International Telecommunications Union known as the Telecommunication Development Bureau, the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has said.
Shittu who said this at the second African Preparatory Meeting for ITU 2018 Plenipotentiary Conference canvassed for the support of different African countries who participated at the meeting in Abuja.
The three-day meeting which ended on Thursday was organised by the African Telecommunications Union to articulate and harmonise the African position to be presented at the ITU conference to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirate, in October.
The ITU plenipotentiary conference is the key event at which member states decide on the future role of the organisation, thereby determining the organisation’s influence and effect on the development of telecommunications and ICT worldwide.
The conference is the top policy-making body of the ITU held every four years. It sets the union’s general policies, adopts four-year strategic and financial plans and elects the senior management team of the organisation, the members of council and the members of the Radio Regulation Board.
Shittu said, “As you are also aware that the ITU will be conducting election into various elective positions at the ITU 2018 Plenipotentiary Conference, I am pleased to inform you that Nigeria will be presenting itself for re-election into the administrative council seat as well as presenting Mr. William ljeh for election as Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau during the conference. I therefore wish to seek your unflinching support for Nigeria’s twin candidature.”
In another development, the Nigerian Communications Commission said that new guidelines it developed for the use of satellite communications would spur the use of satellite infrastructure to bridge connectivity gaps in underserved communities.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said this in an address he delivered at a Public Inquiry on the Commercial Satellite Communications Guidelines and Draft Consumer Code of Practice Regulations held in Abuja on Friday.
Danbatta, who was represented at the event by Director of Spectrum Administration, Mr. Austin Nwaulunne, said the aim of the draft document was to create a legal framework to regulate the provision and use of satellite communications services and network anywhere in Nigeria or on ship and aircraft registered in Nigeria.
The NCC boss said, “The intention behind the development of the guidelines is to ensure a well-developed and organised satellite communications market in Nigeria with appropriate legal framework that meets international best practice, encourages innovation and guarantees public safety.
“Furthermore, the guidelines will ensure effective management of scarce frequency resources, especially bands where frequency is shared between satellite and terrestrial systems. It will also encourage the use of satellite connectivity to un-served areas that lack terrestrial transmission infrastructure backbone.”
While some participants at the public inquiry lauded the regulatory agency for the new guidelines, the representative of the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited said there was a need to review the guidelines to capture the development of local content in the country’s satellite industry.
Source: Punch
