The theme
of the day’s event was ‘NITDA Act: Towards the Sustainability of Nigeria’s
Digitl Economy Drive’.
While welcoming the discussants and guests, the
Convener, Omobayo Azeez, Lead Executive, PIAFo and Editor, Business Metrics
Nigeria in his Opening Remarks said lately, his organization has
followed with keen interest issues around the proposed NITDA Bill 2021 which
seeks to repeal and re-enact the NITDA Act 2007 that established the National
Information Technology Development Agency.
According
tp PIAFo, the Bill, which is now pending at the National Assembly, is aimed at
creating a regulatory framework for the development of the Nigerian IT sector and
digital economy.
Azeez
stated that while this, on its own, may not be a bad thing, there are fears
that if the Bill is passed the way it is, it may exert negative ripples on the
ICT sector, adding that NITDA has been a major contributor to the Nigeria ICT development
alongside other agencies of the government under the Federal Ministry of
Communications and Digital Economy, and beyond.
However,
the dusts raised around this pending Bill could not be ignored by the
organisers of the forum in the interest of Nigeria’s growing ICT sector and the
country’s fast-pacing digital economy drive.
Azeez
said “The ICT sector has been an economic enabler and a catalyst for
socio-economic development. Its contribution to the economic fortune of the
country has been impressive and its impacts, felt across various divides.
“For
instance, in the last quarter of 2022, the sector contributed 16.22% to the
country’s GDP, rising from 15.35% in the third quarter of the year. In
fact, in the preceding second quarter, total ICT contribution to GDP was higher
at 18.94%. Similarly, Nigeria’s digital economy is estimated to have attracted
over $4.4 billion in investments in the last four years. As impressive as these
figures may sound, the sector has not yet reached its full potential and if
well-protected from policy missteps, its future contributions will be higher. This
is why this forum becomes imperative – to ensure the sustainability of the ICT
sector and sustain Nigeria’s digital economy growth through effective dialogue
among stakeholders,” he said.
Azeez
added that PIAFo is not taking positions but only providing the platform for
the experts to discuss. “We only hope that our efforts in putting this event
together will
help the industry to aggregate perspectives, clear grey areas, harmonise
thoughts and prevent any controversial overlapping tendencies likely to disrupt
the growth of the digital economy sector,” he concluded.
Ayoola Oke, a
Legal Practitioner specializing in Information and Communication Technology Law
and Policy also lent his voice saying “Apparently, there is a NITDA law and the
organization itself is championing that the law be reviewed and reenacted with
some changes, however it seems that not much consultation was done from
everything we can see. And it was presented as an executive Bill coming from
NITDA, it doesn’t look as if the
Attorney General’s office and the Ministry of Justice have vetted it, because
it replicates what is in other laws, it gives powers to NITDA that are already
given to other agencies, so that is the problem.
“NITDA specifically supposed to be a developmental agency,
that was how it was conceived, and that is how most of the original law is, but
in its new incarnation, the first five sections of the function of NITDA were
not in the old law and all of them have to do with regulatory powers in the ICT
sector, and most of these powers are already powers that are given to
organisations like Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for technical
regulation and NBC for content regulation, both within the ICT sector. So now all
of a sudden, the bill seeks to appropriate the powers to NITDA, and that is
going to create more confusion in the industry, it will bring about multiple
regulation as some people have said, multiple taxation.
“Then there is no clear discernment of what the bill is
seeking to do, what is it that has become different, maybe that made the old
law obsolete that the bill is trying to improve or correct? The bottom line
anyway is that if they cannot establish why you are changing a law, then why
tamper with it? To change a law you must know, okay, this is what is wrong, in
law we say, what is the mischief that has necessitated you trying to change,
what is wrong? What are the new situations arising that makes you want to
change the provisions.”
He said NITDA is a developmental agency and should stick to
its responsibility. “So generally, NITDA is a developmental agency, but with
the regulatory powers they are trying to give to NITDA, it means they are
changing the whole essence of NITDA from being a developmental agency into a
regulatory agency, and that is not enough reason to review the law.”
Jide Awe,
Managing Director, Jidaw Systems, a Policy Advisor on Science, Technology and Innovation
is of the conviction that the bill should not go forward as inputs of
stakeholders in the industry is lacking in the bill “The bill should not go
forward as it is, because there are certain issues that are raised here today,
the major issue noticed was the lack of stakeholders inputs into the bill, sufficient
collaboration in developing the bill. You know whenever you develop any policy
or something like that, let the people who will be affected, let them tell you
their needs, and if you have some ideas interact with them, engage with them so
that we will know the impact of what you are trying to propose.”
On the insinuations
that the essence of the bill was to increase profitability and gag social
media, he said “I cannot say that is the essence of the bill, but it would be
wrong if that is the essence of the bill. If you listen to my presentation, we
are in the era of communication and disruption that should encourage openness, sharing
of ideas, you don’t have to agree with my ideas but let’s share ideas, listen
to feedback, and when you have ideas you can put innovation, you have new
knowledge, new opportunities, so I don’t believe in gagging idea, we have left that era of
somebody, there is somebody that knows it all, now we are in era of
collaboration, ideas can come from anywhere, it can come from a startup, from a
young person, it doesn’t necessarily have to come from the head of the ministry
or head of an organistaion.”
He concludes
that there is a need to do more to advance the sustainability of the Nigeria’s
digital economy, but should be done by carrying people and stakeholders along.
According to
Olusola Akinyemi, Managing Partner, Classicus Law Practice, Solicitors and
Advocates, Lagos State, in his contribution spoke on what he called the
structure of the bill, adding that before creating a law there is need to
define your strategy and not creating a law before finding a purpose for it, which
appears to be the case with the NITDA bill. He said “Every form of engagement
that should have been had before this bill was introduced was bypassed, and
that is why almost everybody is against it even the so-called people that are
supposed to be beneficiaries of this development initiative, they are
concerned; everybody is at alert. Now some are talking about the funds that is
being raised from the bill, what is the purpose? And it is known from history,
government can’t really be trusted with funds, so my own position, will rather
be that they take the route of CSR for players in the industry. Let them engage
in CSR and have a report, you know, with budget to match up with that 1%, and
not the agencies or organisations remitting 1% of their gross profit to NITDA,
that is unnecessary, and also the bill creates a kind of fear in the system in
terms of the penalties for non-adherence. It is highly susceptible to abuse, if
an agency should target an organization, it is so easy, what we usually have is
substantial compliance, I don’t think there is any organization anywhere in the
world that complies 100%, so if you have 0.1% non-compliance, that can bring
you down, according to the NITDA law, an organisation can be fined N30million and
or the MD go to jail for two years, that is very frightening for any one that
wants to do business. So you want safety, you want profit not settling scores
on issues with government.”
Other
discussants include, Mr Nwora, a Legal Practitioner and Consultant, Peculiar
Showale, C-Suite Executive Assistant, Paradigm Initiative; while goodwill came
from Tony Emoekpere. President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of
Nigeria (ATCON) and Engineer Gbenga Adebayo, National, Association of Licensed
Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON). Who were represented by their Executive
Secretaries, Ajibola Olude and Gbolahan Awonuga in that order.
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