A brand new report by analysis agency SBM Intelligence has highlighted gaps within the dealing with of Nigeria’s telecommunications sector beneath the management of Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economic system, elevating issues in regards to the disconnect between the Ministry’s digital ambitions and ground-level realities.
In line with the report, whereas Dr. Tijani has unveiled daring initiatives akin to the three Million Technical Expertise (3MTT) programme geared toward producing a digitally expert workforce, his method seems to lack the operational depth required to deal with vital challenges within the telecoms business.
The report means that Dr. Tijani, whose background is essentially rooted in innovation and the broader digital financial system, might not possess in-depth expertise in telecommunications infrastructure, a sector that is still central to Nigeria’s digital transformation.
“A minister with no complete understanding of core telco operations may discover it tough to translate broad digital targets into efficient insurance policies that genuinely help the underlying infrastructure,” the report said.
The report cited the Important Nationwide Info Infrastructure (CNII) Safety coverage as one space the place the Minister has not lived as much as expectations.
“An instance of an implementation problem beneath Dr. Tijani’s tenure is the Important Nationwide Info Infrastructure (CNII) Safety coverage.
“Though President Tinubu designated telecom infrastructure as CNII in August 2024, telco operators report ongoing assaults and vandalism.
“They attribute this to a perceived ‘lack of path on the enforcement of the coverage and the federal government’s failure to designate a selected safety company for the enforcement,’ indicating a transparent disconnect between coverage formulation and efficient execution,” SBM said within the report.
Within the report titled ‘Sign Energy: The Previous, Current, and Way forward for Nigerian Telecom’, SBM Intelligence additionally evaluated the tenure of the speedy previous Minister, Dr. Isa Pantami, noting that although he was a robust advocate for a “digital financial system” agenda in Nigeria, and championed digital transformation and the implementation of enabling insurance policies, his tenure was not with out controversy.
“The NIN-SIM linkage coverage, launched in December 2020, had a notable impression on the telecommunications sector.
“In 2021 alone, cellular operators collectively misplaced roughly 9 million energetic web subscribers. Moreover, the federal government’s orders for community shutdowns, together with the Twitter ban in June 2021, led to substantial {economic} losses for Nigeria, estimated at $366.9 million,” the report said.
It, nonetheless, identified that beneath Pantami’s steerage, important milestones had been achieved, together with the event of the Nationwide Digital Economic system Coverage and Technique (NDEPS) and the profitable 5G rollout, which contributed to the era of N1 trillion in income.
To chart a sustainable path ahead for the telecom sector, SBM Intelligence stated the federal government must prioritise telecoms in CBN foreign exchange allocations.
For the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC), the analysis agency urged the Fee to mandate public consultations earlier than tariff hikes and foster deeper and extra structured dialogue and collaboration amongst authorities companies, telecom operators, and civil society organisations to stability business viability with shopper welfare and nationwide growth goals.
