ATCON charts new infrastructure protection course

Rising cases of regulatory overlaps have been described as a major disincentive for the growth of Nigeria’s $76 billion telecoms sector. This was the submission of stakeholders at the 2025 yearly general meeting and National Executive Council (NEC) Elections of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) in Lagos.
 
Leading the charge, ATCON President, Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere, who was returned unopposed for the second term of two years, addressed core operational disruptions, institutional reforms and future-forward workforce development.
 
This year’s yearly meeting, themed ‘Impact of Adjacent Agencies on the Nigerian Telecom Sector: the Way Forward’, sparked robust debate over what industry players described as the disruptive influence of non-core regulators.
 
According to Emoekpere, several unrelated government agencies have begun imposing levies and operational regulations on telecom operators, creating an unpredictable and hostile investment environment.
 
“We cannot operate in a climate where every agency seeks to charge the same operators for overlapping services,” he said. As such, Emoekpere, alongside other stakeholders, called for a unified regulatory model to streamline oversight, as many of them highlighted examples of regulatory duplication, with multiple state agencies issuing conflicting policies and fees.
 
“It is not sustainable,” they warned. Beyond government interference, participants acknowledged internal industry indiscipline. Former ATCON President, Ikechukwu Nnamani, lamented that sector fragmentation and unhealthy price wars had weakened collective bargaining power.
 
“We advocate higher tariffs but undercut each other when it’s time to engage banks or major clients,” he said, calling for a united front in engagements.
 
In response, Emoekpere announced the formation of an Industry Think Tank Committee to develop engagement guidelines and standardise advocacy. “We must move from talk to structure,” he firmly stated.
 
To tackle Nigeria’s heavy reliance on foreign technical expertise and the continuing ‘Japa’, ATCON announced the creation of the ATCON Academy, a talent development initiative to train young Nigerians in telecom-related skills.
 
“The academy will equip our youth with technical skills while ensuring national economic advancement,” Emoekpere said, describing it as a strategic response to workforce gaps and overdependence on expatriates.
 
ATCON Vice President and CEO of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Muhammed Rudman, turned the spotlight on Nigeria’s failing education system and its weak alignment with the telecom sector needs.
 
He criticised institutions like the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) for underperformance, despite their resources.  Using India and Singapore as models, he urged the Federal Government to make decisive investments in human capital.  
  
“Nigeria has only seven unicorns. India produces 70–100 a year. We must do better,” he said.  He called for the creation of a dedicated ICT Think Tank to work with universities and bypass ineffective bureaucratic systems. “The President of Nigeria must make deliberate efforts. Advocacy alone won’t change this,” he stressed.
 
The consensus of the operators tilted in favour of operating an open-door system by telecom companies to accommodate as many interns as possible, to widen the base for employable candidates in the country.
 
They further argued that while universities and institutions of learning may lack the means to expose students to maximum practical experience, players in the sector should step in to fill the gap by collaborating with the institutions to overhaul the curriculum and bring industry knowledge to bear.
 
Meanwhile, Emoekpere pledged to lead the new ATCON executive team in repositioning the association for greater advocacy and industry impact. Central to his mandate is addressing the alarming state of telecoms infrastructure, especially fibre cuts and the weak implementation of the Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) legislation.
 
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu promulgated the CNII Bill last year, but enforcement remains poor. As an advocacy group, we want immediate implementation to safeguard telecom infrastructure nationwide,” he said.
 
To this end, ATCON announced that it would engage state and federal agencies, particularly Ministries of Works and road contractors, at its next policy forum involving ICT Commissioners from all 36 states to push for full CNII compliance.