• Ask Wike to intervene in Abuja roll-out challenge

Telecommounications operators have welcomed the new Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Aminu Maida, with a mandate to urgently address the challenges confronting the $77 billion telephony industry.

Under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the telcos, who commended the immediate past EVC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, for what they described a good job on the industry, said the new EVC would be measured based on the performance of past EVCs, including Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, late Eugene Juwah and Danbatta.

ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, in a chat with journalists, said members would work with Maida as we expect the independence of the regulator, “we expect independence of his own decisions and we wish him well.”

He added: “To the new EVC, an appointee of FG, we are license holders, trust holders of governments as well, so, we welcome him. But, he should note that he would be measured by the performance of his predecessors. We don’t expect less from him. He has come to inherit the pains and gains and it is in his own role to do something that would move the sector forward. The industry cannot achieve less than it has achieved under the previous leadership, we cannot project less for the next five years under him.”

Adebayo said the new EVC should ensure the stability of the industry’s infrastructure, stressing that issues of quality of service (QoS) and circumstances around it should be addressed.

According to him, there shouldn’t be blame game in this regard, saying studies have shown the challenges impacting the sector, especially around stability and expansion of infrastructure, including high cost of operations should be addressed by his own regulatory instrument.

ALTON said the forex challenge remains very huge, stressing that members are usually too long on the queue for forex, this needs to be addressed.

“From what is going on and the needs of the industry, telcos should actually be the number one on the queue for forex because the sector is highly dependent on foreign exchange.

“As a matter of urgency, this issue of Right of Way (RoW), multiple taxation, lack of forex, protection of infrastructure, passage of critical national infrastructure (CNI) bill should be looked into. He will need to act fast on these matters. We won’t welcome his stories, complaints. He needs to go and do something. He needs to build on the efforts that were there before him and move the sector forward significantly,” he stressed.

The ALTON Chairman also called on the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Abuja to grant access to operators for infrastructure roll out.

“We use this medium to appeal to the Abuja FCDA to grant access to operators for more infrastructure roll out and expansion. The issue needs to be addressed as fast as possible. Good now that we have Mr. Project (Nyesome Wike) at the helm of affairs in Abuja. He should use his good office to help get this done so that telephony services in the federal capital can be better,” Adebayo stated.
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu appointed Dr. Aminu Maida the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), on October 11, 2023.

Dr. Maida holds an MEng in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College, London in 2002, and in 2006, he bagged a PhD in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Bath, United Kingdom.

Between 2018 and 2019, Maida completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship (FinTech Pathway) programme at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Until his latest appointment by the President, Dr. Maida was the Executive Director, Technology and operations at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the country’s central switch company owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and all licensed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria.

At NIBSS, Dr. Maida was responsible for holistically spearheading the technical and operational standardization of all devices deployed in the financial system in Nigeria for interoperability. Maida led a dynamic team that ensured that all terminals used in the e-payment industry and all devices deployed in Nigeria would accept all cards issued by banks and other licensed card schemes without discrimination.

Prior to his appointment at NIBSS, Maida was the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at the Nigerian-based FinTech Arca Payments Network and Senior Manager at Cisco Systems, United Kingdom.

As a seasoned technical professional with over 15 years of multi-functional and international experience in FinTech & Telecoms & Enterprise Technology, Maida between 2010 and 2014, worked as a Network Design Consultant at EE, part of BT Group, and one of the largest mobile communications companies in the UK.

He was also at some point (2006-2010) a System Engineer at Ubiquisys, a leading company in intelligent 3G and LTE small cells, which is now part of Cisco.