The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has enumerated six initiatives and actions it intends to pursue to achieve Universal Broadband Access, which is one of the five pillars of its Strategic Management Plan (SMP) for year 2020 to 2024.
The other pillars of the SMP are: Regulatory Excellence, Promote Development of Digital Economy, Market Development and Strategic Partnering.
The Commission made known the six initiatives and actions in its “SMP 2020 – 2024” document, released recently and tagged “ASPIRE 2024”.
It listed these initiatives and actions as: Rollout incentives for broadband infrastructure,Expedite the rollout of INFRACOs,Review Existing Policies on Communication Resource, Revision and expansion of licensing category, Annual Project Alignment Exercise, and Career Planning and Project Management Certifcation.
The Commission’s Strategic Management Plan (SMP) for fiscal years 2020 – 2024 is the 3rd stream since the deregulation of the telecom industry in Nigeria in 2001.
The history of the Strategic Management Plan of the Commission dates back to 2002 when the first Strategic Plan was developed, contributing to the accelerated growth of the industry.
According to a Foreword in the document by the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Prof. Garba Danbatta, this new Strategic Management Plan 2020 – 2024 aims to consolidate and build on the achievements of the past two decades and more importantly, supports the Federal Government of Nigeria’s policy thrust of diversifying the economy through deployment of digital technology.
He said “The Federal Government of Nigeria current administration’s strategic goal to develop and reposition the Nigerian economy away from the over-dependence on oil is anchored on the newly-designated Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Commission, being an integral part of this Ministry, have key roles to play to achieve this strategic goal.”
