The National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT) urged the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) to leverage on existing Public Access Venues (PAV) infrastructure around the country to deploy its services.

This was part of communiqué issued at the end of the Third (3rd) meeting of Council held in Yenogoa, Bayelsa State recently under the Chairmanship of Dr. Omobola Johnson, minister of Communication Technology.

The Communique, thus urged NIPOST to use its post offices to deploy ICT services all across the country.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communication Technology in implementing the National Broadband Plan at all tiers of government, has urged States in the country to sign up to the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry for the implementation of the Smart State initiative already pioneered in 3 states namely Lagos, Cross River and FCT; and being tested in Anambra, Bayelsa, Ondo with others to follow.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek had reported that 34 States are yet to sign the agreement which will, among other things, lead to reduction in taxations and levies charged on telecom infrastructures at the States level.

The Ministry of Communication Technology and the Broadband Council  chaired by Dr Omobola Johnson, is promoting a ‘’Smart State’’ initiative geared at engaging governors and relevant authorities at the state and federal level to address the issue of multiple taxation impeding the acceleration of the roll out of critical infrastructure across Nigeria.

The main aim of the Smart States initiative is to ensure that effective measures are adopted to remove arbitrary charges and eradicate multiple taxations across the nation impeding the roll out of critical ICT infrastructure across Nigeria.

In her keynote address at the NCCT Meeting, Dr Johnson commended Bayelsa State for Signing the Smart State MoU.

She indicated that the Ministry is currently collaborating with Bayelsa State in a number of areas and congratulated the Governor for pursuing a Digital Transformation Agenda in his State.

Johnson highlighted the top priority areas of the Ministry to include Connect Nigeria-which focuses on building ICT infrastructure, Connect Nigerians, ICT in government and Local Content.

She disclosed that the Ministry of Communication Technology has made progress in its priority areas resulting in improvements in a number of indicators including teledensity, active subscription, number of internet users, and internet penetration. She also noted that steady progress was being made in software industry development and ICT in government.

She assured that the Ministry of Communication Technology would provide the necessary leadership and rallying point for ensuring that the potential of the Nigerian ICT sector is fully harvested for the attainment of inclusive and sustainable development. 

The Council deliberated exhaustively on the 73-page report presented by the meeting of officials and other items of the Agenda and agreed on major decisions and recommendations highlighted in the Communiqué.

The NCCT urged States and Local governments in the country to make policy changes in the areas of investing in infrastructure security and development, active collaboration in negotiating Federal, State and local government jurisdiction issues as it affects ICT.

The changes should also incorporate the establishing or strengthening where they exist Ministries, agencies or authorities to build capability to coordinate  ICT that will pay due attention to ICT investment and funding as well as coordinated ICT development in States.

The Communiqué also urged Members to sensitize their Chief Executives and mobilize support for implementation of the National Addressing policy to be piloted in the six geopolitical zones with Ekiti, Nasarawa, Benue, Bayelsa, Osun, Plateau, Gombe and Anambra states as volunteers.

All states in the country were also urged to participate actively in the effort to finalise the national e-government framework.

The NCCT Meeting which considered 49 substantive memoranda in addition to a number of information memos also called on all tiers of government in Nigeria to consider the adoption of the Open Data policy as a means of creating jobs.

They also highlighted need to make data available for policy formulation and decision making as well as reducing the cost of governance and improving public service delivery and a call for the Federal Government to develop and implement a National Data security policy that would be entrenched in all tiers of government and other sectors.

Other recommendations contained in the Communiqué include a call for the institutionalization of equal participation for women and girls in ICT as a matter of priority for national development and the adoption and replication of the Ministry’s Digital Girls curriculum in State secondary schools across the nation.

The Communiqué also urged members of the Council to bring the contents of the Guidelines for Nigerian Local Content in ICT to the attention of state MDAs, ICT companies and the public in general. Other recommendations in the Communiqué include  the call for the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology to approach the National Bureau of Statistics NBS with a view to mainstreaming relevant ICT indicators into their data collection instruments as a complementary means of mitigating the present paucity of ICT data.

Furthermore, they called for Galaxy Backbone Limited partnership with the state governments to extend the data security facilities in the states from the existing infrastructure to fully optimize the value of the initial investment on the facilities.

To further promote the Digital Jobs initiative of the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology, the Communiqué urged each State to provide a suitable venue with 250 sitting capacity and nominate 800 unemployed youths  for the workshop for training of prospective job seekers on digital job opportunities.

States and local governments were also urged to support NigComSat as it negotiates with them on the acquisition of sites for the deployment of infrastructure to facilitate the affordability of its services.

In order to put a sustainable mechanism for addressing the problem of Cyber security in the country, Council also called on NITDA to actively work towards the development of National Cyber security Strategy without prejudice to ongoing efforts of the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Companies and entities at both the State and Federal levels were also urged by the Communiqué to have .ng domain names and to establish web presence.

The NCCT Council commended Dr Johnson for her commitment and hard work in moving the ICT sector forward in her three years in office as the Honourable Minister and noted and appreciated the efforts of many states that made presentations and shared their experiences on how they are using ICT applications for improved service delivery and greater efficiency.