Telecom
Sierra Leone’s Telecoms Regulator Visits NCC for Benchmarking
Nigeria’s global ranking as a model in telecom regulation, and her status as a leading light of operational efficiency, solidarity and collaborative partnering in sub-regional and Continental telecommunication sphere, received a boost recently when a delegation from the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) of Sierra Leone, paid a visit to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for benchmarking of NCC’s regulatory policies, programmes and activities.
Cross section of NCC Staff with Sierra Leonean delegation during the visit on Thursday
Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, Director, Public Affairs, NCC, in a statement on released on Thursday, said that the Sierra Leonean delegation, led by Amara Brewah, NATCOM’s Deputy Director-General, was received at NCC’s head office by Engr. Ubale Maska, NCC’s Exectutive Commissioner Technical Services (ECTS), on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta.
Brewah expressed gratitude to NCC for the reception despite the short notice given, and stated that NCC’s gesture resounded the value it accords the relationship that exists between the two organisations.
He thanked the Management of NCC for the opportunity offered his team and described their interaction with many departments of the NCC as very engaging, quite rewarding and very contextual, considering that the two countries operated under similar circumstances and have had to contend with similar operational issues.
Brewah regretted that the short notification was due to an equally engaging sessions he and his team had at a recent forum of the West African Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA).
Maska, who warmly received the visitors, informed them that the EVC was scheduled to carry out an important international assignment before the planned visit of the Sierra Leonean counterpart was received by the Commission.
He told the visitors that, otherwise, the EVC would have loved to personally receive them because the NCC attaches great importance to visitations and exchanges by its counterparts, especially in the sub-region and on the Continent.
The ECTS said that the value NCC bestows on sub-regional and continental collaboration and partnership explained EVC’s gracious approval of the request and directive to him to receive the Sierra Leonean delegation despite the short notice.
Maska said the NCC Management was pleased by the fact that the NATCOM delegation found the visit and the engagement with many departments of NCC quite rewarding.
He said the Nigerian Communications Commission is quite appreciative of the trust and confidence reposed in it and in Nigeria by institutions like NATCOM, and the NCC looks forward unreservedly “to also learn how Sierra Leone handled some of its challenges in telecom regulation and other matters of similar interest, because we are also seek ways of improving our operations.”
Engr. Bako Wakil, the Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity (DTSNI) at NCC, also expressed joy at seeing the Sierra Leonean delegation.
He thanked them for the visit and expressed NCC’s willingness to share more information with the visitors, especially on Quality of Service (Qos) matters, one of the central issues on which NCC never rested its oars in ensuring continuous improvement.
The NCC Management team that received the visitors include Reuben Muoka, Head Special Duties, whose Department co-ordinated the reception for the NATCOM team, Hafiz Shehu, Chief of Staff to the EVC, and Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, Head Online Media, who represented the Director Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde.
Other members of the delegation from Sierra Leone were: Hon. Brima Mansaray, Member of the Information and Communications Committee of the Parliament of Sierra Leone; Paul Squire Esq., Member of NATCOM Board of Commissioners; Abdul Bah, Director Information Technology at NATCOM; Harding Tommy, Director Policy and Government Relations; and Shaka Sasha, Manager, Fraud Management Systems. The delegation had engaging interactions with many arms of NCC including, the Departments of Digital Economy, Licensing and Authorization, Legal and Regulatory Services, TSNI, and Policy, Competition and Economic Analysis.
Users of satellite internet service provider Starlink in Nigeria are being required to complete a biometric Know Your Customer (KYC) process as a precondition to continue enjoying their services, according to .biometricupdate.
According to local reports, more than 66,000 Starlink subscribers in the country had a December 31 ultimatum from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to complete the biometric verification or have their connection discontinued.
The process essentially entails linking a Starlkink account with the subscriber’s national digital ID.
The NCC, which is Nigeria’s telecoms industry regulator, is said to have first issued the directive in August last year, setting a three-month deadline which was to elapse on November 19, TechCabal reports.
The body however later extended it to December 31 after consultations with industry stakeholders. The internet account-NIN linkage, the NCC said, is to enhance identity verification and strengthen security within the country’s telecoms space.
Just a few days to the December 31 deadline, Starlink’s Nigeria office sent an email to its subscribers reminding them of the KYC requirement, and warned that all those who fail to comply would be disconnected.
And that once disconnected, reconnection would depend on network capacity in the concerned area.
The service provider said in its email that the process takes less than two minutes and users can complete it by logging in to their account via an app.
One user, quoted by TechCabal, said one needs to upload their selfie biometrics, provide their national identification number (NIN) and then give their consent for the account to be linked to their ID information.
Starlink’s internet service is present in about 155 countries with nine million users, as of 2025. Its growth in Nigeria is said to be rapid, making it the second largest internet service provider in the country, according to The Traffic.
Biometric identification for Starlink subscribers could become a continent-wide trend given that some countries have expressed reservations in opening up their internet space to the company over security concerns.
There’ve been fears that jihadists in countries like Mali and Nigeria may have exploited Starlink terminals to coordinate terror operations, and cybersecurity experts have also warned of risks related to weak regulation, digital sovereignty and data breaches.
The requirement for Starlink internet users to have their accounts linked with the NIN is similar to the SIM-NIN linkage policy which the Nigerian government battled to implement for many years, with many deadline extensions.
In October last year, the NCC, which is was at the forefront of the policy implementation, announced that all active SIM cards across all network providers had complied with the directive which was issued in 2020.
The idea, the federal government argued, was to strengthen security and curb criminality such as kidnappings which are aided and abetted by improperly identified mobile phone numbers.
Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has urged Northern Nigeria to pivot urgently from traditional commerce to an innovation-driven digital economy for sustainable growth.
NITDA
Inuwa issued the call at the Future Map Foundation Roundtable 1.0 (North-West Edition) in Kano, attributing the region’s sluggish digital adoption not to talent deficits but to the lack of deliberate, coordinated strategies.
He stressed deeper collaboration across academia, private sector players, entrepreneurs, and government, positioning the private sector as the primary innovation engine while government supplies robust policies and an enabling ecosystem.
Inuwa advocated for people-focused, locally tailored innovations that tackle regional challenges head-on, enabling global competitiveness by transitioning from mere technology users to creators of homegrown solutions.
The roundtable convened policymakers, tech founders, and ecosystem stakeholders to forge a comprehensive roadmap for North-West digital transformation, yielding firm commitments to bolster regional innovation policies and public-private synergies.
Inuwa’s push dovetails seamlessly with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which sets an ambitious target of 95 per cent nationwide digital literacy by 2030, fostering inclusive economic empowerment.
Participants hailed the forum as a pivotal step toward unlocking Northern Nigeria’s tech potential, with NITDA poised to lead implementation through strategic interventions and partnerships.
Samsung Electronics plans to double this year the number of its mobile devices with “Galaxy AI” features largely powered by Google’s Gemini, its co-CEO said, which would give the U.S. firm an edge over rivals as the global race in artificial intelligence heats up.
The South Korean company, which had rolled out Gemini-backed AI features to about 400 million mobile products, including smartphones and tablets, by last year, plans to boost that figure to 800 million in 2026.
“We will apply AI to all products, all functions, and all services as quickly as possible,” T M Roh told Reuters in his first interview since becoming Samsung Electronics co-CEO in November.
The plan by the world’s largest backer of Google’s Android mobile platform is set to give a major boost to its developer Google, which is locked in a race with OpenAI and others to attract more consumer users to their AI model.
Samsung seeks to reclaim its lost crown from Apple in the smartphone market and fend off competition from Chinese rivals not only in mobile telephones, but televisions and home appliances, all overseen by Roh.
It will offer integrated AI services across consumer products to widen its lead over Apple in such features, though the latter was set to be the top smartphone maker last year, according to market researcher Counterpoint.
AI Race
Alphabet’s Google launched the latest version of Gemini in November, highlighting Gemini 3’s lead on several popular industry measures of AI model performance.
In response to Gemini 3, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly issued an internal “code red,” pausing non-core projects and redirecting teams to accelerate development. The ChatGPT maker launched its GPT-5.2 AI model a few weeks later.
Roh expects the adoption of AI to accelerate, as Samsung’s surveys on awareness of its Galaxy AI brand jumped to a level of 80% from about 30% in just one year.
“Even though the AI technology might seem a bit doubtful right now, within six months to a year, these technologies will become more widespread,” he said.
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