Leadership

The Minister of Communication Technology, Omobola Johnson, has stressed that lawmakers have a critical role to play in the development of the nation's Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector through advancing legislation that will increase the availability of ICT networks services and devices to Nigerians.

Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP-17) in Durban, South Africa, participants at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change in Ghana have renewed calls for global leaders to recognise the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

The ongoing SIM Card Registration by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) may soon hit a brick wall due to apathy from telephone subscribers in Nigeria. The NCC had budgeted N6.1 billion for the exercise though a source in the Commission told the Leadership newspaper that only N2.1 billion had so far been released to it. The commission launched the programme in Abuja three weeks ago with the intention of registering all SIM card users in the country.

As the Joint Tax board get set to commance the e-registration of tax payers, one state from each geo-political zone would participate in the pilot scheme.

This was disclosed by the JTB Secretary, Alhaji Lawal Abubakar when the committee paid a courtesy call on the emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwanu Sulaiman Adamu at the week-end. The secretary revealed that a state from each geo-political zone of the country would serve as a pilot to the exercise, and said that the states are Bauchi, Jigawa, Kwara, Delta, Abia and Oyo.

One person’s gain is another person’s loss. The lively price war amongst mobile operators in Nigeria has proved good news for consumers but is threatening to put a number of airtime resellers and call centre operators out of business.

Checks by The Leadership’s reporter showed that many of the call centre operators and resellers have found their business has been badly affected, especially when Airtel lowered its tariffs by half allowing its customers to make calls across networks for only 20 kobo per second or N12 naira per minute.

Troubled CDMA operator, Multi-Links Nigeria could be in further mess as its South African communications service provider, Telkom, is laying charges against some of its senior executives for alleged misconduct and mismanagement.

Though the names of officials being charged by Telkom could not be ascertained, indications emerged that gross negligence, corruption, irregular activities and gross misconduct were amongst the charges laid by the company.

One of the leading GSM service providers in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Etisalat, says it will invest $2 billion in the Nigerian telecommunication market for network expansion.

The Chief Executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Mr Steven Evans, disclosed this while delivering a speech at the ongoing AfricaCom conference in Cape Town, South Africa, adding that the GSM operator has reached six million active subscribers within its two years of operation.