Telecoms Sector As Critical Driver Of Digital Economy – Danbatta √√ The Scoper Media

 

     The role of the telecommunications sector as a critical driver of the emerging digital economy has once again been emphasised.

Delivering a keynote address at the fourth telecommunications sector sustainability forum with the theme; ‘Mainstreaming Data Centres in the Nigerian Digital Economy,’ the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said the Commission, by the provisions of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 (NCC 2003), has as part of it’s responsibility, the regulation of the telecommunications sector as a critical driver of the digital economy in Nigeria.

Represented by the Head, Tariff Administration at the NCC, Dr Sunday Atu, the executive vice chairman said the event is aimed at providing a platform that would enable stakeholders share perspectives on the opportunities, challenges and the impact that operators of data centre services hold within Nigeria’s digital economy.

He said the evolving primacy of data, encapsulated in the slogan – Data is the new oil – has continued to resonate globally with increasing intensity in the context of the emerging digital economy’.

This, Danbatta said, has become a subject of special consideration by regimes requiring appropriate structures provided by this new order.

He reiterated that data centre services have continued to hold the keys to the ultimate crystalisation of this new line of thinking within the ICT sector and by extension to the greater national economy’ in so many ways – one of which he said is the added impetus towards improving the security and reliability of the nation’s digital infrastructure.

Danbatta said recent developments point to the limitless treasure within this space. He said Africa has recently assumed a new frontier and compelling destination for global Big Tech players like Google and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, which between them have invested billions of dollars in subsea fibre cable that expected to increase connectivity more than five-fold within Nigeria.

While the Google investment will be creating an expected 1,6 million jobs, the Meta project, when completed in 2024, is targeted at generating close to close to $36 billion of economic output within two to three years of operation.

This brings to the fore the debate around digital sovereignty and the need for a national policy and regulatory framework to further localise traffic data.

He said the Federal Government has taken laudable steps to encourage and support data Centres in its drive to ensure data sovereignty.
This, Danbatta said goes to show that these Centres and their potential to attract foreign investment, remains massive.

He added that the global data centre market, which is worth billions of dollars and that Nigeria is well-positoned to attract it’s fair share of this investment.