ATCON seeks FG’s intervention to tackle critical national infrastructure challenges

THE Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), has called on the Federal Government to rise up to the challenges affecting the distribution and maintenance of critical national infrastructure across the country in order to nip such challenges in the bud.

Mr Ikechukwu Nnamani, president of ATCON,  made the call in Abuja last week while presenting a technical paper at the National Stakeholders Summit on Protecting the Integrity of Nigeria’s National Critical Infrastructure, Monuments and Business Assets.

He called on the government to ensure that all pending bills and policies necessary to secure the assets of Nigeria, that are before the National Assembly, be passed without further delay.

He said: “Nigeria cannot, therefore, afford not to put in place all the building blocks to address the current challenges facing the country in the area of critical national infrastructure, monuments and business assets. The time has come to sign and give effects to all pending bills and policies necessary to secure the assets of Nigeria.”

Nnamani listed the key challenges being faced in the area of Nigeria’s critical infrastructure to include: uneven spread of critical infrastructure across the country; vandalism and theft of national infrastructure, lack of cooperation by many states and local governments with the private sector to enable implementation of much-needed infrastructure, destruction of infrastructure as a result of security unrest in parts of the country, lack of human capital and lack of adequate funding.

He also listed the key challenges facing Monuments and Artefacts to include: Lack of maintenance culture, lack of proper inventory and identification, theft and vandalism and need for the creation of new monuments and artefacts.

He also listed the challenges facing business assets to include: lack of timely protection from security organs during crises, lack of public utility and infrastructure leading to the high cost of business and lack of ideal long-term financing options.

He said the summit would present a veritable platform and the will to address the identified challenges.

Nnamani explained that the efforts by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) in developing policies and guidelines to protect the critical infrastructure were the right steps in the right direction.

“The latest edition of Nigeria’s National Security Strategy (NNSS) 2019, captured and emphasised the urgent need for safeguarding these assets. Key components of the strategy document include the objectives of identifying, classifying and prioritising Critical National Assets and Infrastructure (CNAI) and to determine appropriate levels of protection required for each CNAI or groups of CNAI, enhance the resilience of CNAI to hazards, and minimise the effect of attacks or disasters on CNAI,” Nnamani said.