Foundation calls on NASS to step down NITDA Act

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CLOUD Network Foundation has urged the National Assembly to step down the NITDA Act 2021 currently under its consideration.

The Foundation, whose membership is made up of Nigeria’s pioneer ICT media practitioners, made the call after it carefully carried out a clause-by-clause analysis of the said Bill as presented to the lawmakers by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Pantami and the Director General of NITDA, Mr Inuwa Kashifu.

The Act, according to the Foundation, conflicts with the provisions and roles of the already existing NCA of 2003 that empowers the Telecom Regulator to carry out functions the NITDA Act is seeking to appropriate.

A statement made by the Chairman of the Foundation, Mr Bimbola Tooki, said the NITDA Act conflicts with the functions of the NCA Act in over Nine Sections and 24 areas and if allowed to go would bring about untoward conflicts in the industry.

For instance Section 1, which set out the objective of the Bill lays the foundation of converting the NITDA form an ICT agency to a regulatory one.

The addition of the idea of ‘Digital Economy’ as part of its policy implementation and strategies takes NITDA’s regulatory influence and powers to include matters within the exclusive regulatory mandate of the NCC.

“Today, there is convergence in the ICT ecosystem such that it is now difficult to delineate what constitutes digital services, infrastructure and platforms. The same digital services and platforms that the NITDA Bill is seeking to regulate are under the regulatory jurisdiction of the NCC.

“It is also the concern of the Foundation that the ICT industry is being over burden with taxation such that if the NIDA Act goes through it will impose new regime of taxation on the ICT industry who will in turn pass them to users in forms of increase in tariffs,” it said.

The Foundation said it has watched how the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Pantami since his appointment has sought to emasculate the role of the NCC as an independent regulatory body and asked that the NCC be allowed to return to its enviable regulatory independence it has been known for.

The Foundation stated: ”We align ourselves with the view that the Draft Bill has the potentials to jeopardise the vibrant communications sector by creating uncertainty and drawing a grey map of applicability.

“This will not only jolt investors and distort the market structure, but can lead to multiple regulatory oversight and lack of coordination in managing the Sector. Therefore, the impact is far reaching and fundamental to market sustenance and deepening the gains of the sector that has twice driven Nigeria out of recession in the last six years.

“We take the position that the Draft Bill should be stepped down because the matters it seek to legislate on are already being regulated by the NCC as the sole and exclusive regulator of communications services in Nigeria and this approach has midwifed the country from liberalisation to the exponential growth that makes the sector attract commendations and emulations from other countries.

“There are only two path ways opened to NITDA in our view: continue on the path of its original mandate to develop information technology, drive skills building and standardize the deployment of IT tools by the Nigerian government or in the spirit of convergence be merged with the NCC, as a unit, a proposal that had been canvassed by several ICT stakeholders in the past.”

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