ATCON commends Pantami, seeks support for telecom industry growth
By Ogaga Ariemu
Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria(ATCON), has commended the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami for his unprecedented achievements in the telecommunications, information technology sector.
This was diclosed to Nigerian NewsDirect Newspaper when the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Pantami received the executive members of ATCON lead by it President Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani during a courtesy visit in Abuja recently.
President of ATCON, Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani, lauded the giant strides of the Minister in the area of Right of Way(RoW), National Identity Management and entrenching digital economy in Nigeria.
“This strategic courtesy visit is put together to demonstrate the respect that we have for you and your office as records are there to show that the development of the sector is highly paramount in your strategic plans”, the ATCON President said.
Engr. Nnamani added that, “Challenges that have plagued the industry for a very long time are now being addressed by you and your team. Notable among this is the progress made in the NIN, ROW, NNBP, and digitization of the economy. More recent is the groundbreaking of the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre in Abuja”.
The President further informed the Minister of the resolution of the NEC to work with the ministry towards sustaining the high performance already being exhibited.
Nnamani explained that ATCON is particularly committed to supporting the federal government in achieving, “the full implementation of the 2020-2025 Nigerian National Broadband Plan; development of strategic plan to bridge the over N15 Trillion infrastructure funding gap for the telecom/ ICT inductry; full implementation of the RoW policy and address multiple taxation and other regulatory challenges”.
On his part, Dr. Pantami appreciated the association for the working visit and notified them that all his doors are wide open to attend to them on all official matters requiring his attention.
The Minister further advised the association not to compromise the resolution of the NEC on Right of Way levy and stated that when any challenges are being encountered, his attention should be immediately called upon for intervention.
“Mostly importantly in the area of the National Identity Number that have been neglected for years. It is the foundation identity for buidling a digital economy, national budget, economy and security planning.”
The Minister noted that the IT, digital economy sector is the most important in the economy hence he called for collaborate with ATCON to improve the industry.
“All my doors are open for you, whenever my attentsion is needed, I don’t believed in one man’s business, we are all stakeholders in the sector and we must work together to do the best we can do to take the sector to a greater height”.
ATCON is a professional non-profit umbrella organisation of telecommunication companies in Nigeria, formed by technocrats in the industry to facilitate and accelerate growth and development of the Nigerian telecommunications industry.
