Stakeholders in the nation’s telecoms sector are set for an industry seminar aimed at charting the way forward in deepening the level of local innovations development in the nation’s telecoms industry.
The event, a brainchild of the Nigeria Information and Communication Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA), is the maiden edition of the Quarterly Telecoms Seminar Series of the association.
With the theme: “Engendering Local Innovation in the Nigeria’s Telecoms Sector,” the event is scheduled to hold on Thursday, April 30th 2015, at Westown Hotel, Ikeja Lagos by 10 a.m.
Sponsored by the country’s innovative telecoms company, Etisalat Nigeria, the event is also enjoying the supports of other players such as Visafone, MTN, Airtel, Glo, Zinox, Signal Alliance, MainOne, Computer Warehouse Group Plc, Teledom Group, Omatek, Nigeria Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), among others.
Fully endorsed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); National Information Technology Development Agency, the seminar is backed by other industry associations such as the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON).
Other supporters to this event are the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) and Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), among others.
Speaking in a press statement, NITRA President, Mr Emmanuel Okonji, said the Quarterly Telecoms Seminar Series has been conceived to create a platform for cross-fertilisation of ideas on topical issues among industry stakeholders both from the public and private sector with a view to proferring panaceas to some thorny issues and design templates for leveraging latest development in the industry for growth.
“As a body, NITRA’s philosophy is to drive ICT development, through employing a multi-stakeholders approach. As such, we have put this seminar series in place so that, on a quarterly basis, we can partner with key industry stakeholders to examine some salient issues affecting our sector from regulators’, operators’ and end-users’s perspectives,” he said.
On the choice of the theme for the event, Okonji explained: “While the industry has recorded over $32 billion investment, over 142 million active mobile subscriptions as well as over 80 million internet subscriptions till date, it has become pertinent to ask ourselves: How well have we leveraged local innovations in the industry for the development of the market? Must we continue to rely on foreign innovations to drive the industry?. So, these, among others, are what we expect to explore in this seminar.”
He stated that it is hoped that a forum such as this, which brings together the regulators, operators, trade associations, other key players in the ICT industry as well as the media, with valuable outcome at the end of a robust interaction, is desirable to set development agenda for the industry in key areas.
“Therefore, going forward, we would be picking different issues across all industry verticals for brainstorming as part of our contribution to facilitatig and enriching the quality of stakeholders’ engagement needed to drive the industry on the consistent path of growth,” he said.
While urging stakeholders to constantly partner with NITRA in this regard in future editions of the Quarterly seminar, Okonji restated the association belief that such partnership would have a far-reaching impact on the industry.
By JUSTUS ADEJUMOH
