The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) reported hosting the federal ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in a consultative conference for digital policy reform directed on the application of the Internet of Things (IoT) in Nigeria. The conference set to modify the policy framework that guides the IoT approach in Nigeria as the federal agencies seem inclined on driving innovative policies into the large scale of homeland technology development and deployment.
Prof. Isa Ibrahim Pantami represented his ministry in person and shared consent on his indulgence in managing several technologically inclined activities in the country. He also noted that the IoT is engineered with a simplified mechanism that allows technology to evolve according to its users’ activities and 70 of IoT deployment in Nigeria is dependable on telecom services to access the internet per its nature of data accumulation and penetration
During the stakeholder’s consultative forum that focused on developing the roadmap of tech policies that guides IoT in Nigeria, the conference was themed ‘Regulatory Roadmap for IoT Ecosystem in Nigeria’. As the name implies, both the NCC and the Nigerian digital ministry are entitled to regulatory supervision on the national digital landscape willing to scold policy shirkers consulting the ITU for insights.
The NCC, ITU, and Panatami were presently brainstorming per the free-associating of regulatory involvement during the stakeholder’s consultative forum aimed at realizing the preferable policies for regulating the IoT and other technology-inclined things. The Nigerian regulatory agencies find it sensitive to leave IoT unregulated due to the International Data Cooperation that revealed the massive deployment of IoT devices by 2025 and the Nigerian regulatory agencies need to be ready for absolute regulations on IoT.
The IDC also considered the global connection of IoT which is not limited to the African digital ecosystem. As the world evolves to adopt IoT connections to the web, it is expected to consume the most 81.4 zeta bites which tend to be more than the NCC can handle or have handled overtime. Knowing fully well that the Nigerian digital space is quite spirited to attain more edges of expansion.
The NCC chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta said that the “consultation presents a unique opportunity to appraise the emergence and future deployment of IoT products and services for the benefit of consumers in Nigeria.”
On behalf of the NCC, Danbatta also other international technology experts such as the Secretary of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Houlin Zhao who joined the meeting via virtual transmission. The likes of Zhao and Pantami were active in making the consultative forum develop a simplified roadmap for IoT data policies.
The NCC consultative forum also devised a means for local regulators of digital inland connectivity to interact with international digital practitioners to ascertain the best suitable regulatory approach to managing the vast ecosystem tied with IoT usage. By 2025 the Nigerian digital sector should have been enhanced with ideal schematics for regulating IoT as well as IoT product and service applications a large.
