Cyriacus Nnaji
Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFo), on Thursday, April 13, 2023, gathered industry stakeholders, the media and policy analysts at the Colossus Hotel, Maryland, Lagos to jawjaw as well as air their views on the National Dialogue on the Pending NITDA Bill 2021.
The theme of the day’s event was ‘NITDA Act: Towards the Sustainability of Nigeria’s Digitl Economy Drive’.
While welcoming the discussants and guests, the Convener, Omobayo Azeez, Lead Executive, PIAFo and Editor, Business Metrics Nigeria in his Opening Remarks said lately, his organization has followed with keen interest issues around the proposed NITDA Bill 2021 which seeks to repeal and re-enact the NITDA Act 2007 that established the National Information Technology Development Agency.
According tp PIAFo, the Bill, which is now pending at the National Assembly, is aimed at creating a regulatory framework for the development of the Nigerian IT sector and digital economy.
Azeez stated that while this, on its own, may not be a bad thing, there are fears that if the Bill is passed the way it is, it may exert negative ripples on the ICT sector, adding that NITDA has been a major contributor to the Nigeria ICT development alongside other agencies of the government under the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, and beyond.
However, the dusts raised around this pending Bill could not be ignored by the organisers of the forum in the interest of Nigeria’s growing ICT sector and the country’s fast-pacing digital economy drive.
Azeez said “The ICT sector has been an economic enabler and a catalyst for socio-economic development. Its contribution to the economic fortune of the country has been impressive and its impacts, felt across various divides.
“For instance, in the last quarter of 2022, the sector contributed 16.22% to the country’s GDP, rising from 15.35% in the third quarter of the year. In fact, in the preceding second quarter, total ICT contribution to GDP was higher at 18.94%. Similarly, Nigeria’s digital economy is estimated to have attracted over $4.4 billion in investments in the last four years. As impressive as these figures may sound, the sector has not yet reached its full potential and if well-protected from policy missteps, its future contributions will be higher. This is why this forum becomes imperative – to ensure the sustainability of the ICT sector and sustain Nigeria’s digital economy growth through effective dialogue among stakeholders,” he said.
Azeez added that PIAFo is not taking positions but only providing the platform for the experts to discuss. “We only hope that our efforts in putting this event together will help the industry to aggregate perspectives, clear grey areas, harmonise thoughts and prevent any controversial overlapping tendencies likely to disrupt the growth of the digital economy sector,” he concluded.
Ayoola Oke, a Legal Practitioner specializing in Information and Communication Technology Law and Policy also lent his voice saying “Apparently, there is a NITDA law and the organization itself is championing that the law be reviewed and reenacted with some changes, however it seems that not much consultation was done from everything we can see. And it was presented as an executive Bill coming from NITDA, it doesn’t look as if the Attorney General’s office and the Ministry of Justice have vetted it, because it replicates what is in other laws, it gives powers to NITDA that are already given to other agencies, so that is the problem.
“NITDA specifically supposed to be a developmental agency, that was how it was conceived, and that is how most of the original law is, but in its new incarnation, the first five sections of the function of NITDA were not in the old law and all of them have to do with regulatory powers in the ICT sector, and most of these powers are already powers that are given to organisations like Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for technical regulation and NBC for content regulation, both within the ICT sector. So now all of a sudden, the bill seeks to appropriate the powers to NITDA, and that is going to create more confusion in the industry, it will bring about multiple regulation as some people have said, multiple taxation.
“Then there is no clear discernment of what the bill is seeking to do, what is it that has become different, maybe that made the old law obsolete that the bill is trying to improve or correct? The bottom line anyway is that if they cannot establish why you are changing a law, then why tamper with it? To change a law you must know, okay, this is what is wrong, in law we say, what is the mischief that has necessitated you trying to change, what is wrong? What are the new situations arising that makes you want to change the provisions.”
He said NITDA is a developmental agency and should stick to its responsibility. “So generally, NITDA is a developmental agency, but with the regulatory powers they are trying to give to NITDA, it means they are changing the whole essence of NITDA from being a developmental agency into a regulatory agency, and that is not enough reason to review the law.”
Jide Awe, Managing Director, Jidaw Systems, a Policy Advisor on Science, Technology and Innovation is of the conviction that the bill should not go forward as inputs of stakeholders in the industry is lacking in the bill “The bill should not go forward as it is, because there are certain issues that are raised here today, the major issue noticed was the lack of stakeholders inputs into the bill, sufficient collaboration in developing the bill. You know whenever you develop any policy or something like that, let the people who will be affected, let them tell you their needs, and if you have some ideas interact with them, engage with them so that we will know the impact of what you are trying to propose.”
On the insinuations that the essence of the bill was to increase profitability and gag social media, he said “I cannot say that is the essence of the bill, but it would be wrong if that is the essence of the bill. If you listen to my presentation, we are in the era of communication and disruption that should encourage openness, sharing of ideas, you don’t have to agree with my ideas but let’s share ideas, listen to feedback, and when you have ideas you can put innovation, you have new knowledge, new opportunities, so I don’t believe in gagging idea, we have left that era of somebody, there is somebody that knows it all, now we are in era of collaboration, ideas can come from anywhere, it can come from a startup, from a young person, it doesn’t necessarily have to come from the head of the ministry or head of an organistaion.”
He concludes that there is a need to do more to advance the sustainability of the Nigeria’s digital economy, but should be done by carrying people and stakeholders along.
According to Olusola Akinyemi, Managing Partner, Classicus Law Practice, Solicitors and Advocates, Lagos State, in his contribution spoke on what he called the structure of the bill, adding that before creating a law there is need to define your strategy and not creating a law before finding a purpose for it, which appears to be the case with the NITDA bill. He said “Every form of engagement that should have been had before this bill was introduced was bypassed, and that is why almost everybody is against it even the so-called people that are supposed to be beneficiaries of this development initiative, they are concerned; everybody is at alert. Now some are talking about the funds that is being raised from the bill, what is the purpose? And it is known from history, government can’t really be trusted with funds, so my own position, will rather be that they take the route of CSR for players in the industry. Let them engage in CSR and have a report, you know, with budget to match up with that 1%, and not the agencies or organisations remitting 1% of their gross profit to NITDA, that is unnecessary, and also the bill creates a kind of fear in the system in terms of the penalties for non-adherence. It is highly susceptible to abuse, if an agency should target an organization, it is so easy, what we usually have is substantial compliance, I don’t think there is any organization anywhere in the world that complies 100%, so if you have 0.1% non-compliance, that can bring you down, according to the NITDA law, an organisation can be fined N30million and or the MD go to jail for two years, that is very frightening for any one that wants to do business. So you want safety, you want profit not settling scores on issues with government.”
Other discussants include, Mr Nwora, a Legal Practitioner and Consultant, Peculiar Showale, C-Suite Executive Assistant, Paradigm Initiative; while goodwill came from Tony Emoekpere. President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and Engineer Gbenga Adebayo, National, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON). Who were represented by their Executive Secretaries, Ajibola Olude and Gbolahan Awonuga in that order.
