The event will witness the award of contracts for the provision of broadband infrastructure for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, as well as for tertiary and higher institutions of learning across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

Pantami is also billed to present a book, SKILLS RATHER THAN JUST DEGREES, authored by him, with a Foreword written by Brad Smith, President, Microsoft Corporation.

The list of projects for the various geopolitical zones that are set for launch were recently approved by the Federal Executive Council, after presentation by the Minister. The projects are expected to be completed within six months, from the date of the award.

Well-known tech companies have been selected through transparent tendering process by the Nigerian Communications Commission, for the implementation of the strategic projects.

The event is expected to attract multistakeholders from the academia, technology enthusiasts, including prospective start-up companies, fintech organizations and other interested sectors whose activities are billed to energize the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, 2020-2030.

The provision of broadband infrastructure for the micro, small and medium enterprises in Nigeria, and for tertiary institutions across the six geopolitical zones of the country will add the necessary fillip towards achieving the major objectives spelt out in the NDEPS 2020-2030.

Minister Pantami performed this important function during day 3 of the Digital Nigeria 2022 International Conference held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

The Objectives of the DEIWG includes;

1. Establish a Public-Private Partnership Platform as communication link between the public and private sector to drive the Digital Economy policies and Strategies.
2. Create a framework for strengthening the immediate delivery of initiatives based on the 8 pillars as outlined in the Nigerian Digital Economic Policy and Strategy (2020-2030).
3. To facilitate the creation of an Enterprise Programs Management Office (EPMO) and funding mechanism which will serve as a framework of funding for DEIWG Secretariat.
4. To formulate, in partnership with the Government, mechanisms that drive and catalyse growth and increase investments in the Digital Economy.
5. To examine the current efforts by the Federal Government to digitally transform through policies, projects and programmes and co-create a private sector response plan.
6. Facilitate leadership mindset that is digital-driven for Shared Prosperity and Shared National Vision and drive continuity of the policies and enhance the institutional arrangement to drive the Digital Economy.
7. Call to Action for Private Sector to take lead of the creation of the Nigeria Digital Economy showcasing the opportunities in the E-Government Masterplan and Digital Economy Policy and Strategy.

Director of Digital Economy at the Commission, Dr. Augustine Nwaulune, who hosted a delegation of the Board, led by the Board’s Executive Secretary, Hajia Saadatu Yahya, on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, recently, recalled that Nasarawa State is one of the beneficiaries of NCC’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) intervention projects such as the Digital Awareness Programme (DAP) for secondary schools, the Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI), the Wireless Cloud, as well as the E-Health programme.

“While we don’t give scholarship to students, the NCC has continued to give research grants to lecturers and students in the universities, and provided additional opportunities including sponsoring competitions involving students, as well as endowing professorial chairs in universities across the country.

In the last seven years, the financial value of the endowments and grants is more than N500 million.

“Therefore, I will appeal to NSSB to create awareness about these initiatives of the NCC among stakeholders in the academia, particularly the research grants to enable stakeholders to leverage such opportunities offered by the Commission to scholars interested in carrying out telecommunications-based research,” he said.

Nwaulune said the NCC has been upbeat in ensuring implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), 2020-2030, in which one of its eight pillars, rests on digital literacy, while the Digital Economy Department has been set up and equipped by the Commission with the human resources required to coordinate its programmes in concrete terms.

Yahya, whose delegation visited to discuss areas of collaboration for deepening digital/technical training and skills acquisition in Nasarawa State, commended the Commission for the central role it has played in promoting digital awareness and skills across the country, and pleaded that Nasarawa State should be given more opportunities to benefit from NCC’s social investments and other digital economy-focused interventions, being the closest State to the Federal Capital Territory, the base of the Commission.

“The purpose of our visit is to seek collaboration with the NCC in whatever ways possible, especially in the areas of scholarship, and ICT skills and literacy for our people.

The ICT is, today, the engine room of global economy and we do not want to lag in this new digital order, hence, our decision to seek collaboration with organisations in the ICT space such as yours to work which, especially because you are contiguous to our State,” Yahya, the NSSB Executive Secretary said.

Other members of the delegation, including Senior Special Assistant to Nasarawa State Governor on Information and Communication Technology, Haruna Sani; and the President, Nasarawa State Students Association, Sani Jibrin, spoke in favour of a greater collaboration with the NCC which would add the needed impetus to the current efforts by the state government to leverage ICT for economic development.

The development of the NAIP is envisaged to maximise the benefits, mitigate possible risks, and address some of the complexities attributed to using AI in our daily activities.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations, NITDA, Mrs. Hadiza Umar.

The Agency noted that this was in cognisance of the exponential growth and potential value of digital technologies, which is in line with the vision of President Muhammad Buhari, to diversify the Nigerian Economy through utilising digital technologies.

“The Agency thereby invited the public to contribute and participate in developing National Artificial Intelligence Policy (NAIP).

“For participation whereby anyone can provide input or contribute to the Policy’s development as an expert, specialist, or volunteer use this link.”

This push by NiRA came just after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) barred its workers from using generic domains for official communications. The focus of this piece is to look at how these efforts will deepen the digital economy agenda of the nation.  

The Federal Executive Council (Nigeria) approved the National Policy on the Nigerian Government Second-Level Domains during its meeting on the 16th of February, 2022 and thus barred its workers from the use of generic domains.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) followed up with the directive by recently inaugurating a 14-man enforcement committee to monitor the policy implementation across all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) both at the State and Federal levels.

However, the February 2022 declaration is not the first by the FEC, leaving many people astonished as to why, after six years , the Nigeria government is still advocating for compliance regarding the local .ng domain.

Should it be regarded as ignorance or sheer sabotage that a diplomat for example, would issue a call card which contains a ‘.com, ‘.co.uk’, etc., email address? It may very well be that Nigeria’s top public officials are not aware of the use of gov.ng in their ministries. One is left wondering how long it will be, to obtain 100% compliance to the new policy.

Frankly, it is amazing that a country with 141,971,560 active internet users in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report, has less than 200,000 .ng domains to both local and international owners. Yes, it is a somewhat interesting irony especially when you look at the number of .co.za domains that South Africa has been able to push out to the world.

A lot of questions are raised in different quarters as to why Nigerians have simply refused to use .ng domains? Who is to blame? Is it that we believe .ng is not good enough or we just do not understand its importance to our national brand? We probably need some sort of government policy to make it somewhat compulsory for individuals and businesses as well?

If you try to convince some to switch to .ng a vast majority of people would give all sorts of reasons why they do not use .ng and many of these reasons are simply based on assumptions or hearsay and not facts.

Again, it is important to stress that the foundation of any proper and sustainable development especially in the knowledge economy is the enactment and enforcement of policies. Imagine, if we had a policy that states that every registered company in Nigeria must use .ng? We know this is not an impossible feat, after all the UK and a few other countries are enforcing such policies whether covertly or overtly.

Therefore, the recent moves by the FEC must be effectively implemented especially in support of the digital economy drives.

The journey towards economic diversification requires everybody’s commitment to the development of a robust digital economy and in this case demands the use of the Nigerian Second Level Domain by all government-owned websites and official emails.

The private sector is not left out either. Many Nigerian business platforms still struggle with the indulgence of .ng, not aware of the immense benefit it will offer to boost their business outlook both local and international.

First, the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has the registry for .ng Internet Domain Names and maintains the database of names registered in Nigeria. It has shown commitment towards this cause by the recent reduction in the price of .ng domain name registration by over 40 per cent, and the media efforts to inform the general public.

The benefits are numerous but let us consider a few of them. The .ng is the internet country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) for Nigeria. Nigeria’s domain name system identifies Nigeria-related websites and is currently available for registration in the following variants, .com.ng, .ng, .org.ng, .net.ng and so on, with a few of them being restricted to Nigerian entities such as .gov.ng, .edu.ng, .sch.ng and so on.

For instance, Nigerian businesses registering .ng domain names have the immediate benefit of being ranked first on search engines when an online search is conducted. Using it and maintaining a good search engine optimisation (SEO) for the website will, over time, lead to an increase in local traffic.

A strong online presence is essential. Your prospective customer will likely conduct a web search when looking for your product or service, and a website that is relatively easy to find and navigate will greatly increase your chances of making a sale, which .ng provides.

Nigeria as a Nation is blessed with this unique domain string known as .ng and we should be proud of this gift of nature. However, we should not stop at appreciating it but owning at least one of the many variants.

Foreign Exchange is Scarce

A lot of developers will tell you they used to be happy paying for their VPS but not anymore because of the ever increasing exchange rate and the same goes for .com domain names! Using the .ng range of domains will contribute to saving the scarce FX.

SEO/Speed/Reduced Latency

Why do you think that Google would rather serve you results using google.com.ng when you search for stuff within Nigeria and if you travel to say Ghana and use the same device it will go ahead and serve you results via google.com.gh?

What is even more interesting is that in the case of Nigeria, Google owns both com.ng as well as .ng, an example of a forward looking company.

Local Content Development

With increase in local content, more businesses will be born. If you consider the report by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) that the number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country dropped by about two million between 2017 and 2021, then you will appreciate the need to grow local content and intensify the promotion of local brands online.

The 2021 MSME survey revealed that there are 39 million MSMEs in Nigeria, which is a significant drop from the 41 million reported in the 2017 survey report.

Therefore, we must develop local content by supporting what is ours. Just imagine what will happen if only 1% of the reported 211 million+ Nigerians (according to MacroTrends statistics) decide to own .ng, that will be over 2 Million domain names which would eventually serve as the foundation for businesses, ventures and causes on the world wide web.

Would that not further strengthen the Nigerian brand and dignify her on the Internet? This goes to show all hands must be on deck to drive adoption of the use of the .ng domain… Let’s support NiRA ’s push!

ASUU faulted the process of the promotion and declared it as “illegal”.

This was declared at a press conference addressed by Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of ASUU, today, according to this report,

He said, “You cannot be a minister and a lecturer in a university. It is an encouragement of illegality.

“Pantami has to quit as a minister and be tried for doing double jobs within the same federal system. He is not qualified. Pantami should not be treated as a professor.”

In September 2021, Pantami, alongside seven academics were elevated by the council of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri to the position of professorship at the council’s 186th meeting.

The minister’s elevation has generated controversy, with many faulting FUTO on the promotion of the minister, who was not teaching in the university and whose highest academic attainment was reportedly a lecturer before he ventured into politics.

But, a five-man panel set up by the ASUU had confirmed that Pantami went through rigorous processes before his appointment as a Professor of Cybersecurity in the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO).

The FUTO chapter of ASUU said Pantami’s application scaled six hurdles before it was ratified by the Governing Council.

The panel clarified that external assessors were engaged to examine the Minister’s publications to earn the academic position.

The internal inquiry confirmed that due process was followed by both the Governing Council and the management of FUTO to appoint Pantami a Professor of Cybersecurity in the School of Information and Communication Technology (SICT).

The conclusions of the FUTO chapter of ASUU were contained in the report of a five-man probe panel, which was set up by the union.

The investigation was commissioned by the Congress of FUTO chapter of ASUU at its session on September 22nd, 2021.

Members of the committee are:

• M. S. Nwakaudu (Chairman);
• A. Anyanwu;
• E. Orji;
• O.P. Onyewuchi; and
• I. N. Ezejiofor (Member/Secretary).

According to a document, Pantami’s appointment was not a shelf job.

In December 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter of appointment was presented by Prof. Isa Pantami, the minister of Communications and Digital Economy, to Dr. Ismail Adewusi as the Postmaster General of the Federation and CEO of NIPOST.

Today, NIPOST is working assiduously to remain a veritable force, one to reckon with in the courier and logistics industry.

The Service under Adewusi’s leadership has continued to make itself available to work in partnership with other related agencies, both government and private sector, to ensure they provide reliable and efficient services for the socioeconomic development of the country.

Speaking during a breakfast media parley in Abuja to mark the beginning of activities in commemoration of his two years in office as the Postmaster General of the Federation, the PMG, said that on resumption, he made a commitment to leave a legacy in NIPOST.

“At the inception of this administration, we made a serious appraisal of the Post in Nigeria vis-a-vis other postal administrations.

“We engaged ourselves in a thorough review of the corporate vision, with the aim of giving a better focus to timely, measurable and sustainable performance.

“However, my strategy for the immediate revival of the organization suffered a setback almost instantly, with the World going into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This practically threw NIPOST like all other organizations into a recession.

“The pandemic changed the way things were done. A ‘’new normal’’ emerged, and the organization needed to show great resilience by tweaking its mode of operations, in order to meet the needs of our customers during the ravaging pandemic. We had to re-strategize for NIPOST to adapt to the changing business environment, and make the organization better equipped to meet the customers’ ever-changing aspirations”.

Continuing, Adewusi said that NIPOST management, under his leadership, identified Public Private Partnership (PPP) as one of the ways forward as going-it-alone; a solo approach to doing business, would be less efficient, especially in a time resources crunch, and maybe unsustainable.

“It then meant the onboarding of other non-core businesses, through partnerships to meet customers’ needs and achieve diversification.

NIPOST’s achievements in the last 24 months under the leadership of Dr. Adewusi:

“In the area of operation and logistics, the quantum leap in e-commerce necessitated drastic measures to cope with the surge in parcels/packet deliveries. NIPOST collaborated with a number of private transporters and logistics companies like Speedaf to ensure seamless deliveries.

“Recently six (6) additional new high tonnage trucks were acquired for e-commerce and logistics.

This acquisition has greatly boosted the quality of service. Just as the collaboration with Speedaf Logistics Nigeria Limited, has led to the addition of twenty-seven (27) new 10, 20, and 30 tonnage trucks into our fleet.

He said that in a bid to expand the frontiers of NIPOST products and services, a B2B agreement was signed with eGATE of Egypt on digital transformation.

With this agreement, job opportunities will be created. According to the NIPOST boss, it will also help to address the infrastructure gap in the organization, and reposition NIPOST on the path of full digitalization.

Postage Stamp

“In the last two years, several stamps were produced in collaboration with private partners. Notable among them are the Bangladesh High Commission and Indian High Commission, who commissioned NIPOST to issue a set of commemorative postage stamps in honour of their nation’s founding fathers, which were unveiled during Bangladesh Independence Anniversary and 150^th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi of India, respectively.

“The production and unveiling of a Commemorative Postage Stamp and the launching of Compendium of Nigerian Postage Stamps (1914-2014) by the Honourable Minister of Communications & Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami were part of the programme marking the special occasion of Nigeria’s 60^th Independence Anniversary.

“Furthermore, NIPOST in collaboration with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), released a single set of postage stamp on the 45^th Anniversary of the agency. The event was marked with pomp and pageantry in Abuja.

“We produced Revenue Stamp dedicated to the denotation and authentication of transactions and fees, in line with the powers conferred on NIPOST by the amended Finance Act 2020.

“On another frontier, NIPOST signed an agreement with the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to deliver certificates in Nigeria to private candidates for whom it was then no longer necessarily to travel long distances just to collect their certificates from the examination body.

NIPOST driving digital inclusion:

The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has been providing financial services over five decades.

“However, with the advent of Information Technology (IT) and revolution in the financial service industry, the traditional instrument of remittances gave way to electronic means of payments.

He said that in achieving the financial inclusion strategy of the Federal Government of Nigeria to increase financial access points in Nigeria, NIPOST has continue to play a critical role through its vast spread of outlets across the country.

“In 2019, it secured the status of Super-Agent and International Money Transfer Operator (MTO) from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

These licenses have enabled the organisation to go into collaboration with Fintech, FSP, NCS, IMTOs and Remita with a view to developing an agnostic platform, set for roll out in the first quarter of 2022.

“The platform provides a template for a “one stop shop”, where customers can go and have services such as withdrawals, deposits, transfers, international remittances, bill payments, insurance services and other forms of financial services to serve different segments of the population.

Some of the giant strides taken by NIPOST are:

• Western Union Money Transfer which commences pilot operations in Lagos in 2020.

• Reconciliation of account with Cameroon Post (Campost), culminating in the resumption of international remittance transactions which, in a short period, has accrued over ₦10,000,000 in revenue.

• Joining of UPU Clearing House, from which Nigeria had been removed, before our time, to facilitate expansion of remittance transaction beyond the Cameroon Nigeria corridor, with the potential revenue increase.

• Roll out of co-branded credit/debit card card with Data Mining.

• Payment services partnership, with System Specs, which allows NIPOST to carry out bill payment using Remita on its counters.

• Promotion of NIPOST card for seamless IFS transactions with more UPU member countries.

Also, the African Development Bank (AFDB) sought partnership with NIPOST to drive agricultural transformation in Africa’s economy with the Special Agro-Industrial processing Zones (SAPZ) initiative.

“The objective being to produce large stocks of marketable products using NIPOST’s warehousing, logistics and financial services. With this initiative, we, as an organization, seek to contribute to the economic development of the country while also expanding our revenue base.

NIPOST International operations:

The Nigerian Postal Service serves as a gateway to inbound and outbound parcels/packets which, incidentally, some unscrupulous elements within and outside the country may want to use to perpetrate their nefarious activities.

Speaking to this, the CEO of NIPOST said:

“To guide against such, a high-capacity scanning machine have been installed at our International Mail Processing Centre (IMPC) at NAHCO wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja.

“This has paid off as several illegal items, hard drugs and other unauthorised gadgets for criminality were intercepted and handed over to the appropriate government agencies.

He pledged that NIPOST under his watch did not stop at this; “we also pursued collaboration with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), culminating in a courtesy visit to the Chairman/CEO Brig. General Muhammad Buba Marwa (Rtd.), where we renewed our cooperation in the fight against illicit drug use and trafficking in country.

“In another of such efforts, management of NIPOST paid a working visit to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdurasheed Bawa. NIPOST management re-established its collaboration towards the interception of scam mails and prevention of other financial crimes through the Post.

NIPOST is currently represented on the Board of the EFCC.

“We also entered partnership with the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), to enhance postal service delivery through collaboration for improved efficiency of the Nigerian Post Code System.

“It would interest you to note that the new addressing system, that is, the Digital Addressing system, is being developed as a strategic infrastructure for national development. It will facilitate mail handling, identify locations precisely, ensure consistency in address related databases and enable efficient services in government agencies, financial institutions, and businesses in a consistent manner.

Adewusi reeled out various measures aimed at putting NIPOST on a pedestal of growth which the management team has worked hard with perseverance.

Postal Reform Bill:

The PMG also expressed delight that after nineteen (19) years, a new Courier Regulations was presented and approved for the regulation of the courier industry.

The last such review of the Regulations was in 2001.

“The new Regulations empowers NIPOST to regulate the courier and logistics industry, checkmate the activities of illegal and nefarious logistics and courier companies in the country.

“The new Regulations would sanitize the logistics ecosystem and put in check dubious activities of the criminal-minded operators.

“Another milestone is the passage and signing of the amended Finance Act, 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari to affirm NIPOST’s role in the administration of Stamp Duty in Nigeria.

“It is gratifying for us to note that NIPOST (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill was passed by the Senate and House of the Representatives. I am of great belief, that the Bill, when assented by President Muhammad Buhari GCFR, will reposition NIPOST for better service delivery”, he said.

NIPOST at the international level:

At the international level, at the 27th session of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Convention in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria was elected to the Council of Administration (CA) and the Postal Operation Council (POC) of the world body.

The last time Nigeria was a member of any UPU committee was ten (10) years ago, in 2012.

At the African level, Nigeria emerged the second Vice Chairman of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU), at the 10th session held at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

More transformations at NIPOST…postal offices, workforce

“In last two years, some of our Post offices have been transformed into smart post offices, they include Awe, Eruwa, Omu-Aran, Gombe, Oshogbo, Ogbomoso, Ado Ekiti, Enugu Post offices. We want to transform the Post offices into hubs, a one-stop-shop, where citizens can access a number of e-government services like application for driver’s license, international passport, NIN registration etc.

“This idea has become indispensable in the new – normal world we live today.

“Also, the Nigerian Postal Service, under my supervision, has established its first digital centre in Enugu, which features computer-based training test (CBT) centre, and other online transaction platforms.

“An organization’s success is directly tied to its workforce. I have long believed that key success factor for any strategic programme is the availability of human resource capacity to turn the strategic intentions into reality.

“A well-motivated workforce would provide better result. For this reason, one objective I resiliently sought to achieve during these past two years was a review of the staff condition of service.

“I also ensured that promotion exercise was conducted as when due to motivate the work force, and for the first time in the history of NIPOST, some heads of departments, who had hitherto stop at Deputy Director level, were upgraded to the rank of Directorship.

“The recent exercise produced 12 Directors, 23 Deputy Directors, 48 Assistant Directors and efforts are being made to train/retrain the workforce in our training Institute and in other human capacity building Institutions.

“Giving the modest achievements we have recorded in the last two years of my administration; it is my candid belief that we are on the right track and determined to reposition NIPOST to an enviable height for effective service delivery to the citizenry.

Continuing, he said that as the economy braces up to confront emerging challenges in the digital world, NIPOST is working assiduously to remain a veritable force, one to reckon with in the courier and logistics industry.

“We will be available to work in partnership with other related agencies, both government and private sector, to ensure we provide reliable and efficient services for the socioeconomic development of our country”, the PMG/CEO of NIPOST said.