The Nigerian Communications Commission

The new chief of the NCC was out of town, so I met with the second in charge, a Mr. Abdul-Rahman Ado, the director of the Commercial Services (the group which regulates ISPs and satellite connections.) 

I started our discussion by inquiring into the satellite applications submitted by the University of Jos earlier this year.  Mr. Ado reported that the application had been approved by the prior NCC administration.  However, they immediately put the approval on hold so that the new NCC administration could review it.  Hence UNIJOS was not informed. 

Mr. Ado reported that a commission has been established by the President to review telecommunication policy and deregulation.  Mr. Ado said (and I must note that I don't know how reliable he is, although he seemed earnest enough and several things he predicted have since come true) that most of the members of this Commission are either from NITEL or from wannabe telecommunications competitors.  

Mr. Ado suspected that the outcome of their deliberations would be a recommendation to deregulate telecommunications but to consolidate all data communications, i.e., the Internet under NITEL.   He thinks that this would mean even those ISPs that currently have licenses will have them revoked and will need to get their Internet connection directly from NITEL.  If anybody in this whole scenario is known to be unreliable, it's NITEL.  So this potential outcome could only be detrimental to the entire process.   

Mr. Ado speculated that there might yet be free satellite licenses for universities, but that we simply won't know until the results are released in the next few weeks.  Mr. Ado encouraged me to pass the word along to VCs and executive secretaries of the NCC that they need to be prepared to attend public hearings in November to defend the interests of the universities.  (I did.)  

Mr. Ado declared that no new licenses had been granted to Internet service providers in the last year, and that he was not aware of any Internet service providers who had direct connections to the Internet without going through NITEL.  I chose not to challenge him on this assertion.  (Sleeping dogs and all that...)

The NCC plays a confusing role in all of this regulatory muddle: they are the actual licensing agency for satellite and telephone connectivity, but they work under the Ministry of Information.  The two major groups under the Ministry of Information are NITEL, the telephone monopoly, and the NCC, the regulatory arm.  According to many legal scholars, the NCC should actually be regulating NITEL.  But NITEL is the cash cow and wields far more power.  Hence any licenses which NCC might want to approve, must also garner the approval of the Minister of Information, who, it is reported, is much more likely to listen to NITEL than NCC. 

A couple of people within the NCC have said that it's likely that there will be a legal challenge to the current state of affairs regarding these two organizations and their roles in Nigeria.  Their interpretation of the laws that are on the books is that NCC is supposed to regulate NITEL and other communications service providers in Nigeria.  However, due to the autocratic decrees of multiple military administrations, NITEL has gained the upper hand.  If the presidential commission doesn't set this imbalance straight, the legal challenge is expected.  Although is could be two or three years before any results are seen.