Launches ministry's website in JanuaryTHE Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson has advocated for true professionalism in the Information and Communications Technology sector to be able to drive the industry's vision of creating a sector that will act as catalyst for other sectors of the economy.Johnson, who spoke at the weekend in Lagos at the 2011 National Information Technology Merit Awards and Investiture of the 11th president of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), stressed the need for professionals in the industry to work together to be able to reposition the sector back to efficiency.Commenting on the functions of the ministry in her care, the minister said: 'The creation of the Ministry led to a revelation of overlaps/duplication in the roles of some of these agencies of government and the ongoing restructuring and refocusing of agencies under the Ministry will lead to clarity in terms of roles, responsibilities and accountability.'In a bid to make the Agencies under the Ministry more effective and to mitigate unnecessary duplications, we have streamlined and realigned the functions of the Agencies. The Nigerian Communications Commission NCC now regulates the ICT industry. NITDAprovides IT support and development. NIPOST provides postal service delivery and access infrastructure while Galaxy Backbone is the vehicle for ICT infrastructure provision for Federal Government and its agencies. NigComSat is responsible for commercialising satellite bandwidth. The Universal Service Provision Fund USPF and the Nigeria Information Technology Development Fund NITDF will be deployed to incentivise universal access, while the National Frequency Management Council NFMC facilitates prudent and co-ordinated allocation of frequency resources.'According to her, the ministry has concluded the harmonisation of the National ICT policy and 'we will put the policy on our website on January 9th, 2012 at www.commtech.gov.ng for public consultation and input.'The ICT policy will be the overarching guide of what we will do in the industry. I really believe that with the new policy we will be well on the way to makingthe ICT industry what it should be in a country as large and as diverse and as important as Nigeria.'On the challenges bedeviling the sector, Johnson said: 'There are many challenges that we have ahead of us and we know that the one that most people are most conversant with both within and without the ICT industry is the cost of quality of service of our telecoms business. I will say it is bad, we all know that it is bad and the operators know that it is bad. And I will just like to say here that we are working with the NCC to ensure that this issue is no longer a problem.'There are many issues the operators are facing and that the number of base stations and infrastructure that we have, but we are working hard to ensure that that Qos is an issue of the past. The NCC has published quality of service indicators and they are enforcing them vigorously and holding the operators responsible for Qos indicators. I have met with a number of those operators and I can assure you that they are doing all that they can and we will continue to put them under pressure to ensure that they give out the quality of service that we deserve for the kind of prices that we pay.
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