Though certain people have been quick to commend and express optimisms about the draft harmonised ICT policy recently unveiled on the website of the Ministry of Communication Technology by the Minister, Mrs Omobola Johnson, some stakeholders have started doubting the potency of the policy in conception.Nigerian Tribune's IT and Telecoms gathered that the minister will do well to nip a possible multi-faceted crisis in the bud by jettisoning the way she is currently going about giving the industry a harmonised policy and embrace an all-encompassing strategy.According to an analyst, the minister goofed, possibly her first goof in office, while putting together the policy drafting committee and the task it was asked to do.In the first place, the intention of the minister is being questioned with regard to constituting a committee, headed by Professor Raymond Akwule, DG, Digital Bridge Institute and entirely made up of civil servants from only agencies and parastatals under the ministry without any representations from all stakeholders in the Nigerian ICT industry. Coming to various recommendations of the committee, it has been viewed that the committee did just what the minister wanted it to do. According to a comment by Maxwell Onoja, an analyst, the recommendation is embarking on deliberate erosion of the independence of the regulators in each section of the industry as provided for by the acts that set the agencies up.'In essence, is the committee not recommending ICT empire to be 'presided' over and 'regulated' by the minister' an anonymous asked. And to show that another dispensation is about to commence for the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the committee recommended an independent Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) 'The current structure as contained in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, positions the fund under the purview of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which also provides fund for its activities as provided by the act. 'The policy draft did not substantiate or justify the argument in support of creating an independent USPF, ostensibly, under the ministry,' Onoja said.. Furthermore, the sought-after converged regulator would not even have the USPF under it, thus conveying the erosion of the independence of the converged regulator. Onoja also added that 'the ICT industry is too huge and sensitive to be guided by a policy drafted exclusively by civil servants who may pander to the wishes of their superiors. 'Stakeholders like the Association of Telecom- munications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Nigerian Computer Society, (NCS), Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, (ISPON), Nigerian Internet Group, (NIG), Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), among other institutions and professionals should not be left out.'He also objected to the mono-objective direction of the draft policy. 'The introductory part of the draft policy document dwelt so much on convergence of ICT regulations. This undue focus misled the drafters of the policy into assuming that the emergence of a converged regulatory ICT sector is the only solution to national ICT development.
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