CommTech to open harmonised policy for inputs

The Communications Technology (CommTech) ministry has concluded plans to put the harmonized national policy on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on its website for public consultation.

Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson gave this indication at the investiture of the latest president of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Sir Demola Aladekomo in Lagos.

She also said that the document as harmonized would be on the ministry’s web from January 9, 2011.

“We have concluded the harmonisation of the national ICT policy and we will put the policy on our website on the 9th of January at  www.commtech.gov.ng for public consultation and input,” she said.

Mrs. Johnson, therefore, encouraged stakeholders to go to the website on that d-day, look at the policy and ensures it’s in line with what customers envisaged even as he hope they would use the cost of industry going forward and make comments.

The ICT policy, mini, she said, would be the overarching guide of what is to be do in the industry.

“I really believe that with the new policy we will be well on the way to making  the ICT industry what it should be in a country as large and as diverse and as important as Nigeria,” she said.

As said by her, there are many challenges that are ahead of the Ministry and knew 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 telecoms business.

She decried the state of poor quality of service, saying “I will say it is bad, we all know that it is bad and the operators know that it is bad.”

Her ministry, Johnson said is working with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to ensure that this issue is no longer a problem.

She maintained that there are many issues the operators were facing and that the number of base stations and infrastructure that are available; but her ministry is working hard to ensure that QoS is an issue of the past.

The NCC, she observed, has published quality of service indicators and they are enforcing same 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.

Remmy Nweke
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