Why CommTech was inducted into FOI hall of share - ITREALMS

MediaWatch@ITREALMS:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has why the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology (CommTech) was inducted into the “Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame”, accusing the Ministry of extremely poor performance in its implementation of the Act over the last seven years, reports ITREALMS.

MRA’s Programme Officer, Mr. Idowu Adewale, announced the selection of the Ministry as this week’s inductee in a statement issued in Lagos, saying “the Ministry’s overall performance in the implementation of the FOI Act since the enactment of the Law in 2011 has been extremely poor and certainly falls far short of what is required of public institutions covered by the Act”.

According to Mr. Adewale, MRA’s analysis of the Attorney-General of the Federation’s annual statutory reports to the National Assembly on the implementation of the FOI Act between 2011 and 2017, shows that out of the seven annual reports which the Ministry ought to have submitted to the Attorney-General under Section 29 of the Act as of February 1, 2018, the Ministry has only submitted one report for 2011 to date.

The Ministry, established in 2011, is charged, amongst other things, with the tasks of fostering a knowledge-based economy and information society in Nigeria; facilitating ICT as a key tool in the transformation agenda for Nigeria in the areas of job creation, economic growth and transparency of governance as well as creating and formulating policies that will propel the Nigerian economy to a digitized economy.

Explaining the reasons for the Ministry’s induction, Mr. Adewale said the institution was assessed based on its level of compliance with its duties and obligations in five areas of the FOI Act and the Attorney-General’s Guidelines on the Implementation of the Act, which are: its obligation to provide information to members of the public on request, its duty to submit annual implementation reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation, its proactive publications obligations; its duty to train its staff and officials on the public’s right of access to information as well as its obligation to designate an FOI Desk Officer and proactively publish the title and address of the official.

Noting that the Ministry performed woefully in most of the categories, he added that the failure of the institution to consistently submit its annual implementation reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation had also made it impossible to determine the number of applications for information that it has received, the number of such applications that it processed as well as the number of requests for information it has granted or denied over the years.

Mr. Adewale accused the Ministry of breaching section 2 of the FOI Act, which requires all public institutions to proactively publish some categories of information even without anyone making any request for such information as well as to update such information regularly and whenever changes occur.

Explaining the potential benefits of the Ministry complying with its proactive disclosure obligations, he stressed that if it fulfills this obligation, it would find that the pressure on it arising from receiving and having to process too many FOI requests would be considerably reduced.

He accused the Ministry of not having published either on any its website, or anywhere else, the 16 categories of information that it is required by the Act to publish and disseminate widely to members of the public through various means, including print, electronic and online.

According to him, although Section 13 of the FOI Act requires every government or public institution to ensure the provision of appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to the information and records that it holds for the effective implementation of the Act, these there is no indication that the Ministry has fulfilled this obligation as there is no information available about its training of its staff on the Act.

On the Ministry’s obligation to designate an FOI Desk Officer, Mr. Adewale said although the Database of FOI Desk Officers available at the Federal Ministry of Justice, which is the oversight institution for the implementation of the FOI Act, shows that the Ministry has designated an official to whom requests for information should be made, the Ministry itself has failed to publish the title and address of the officer on its website or anywhere else, as required by Section 2(3)(f) of the Act.

He urged, the Ministry to make good use of its website to proactively publish those categories of information which the Act requires all public institutions to proactively disclose, adding that by so doing, the Ministry would not only put itself in a good stead as regards the implementation of the FOI Act, but would also lessen the burden of repeatedly processing individual requests for information from citizens touching on those issues.

Mr. Adewale called upon the Minister of Communication Technology, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, to take urgent steps to ensure the provision of appropriate training for the staff and officials of the Ministry so as to acquaint them with their duties and obligations under the FOI Act, which would hopefully lead to improved compliance with and implementation of the Act by the Ministry.

Launched in July 2017, the FOI “Hall of Shame” highlights public officials and institutions that are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances, and decisions.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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MRA inducts CommTech into ‘FOI Hall of Shame’ - ITREALMS

MediaWatch@ITREALMS:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology into its “Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame”, accusing the Ministry of extremely poor performance in its implementation of the Act over the last seven years, reports ITREALMS.

MRA’s Programme Officer, Mr. Idowu Adewale, announced the selection of the Ministry as this week’s inductee in a statement issued in Lagos, saying “the Ministry’s overall performance in the implementation of the FOI Act since the enactment of the Law in 2011 has been extremely poor and certainly falls far short of what is required of public institutions covered by the Act”.

According to Mr. Adewale, MRA’s analysis of the Attorney-General of the Federation’s annual statutory reports to the National Assembly on the implementation of the FOI Act between 2011 and 2017, shows that out of the seven annual reports which the Ministry ought to have submitted to the Attorney-General under Section 29 of the Act as of February 1, 2018, the Ministry has only submitted one report for 2011 to date.

The Ministry, established in 2011, is charged, amongst other things, with the tasks of fostering a knowledge-based economy and information society in Nigeria; facilitating ICT as a key tool in the transformation agenda for Nigeria in the areas of job creation, economic growth and transparency of governance as well as creating and formulating policies that will propel the Nigerian economy to a digitized economy.

Explaining the reasons for the Ministry’s induction, Mr. Adewale said the institution was assessed based on its level of compliance with its duties and obligations in five areas of the FOI Act and the Attorney-General’s Guidelines on the Implementation of the Act, which are: its obligation to provide information to members of the public on request, its duty to submit annual implementation reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation, its proactive publications obligations; its duty to train its staff and officials on the public’s right of access to information as well as its obligation to designate an FOI Desk Officer and proactively publish the title and address of the official.

Noting that the Ministry performed woefully in most of the categories, he added that the failure of the institution to consistently submit its annual implementation reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation had also made it impossible to determine the number of applications for information that it has received, the number of such applications that it processed as well as the number of requests for information it has granted or denied over the years.

Mr. Adewale accused the Ministry of breaching section 2 of the FOI Act, which requires all public institutions to proactively publish some categories of information even without anyone making any request for such information as well as to update such information regularly and whenever changes occur.

Explaining the potential benefits of the Ministry complying with its proactive disclosure obligations, he stressed that if it fulfils this obligation, it would find that the pressure on it arising from receiving and having to process too many FOI requests would be considerably reduced.

He accused the Ministry of not having published either on any its website, or anywhere else, the 16 categories of information that it is required by the Act to publish and disseminate widely to members of the public through various means, including print, electronic and online.

According to him, although Section 13 of the FOI Act requires every government or public institution to ensure the provision of appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to the information and records that it holds for the effective implementation of the Act, these there is no indication that the Ministry has fulfilled this obligation as there is no information available about its training of its staff on the Act.

On the Ministry’s obligation to designate an FOI Desk Officer, Mr. Adewale said although the Database of FOI Desk Officers available at the Federal Ministry of Justice, which is the oversight institution for the implementation of the FOI Act, shows that the Ministry has designated an official to whom requests for information should be made, the Ministry itself has failed to publish the title and address of the officer on its website or anywhere else, as required by Section 2(3)(f) of the Act.

He urged, the Ministry to make good use of its website to proactively publish those categories of information which the Act requires all public institutions to proactively disclose, adding that by so doing, the Ministry would not only put itself in a good stead as regards the implementation of the FOI Act, but would also lessen the burden of repeatedly processing individual requests for information from citizens touching on those issues.

Mr. Adewale called upon the Minister of Communication Technology, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, to take urgent steps to ensure the provision of appropriate training for the staff and officials of the Ministry so as to acquaint them with their duties and obligations under the FOI Act, which would hopefully lead to improved compliance with and implementation of the Act by the Ministry.

Launched in July 2017, the FOI “Hall of Shame” highlights public officials and institutions that are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances, and decisions.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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Join our alert's group on: WhatsApp: +2348033592762 Twitter: @ITREALMS You have story to share with us: SMS +2348033592762 WhatsApp: +2348033592762 email: itrealms.dsa@gmail.com

PIN delivers FoI to CommTech on Nigeria's ‘Eavesdropping’ satellites

ITRealms:

The Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) has submitted a letter to the office of the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu over the alleged eavesdropping capabilities of one of the two satellites being proposed by Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

According to PIN Director of Programmes, Tope Ogundipe, media report had stated that “inside sources at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) told Independent that one of the proposed satellites has eavesdropping capabilities.”

She also noted that the request was made in line with the objectives of PIN, hence “we call on the Federal Ministry of Communications to provide all the details involved in the building and launching of the two new satellites for the Nigerian government. As we have stated in the freedom of information request sent to the Ministry on February 2, 2017, the scaling up of the number of satellites in space may be noble but in order to ensure that this is done with utmost regard to digital rights of every Nigerian, every stakeholder, including the Ministry, must all act as watchdogs for our digital rights.”

Ogundipe equally pointed that even though there have been insinuations that these satellites are capable of eavesdropping on the communications of most Nigerian citizens when finally launched, PIN believes that the Ministry understands this to be an erosion on the fundamental human rights guaranteed by Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

“With this belief, we are sure that these published allegations are just what they are and contain no truth,” she said.

Paradigm Initiative, she said, maintained its position of continuous monitoring of this development for new updates and ensure that a logical conclusion is reached on the matter. Noting that in the past 4 years, the organisation has used litigation to follow up on FoI requests that were not responded to.

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Buhari seeks comprehensive report on NITEL sale

ITRealms:

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology (CommTech) to submit to his office a comprehensive report on the sale of the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm, MTel, reports ITRealms.

The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Media & Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu confirmed to to ITRealms, saying President Buhari gave this directive Tuesday while giving audience to the leadership of the Ministry, Departments and Agencies under CommTech,led by the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, President Buhari gave this charge, saying that the continued protests of former NITEL employees and other Nigerians over the manner in which assets of the company were sold have become a call for concern.

He also expressed optimism on potential of increasing revenue-generation potential of Nigeria's information and communication technology sector.

Equally, Buhari directed the Ministry to bring forward for his consideration and approval, all pending proposals for the development of the country's ICT sector which require the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

"Where you don’t need EXCO approval and you are not in breach of the law and will not lose money, you can go ahead. Now that oil costs less and we are contending with its theft, we have to move to areas where we can realize revenue quickly,” Mr. President said.

He welcomed plans by the Ministry to use post-offices across the country for financial inclusion, especially in the rural communities, stressed that he was happy to hear that “we are recovering the post offices from rats and rodents.”

The Ministry’s presentation to the President dwelled heavily on the potential of the ICT sector which, Dr. Olaopa said, contributes 10 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but could grow to 20 per cent if some proposals by the Ministry are approved and implemented.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +ITRealms DSA
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Pix: R-L; President Muhammadu Buhari Permanent Secretary Communication Technology, Dr Tunji Olaopa, Post Master General, Alhaji Mori Baba, Director General/CEO National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr Peter Jack, Director Policy Research and Statistics, Mrs. Nima Salman Manni, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, Managing Director Galaxy Backbone, Yusuf Kazaure, Managing Director NigComSat, Abimbola Alale, Director ICT Ministry of Communication Technology, Mrs Moni Udoh during a briefing session with the President on it’s activities at the State House in Abuja.

USPF to use Access Gap study for interventions – Johnson

ITRealms:

Chairman of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) and Honourable Minister of Communication Technology (CommTech) Dr. Mrs. Omobola Johnson, has asserted that importance of the recently concluded Access Gap study by the USPF, saying it would be used for adequate interventions, reports ITRealms.

Speaking at the recently relaunched website for USPF in Lagos, Mrs. Johnson told ITRealms that the new website and launch of ICT Gap clusters would boost the intervention of USPF in the country.

According to her, subsequently, the USPF will utilize these clusters to identify target areas, define Universal Access Service (UAS) and map the interventions respectively to the appropriate communities.

“We will also share the results of the study with the telecoms operators to enable them get a detailed view of the needs and demands of the market and assist them in developing roll out plans for these unreached areas,” she told ITRealms.

Johnson stressed that the nation forges ahead, the greatest wish of this administration, she told ITRealms, is to continue to collaborate with the telecom operators towards closing access gap in the country and set Nigeria on the path of being a full digitalized nation.

“We trust that we can rely on you to continue to be our trusted partners in deploying and delivering sustainable and impactful projects,” she said.

Mrs. Johnson further applauded participants at the forum, saying it’s a clear signal that as stakeholders, “we all share the same vision.”

Just as she emphasised that the results of the study, would be useful to clarify the results and how best they could be turned into projects for enhancing services to the communities.

“We hope to conclude this forum with a shared understanding about what to do and what our roles are in accomplishing what we have resolved to do such that when we leave this room all that will be left to do is to Execute! Execute!! Execute!!!” she concluded.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @USPFNG +Efem Nkanga @NGRCOMMTech @NgComCommission +ITU 

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Pix: Johnson and USPF secretary, Maikano

Mobile Money transactions hit $600m says Johnson

ITRealms:

Minister of Communication Technology, Dr Mrs Omobola Johnson has said that the country has witnessed an upsurge in mobile money transactions, insisting that Nigeria could actualise the National Broadband Plan to increase penetration rate from six per cent to 30 per cent by 2018, reports ITRealms.

The CommTech minister made this disclosure while speaking at the Pat Utomi Center for Values and Leadership celebration of the ICT sector, noted that 11 million transactions worth $600 million have been recorded under the mobile money platform.

According to her, the mobile money platform has an estimated one million subscribers under 18 mobile money operators and 67,000 registered agent.

On broadband penetration in the country, Johnson stressed that facilitating increased investments in ICT infrastructure, spectrum auctions, regional Infrastructure (fibre) companies (Infracos), Smart States initiative (to reduce cost of infrastructure deployment) were some of the priorities set by her ministry to raise 3G/LTE Wireless Broadband Coverage to 80 per cent of Nigeria’s population; and Fixed broadband to 16 per cent of population based on fibre by 2018.

“More people in Nigeria have a mobile phone than have a bank account. 75 per cent of adults living in urban areas and 39 per cent of them living in rural areas have access to a pre-paid mobile phone. 18 Mobile Money operators have been registered in Nigeria and since the commencement of operations, there are approximately 1 million subscribers, about 67,000 registered agents and Over 11 million transactions worth US$600 million have been conducted,” she said.

Chukwudi Obi

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CommTech, Lagos, ALTON enter deal to reduce ROW by 85%

ITRealms:

A milestone agreement was recently reached between the Ministry of Communication Technology (CommTech), the Lagos State Government and the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) to reduce Right of Way (RoW) charges by 85 per cent and boost deployment of broadband in the country, ITRealms reports.

Confirming this development to ITRealms, Mrs. Efem Nkanga, the Special Assistant to CommTech Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, said that this deal would remove constraints to the installation, rollout and deployment of base stations and fibre optic cable in Lagos State.

ITRealms gathered that the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson and the Governor of Lagos state, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola with some officials held a closed door meeting at the State House penultimate Thursday, to address the issues of taxes, levies, decommissioned sites and Right of Way (RoW) fees mitigating against quality of service in the state.

It was also gathered that the meeting attracted Governor Fashola, some key members of ALTON, Mrs. Johnson, Commissioner of Science and Tech, Mr Biyi Mabadeje, Commissioner of Works, Mr Obafemi Hamzat and officials from Etisalat, Main One, Airtel, MTN and Globacom, deliberated on the aforementioned issues.

ALTON members, ITRealms learnt had expressed concerns that these issues were making it difficult for operators to rollout much needed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in the centre of excellence.


Gov. Fashola remarked that good infrastructure rollout and deployment was in the best interest of residents of Lagos State, making very much needed infrastructure and capacity available; insisting that it is not the wish of the State to prevent operators from rolling out.

“We need you to roll out probably more than you need it. But we do not need it at the expense of our roads, or lives of the people. Infrastructure must be built to very high standards, for example, masts must be built with galvanized steel and not hollow pipes to prevent them from collapsing. You may find that sites that may have been decommissioned by UFRU probably did not meet these standards or had not paid up their levies, when badly build sites collapse it is we who are left to pick up the pieces,” Fashola pointed out.

Although, ALTON members at the meeting while commending the deal, urged for a standardised approach for excavating roads where no ducts existed, even as they maintained, there were no telecoms masts in the state constructed with hollow piles.

“All telecoms masts in Lagos State are built with galvanized steel,” ALTON official reiterated.

Responding to ALTON’s position on prohibitive taxes, levies and right of way fees in Lagos, the Commissioner of Science and Technology for Lagos, Mr Mabadeje read out an agreement by Lagos State to reduce taxes and levies in Lagos by over 40 per cent and Right of Way fees were reduced from N3000 to N500 - a reduction of over 85 per cent.

However, this was on the condition that operators agreed to use approved and qualified contractors who would ensure the integrity of the road after the fibre had been installed in the event that there was no fibre duct on the road.

Operators further agreed with Lagos to a ‘dig once’ policy whereby the first operator to dig the road for fibre installation would install a duct with spare capacity for other operators to use when they wanted to install fibre instead of digging up the road again. Governor Fashola reiterated that all new roads in Lagos State already have ducts and that the operators should submit annual infrastructure plans to Lagos State to allow for proper planning on both sides.


The meeting ended on a high note with ALTON members consenting that this indeed was a significant step forward and in the right direction.

Mrs. Johnson applauded Lagos State for leading the charge in removing many of the barriers and obstacles to telecoms infrastructure deployment in Lagos and expressed her hope that many other states would follow suit in making telecoms and broadband infrastructure available to all.

Remmy Nweke 

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Pix: Gov. Fashola of Lagos State.

CommTech Ministry website underconstruction, for how long?

How long shall we have this CommTech ministry website under construction. One thinks is too early. Abi no be so?

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‘Electromagnetic fields, unavoidable’…Johnson advocates usage of hands-free

Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu

THE Minister of Heath, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu has said electromagnetic fields are unavoidable part of the environment despite its side effect on human health, just as his counterpart in Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson has warned on length of calls, advising on use of hands-free.

Speaking at the first-ever West African Conference on Electromagnetic Field Exposure and Health in Lagos recently, the minister through his representative, Dr. Mrs. Patience Osinubi, the national coordinator, National Cancer Control Programme in the ministry, said the magnetic field component of electromagnetic field has the capability to penetrate the body.

This, he said, has been studied in correlation with health especially in the area of cancer related diseases.

He affirmed there is an increase in the number of communication masts in urban areas which give rise to the concern of whether people living near high tension wires or communication masts are at a higher risk of developing cancer.

The reason for the fear, the ministry noted is as a result of research findings which some asserted a possible association between living close to high tension cables and cancer of the blood as well as leukaemia in children while some other findings said there is no association with limited evidence to back up their stands.

Although studies carried out on electrical occupation, power station operators and telephone line operators have proved that people in those set of occupations have a higher risk of brain tumor, leukaemia and male breast cancer than expected.

Prof. Chukwu further expressed his ministry’s readiness to partner with any ministry in terms of research.

In her address to the two-day conference, Communications Technology minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, who was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Hon. Okechukwu Itanyi, emphasised the importance of consistently conducting researches and communicate same to the end-users.

She also noted that mobile phones usually are known for low-powered radiofrequency transmitters, operating at frequencies between 450 and 2700 Mega hertz (MHz) with peak powers in the range of 0.1 to 2 watts.

She explained that handset only transmits power when it is turned on, hence the radiofrequency exposure to a user, maintaining that the radiofrequency falls off rapidly with increasing distance from the handset.

“A person using a mobile phone 30-40 centimeters away from his or her body, for instance when text messaging, accessing the internet or using a hands-free device, will therefore have a much lower exposure to radiofrequency fields than someone holding the handset against the ear,” she said, stressing that users of mobile could do well by reducing the number of minutes or length of calls.

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