NPO commends Tinubu’s directive to FCCPC to investigate big tech, AI platforms over content exploitation - ITREALMS

The Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO) has strongly commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following his executive directive ordering the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to launch a comprehensive investigation into global technology giants and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms operating within Nigeria, reports ITREALMS.

The NPO noted that this decisive presidential intervention is a direct result of a joint petition and high-level advocacy spearheaded by its constituent bodies, which include the Newspaper Proprietors' Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP).

Network Pulse: Why NCC’s new QoS directive is a landmark win for 75m consumers by Remmy Nweke - Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS"

Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The NCC’s latest board resolutions signal a paradigm shift for Nigeria’s digital economy. In this week's Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS, REMMY NWEKE explores how a landmark Quality of Service directive has secured compensation for 75 million subscribers, setting a new benchmark for consumer protection and network resilience.

For average subscriber:
The Nigerian telecommunications landscape is at a critical inflection point. For the average subscriber, the frustration of dropped calls and fluctuating internet speeds has long been a recurring feature of digital life. 

US gives new directive on Nigerian immigrant visa - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The United States Mission to Nigeria has given a new directive with regards to immigrant visa applications, reports ITREALMS.

According to the public announcement on its Twitter handle via X @UsinNigeria on Tuesday, informed that beginning from January 1, 2025, applicants must visit the Consulate General in Lagos, at least twice during the immigrant visa process.

Supreme Court reaffirms CBN directive, insists banks to issue, accept old, redesigned Naira – ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, granted the Central Bank of Nigeria extension order on the use of the of old Naira banknotes ad infinitum, reports ITREALMS.

With this, Supreme Court has reaffirmed CBN recent directive on the use of both old and redesigned notes beyond December 31, 2023.

Buhari’s directive against IPOB a hate order - SERG

ITRealms:

The South East Revival Group (SERG) has described as hate order, the marching directiver by President Muhammadu Buhari to service chiefs to crush the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), reports ITRealms.

In its reaction to the directive, the group in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Chief Willy Ezugwu strongly condemned the order, saying it was part of plans for ethnic cleansing in Igbo land.

The reaction came at the Weekend after an emergency meeting by the central executive of the socio-political organisation in Enugu.

The statement added that "it is worrisome that a non-violent body like the IPOB should be included in an order to crush violent groups and criminal gangs.

"For us in the SERG, this directive is clearly a hate order, targeted against the people of South East and part of a plot to begin ethnic cleansing in Igbo land.

"Rather than support the on-going effort of South East Governor's Forum to address the development challenges in the zone, the President Buhari administration has again openly displayed its hatred to the people of the zone.

"Unarmed Igbo people of the South East have been killed, many more injured under the president government for holding an opinion. That is war against humanity.

"We call on the federal government to urgently address the development deficit in the South East region, which is the reason for the renewed agitation in the region.

"The South East is the only zone in Nigeria with the five states and the only part of the country with little or no federal presence.

"We also urge the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to order the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to begin massive rehabilitation of federal roads across the South East zone.

"We believe that it’s time to end the shedding of innocent blood and sowing of seeds that fan the embers of disunity to preserve the country as one indivisible entity", the group stated. 

Ozo Nweke Ozo/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Comply with Pope’s directive, Cardinal Onaiyekan urges Ahiara priests

ITRealms:

The Apostolic Administrator of Ahiara Diocese and Archbishop of Abuja Archdiocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan has called on the incardinated priests of the diocese of Ahiara Diocese to comply with the recent directive of the Holy Father Pope Francis, over of non-acceptance of the Bishop appointed for them, reports ITRealms.

This is coming as the deadline for the rebelling priest to declare their intent ends today, Sunday 9, July 2017 based on the directive of Pope Francis. 

The cardinal’s admonition was contained in a Fraternal Message addressed to the priest of the diocese; in which Cardinal Onaiyekan called on the priests not to be “confused, misled or distracted” by some mischievous  publications querying or even denying the authenticity of the document containing the verdict of the Pope. 

“I am aware that some mischievous publications are making the rounds querying or even denying the authenticity of the document carrying the papal verdict. If those behind such ideas are serious and honest, they ought to simply seek confirmation from the usual authentic and official news channels of the Holy See, open to everyone. I urge you all not to allow yourselves to be confused, misled and distracted by such publications.”

Cardinal Onaiyekan maintained that ‘There is no more time for playing any games or prevaricating’ stressing that Pope Francis has spoken and his words must be treated with utmost seriousness by anyone who considers himself a Catholic, and more especially, a Catholic Priests. 

Believing that the one month of grace given by the Holy Father to the priests to comply with his directive comes to an end, Cardinal Onaiyekan outlined how the individual letter of apology by the priests could get to the Holy Father.

“I have been praying fervently for all of you, with special remembrance at my daily Holy Masses, that the Holy Spirit of Truth may guide everyone to take the right decision on this very important matter,” he said.

ITRealms recalls that the Holy Father Pope Francis, after a recent meeting with representatives of priests and lay faithful of Ahiara diocese, in Rome, urged the faithful of the diocese to submit to the supremacy of the Holy Father and the Church and bring to an end the impasse going on in the diocese over the installation of their Bishop. Just as he also issued an ultimatum to the priests and other consecrated persons of the diocese to prevent what he described as an attempt to take the ‘vineyard of the Lord’.

“Whoever was opposed to Bishop Okpaleke taking possession of the Diocese wants to destroy the Church. This is forbidden; perhaps he does not realize it, but the Church is suffering as well as the People of God within her. The Pope cannot be indifferent,” Pope Francis had said.

He noted that the Church is a mother and cannot abandon her many children, emphasizing that “whoever offends her commits a mortal sin. I feel sorrow for those priests who are being manipulated even from abroad and from outside the diocese.”

He therefore ordered every priest who is incardinated in the diocese, living or working in the diocese or elsewhere in the diaspora to write an individual, personal letter “to me in which he asks for forgiveness”.

Doris Minimah/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Why NCC bowed to Senate, suspends directive on data segment price floor

ITRealms:

Some reasons have been adduced as to why the telecom regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has to bow to the concerns raised by the Senate of the Federal Republic to suspend directive on data segment price floor, reports ITRealms.

The Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, explained to ITRealms why the reversal became necessary, insisting that the regulator never aligned with the Mobile Network Operators against the telecom consumers in the country.

This, he said, follows the concerns that visited the directive to introduce price floor for data segment of the telecommunications sector beginning from December 1, 2016, NCC has suspended any further action in that direction.

According to him, the decision to suspend this directive was taken after due consultation with industry stakeholders and the general complaints by consumers nationwide, which included at the floor of the Red Chambers of the National Assembly today, Wednesday, November 30, 2016.

The Commission, Ojobo said, has considered all of this and consequently asked all operators to maintain the status quo until the conclusion of study to determine retail prices for broadband and data services in Nigeria.

ITRealms recalls that the Commission had written the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) on November 1, 2016 on the determination of an interim price floor for data services after the stakeholder’s consultative meeting of October 19, 2016.

Ojobo also said that the decision to have a price floor was primarily to promote a level playing field for all operators in the industry, encourage small operators and new entrants, which are contrary to speculations making a round since Tuesday.

Further, NCC explained that the price floor in 2014 was N3.11k/MB but was removed in 2015. The price floor that was supposed to flag off on December 1, 2016 was N0.90k/MB.

“In taking that decision, the smaller operators were exempted from the new price regime, by virtue of their small market share. The decision on the price floor was taken in order to protect the consumers who are at the receiving end and save the smaller operators from predatory services that are likely to suffocate them and push them into extinction,” he pointed out.

The price floor, Ojobo said, is not an increase in price but a regulatory safeguard put in place by the telecommunications regulator to check anti-competitive practices by dominant operators.

Ojobo noted that this statement clarifies the insinuation in some quarters that the regulator has fixed prices for data services, stressing that this is not true because the NCC does not fix prices, but provides regulatory guidelines to protect the consumers, deepen investments and safeguard the industry from imminent collapse.

Before the new suspended price floor of N0.90k/MB, the industry average for dominant operators including MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, EMTS Limited (Etisalat) and Airtel Nigeria Limited was N0.53k/MB.

Etisalat offered (N0.94k/MB), Airtel (N0.52k/MB), MTN (N0.45k/MB) and Globacom (N0.21k/MB).

The smaller operators cum new entrants, Ojobo explained, charged as follows: Smile Communications N0.84k/MB, Spectranet N0.58k/MB and NATCOMS (NTEL) N0.72k/MB.

He insisted that NCC as a responsive agency of government takes into consideration the feelings of the consumers and so decided to suspend the new price floor.

Meanwhile in the Senate today when the matter came up, the Senators condemned the attempt and directed NCC to immediately stop the proposed data tariff increase until due process is followed and stakeholders carried along.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

FG to revalidate ICT directive on local patronage by MDAs

ITRealms:

The Minister of Communications, Hon. Abdul-Raheem Adebayo Shittu has disclosed that the Federal Government would soon re-validate its directive on the patronage of locally produced Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products and services by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) reports ITRealms.

Declaring open a plenary at the Afritex ICT Export Industrial Forum and Expo 2016, held on Wednesday at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, Shittu said there will be no excuse for MDAs not to patronize indigenous ICT products and services because local content is vital in achieving the overriding mandate of economic diversification and empowerment of the ICT ecosystem in the country.

A press release signed by his Special Assistant (Media), Victor Oluwadamilare, the Minister also noted, this will pave way for the promotion of local content in the sector.

Local content, he said, is defined as the amount of incremental value added or created in Nigeria through the utilisation of Nigerian human and material resources for the provision of goods and services in the ICT industry within acceptable quality and standards in order to stimulate the development of indigenous capabilities.

The minister asserted that the patronage is aimed to achieve the development of local skills, technology transfer, use of local manpower and manufacturing and that it will have a triple effect to increase demand, thereby creating jobs and contribute to the job and wealth creation component of the government’s Change mantra.

Shittu disclosed that Nigeria is ceding  about 70 per cent of the country’s technology market to the foreign brands due to apathy for locally made products thereby losing about $2.8billion yearly to the continued importation of ICT hardware and services  as capital flights from the country.

This, he stated, spurred the government to put in place policies and implementation that will bring recognition to indigenous creativity and protect Intellectual Property emphasizing that the Local Content Policy and guideline would be enforced to the letter.

“The  Local Content Development Policy would be implemented to protect indigenous players in the industry and  the ministry would galvanise right policies that would see to the need of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), let me emphasize here very strongly that  government’s role is to provide an enabling environment within a free market economy.

“The Federal Government has expressed its readiness to boost local content in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in order to make it compete favourably in the global market”, adding that “the Ministry had in March 2016 held a workshop in collaboration with NITDA on stakeholders’ compliance on the procurement of ICT products and services under the local content guidelines by MDAs.

In addition to this,the minister said, Federal Government moved to replicate the successful implementation of the Nigerian Content policy in the oil and gas industry and other key sectors of the economy with the setting up of the Office for Nigerian Content Development in ICT.

Berating the high consumption rate of imported ICT goods and services into the country, Barr. Shittu said “under my watch, Nigeria will not be a dumping ground for all forms of technologies”.

He commended the resolution of leading computer manufacturing companies in Nigeria to come under an umbrella body called Certified Computer Manufacturers of Nigeria (CCMON) with the aim of working  with all relevant stakeholders to grow the capacity of Nigeria computer manufacturers. This, he said, ”will generate increased employment, strengthening the Naira and grow our local economy.”

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!