Blue-chip firms, regulators rally support for SUPERNEWS confab @10th anniversary - ITREALMS

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A host of leading government agencies, blue-chip companies, and reputable organizations across Nigeria’s key economic sectors have confirmed their support for the upcoming SUPERNEWS Local Content Confab’26, reports ITREALMS.

The event, which also celebrates the 10th anniversary of SUPERNEWS Nigeria, is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, starting at 10:00 a.m.

Are regulators signalling new era of accountability? Asks Elvis Eromosele - Commentary@ITREALMS

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For years, Nigerian consumers have complained, sometimes loudly, sometimes helplessly, about poor services. Airlines, telecom operators and banks were always the biggest culprits. In fact, flight delays became routine, dropped calls almost normal, and unexplained bank charges a recurring irritation. What often followed were apologies, excuses and the almost obligatory regulatory silence.

It now appears that that era may finally be ending.

Recent moves by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), alongside a growing pattern of firm enforcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), suggest that regulators are beginning to assert their authority more forcefully. The message is becoming clearer: protect consumers, or pay the price.

Nigeria's E-Waste crisis reaches critical mass, as regulators, industry demand unified national action - ITREALMS

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Nigeria's spiraling electronic waste problem has reached a critical juncture, demanding immediate, unified national action from all stakeholders, from top regulators to individual digital citizens.

This urgent call resonated profoundly at the 2025 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue in Lagos, where the nation's foremost environmental agency issued a stark warning, buttressed by appeals from the event's convener for a concrete national strategy.

The Analog foundation: One network, three regulators by Remmy Nweke - Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS

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The proposed Digital Economy Bill is under heavy fire from industry experts who warn it risks regulatory collapse. In his Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS, REMMY NWEKE posited that the draft law's failure to merge Nigeria's three regulators (NCC, NBC, NITDA) guarantees destructive inter-agency "turf wars" instead of economic growth. Nweke argues this approach is akin to building a "$1 Trillion House on an analog foundation."

Preamble:
The Nigerian government has an undeniably ambitious goal: to construct a $1 trillion digital economy, positioning it as the indispensable pillar of the nation’s future prosperity and diversification. This ambition is indeed laudable and necessary in the global digital age.

However, recent legislative maneuvers, particularly the highly controversial National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill, 2025 and its direct predecessor, the NITDA amendment bill, 2022; threaten not only to undermine this grand vision but to actively sabotage the entire enterprise before it can even gain momentum. The impending chaos is not a matter of poor execution, but of poor foundational design.

Digital regulators embrace strategy to unlock transformative technologies - ITREALMS

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The regulators have endorsed a set of guidelines to maximize the benefits of transformative information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR-24) which closed today, Thursday, in Kampala, Uganda.

The “GSR-24 Best Practice Guidelines​" agreed by ICT regulators include a series of considerations for balancing innovation with regulation to create a positive impact on societies and economies from emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

ALTON: Two regualtors in telecoms sector will breed crises - ITREALMS

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The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has once again rejected any move to have two regulators in the telecommunications industry, saying it would breed crises, insisting that NITDA should focus on Research and Development (R&D), reports ITREALMS.

ALTON in a submission to the Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security, The Senate, National Assembly Complex Abuja, FCT made available to ITREALMS, noted that the industry is already highly regulated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

ALTON denies face-off with NCAA, laments regulators turning revenue collectors - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has lamented that most regulatory agencies in Nigeria have turned themselves into tax collectors, just as it denied any rancor with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), reports ITREALMS.

According to the Executive Secretary, ALTON, Mr. Gbolahan Awonuga, denied there is any face-off between ALTON and NCAA as reported in some sections of media.

"We have read with interest some reports in the media on ALTON meeting with NCAA and wish to state that there was no face-off between the two bodies," he said.

A press statement available to ITREALMS, Thursday afternoon in Lagos, ALTON decried that most regulatory bodies in the country have now turned into revenue generating bodies which gave rise to multiple taxation.

"We have witnessed in Nigeria today that most of the regulatory bodies have left the regulatory functions and now turn to revenue generating bodies and this brings about Multiple taxation and regulation," he said.

ALTON also disclosed that they merely held a meeting with NCAA to seek clearance on some statutory charges.

According to ALTON, "The issues of Aviation mast height clearance was discussed at the meeting because our members are being charged across the nation being it close to the airports or not and the agency tried to increase some of the charges as reported to us by our members and we took it up with NCAA. ALTON and its members were informed that the essence of the Aviation Height clearance is purely for safety, because they have to identify the routes to guide the Pilots in navigation. We were informed that there are categories of aircraft, big, medium and small, also the choppers and the drones are part of their responsibilities and these are not limited to telecoms infrastructure but to banks, radio stations and high rise building. The Director General said there are lots of Airstrips and helipads the reason for charging across board.

"On the annual renewal, the D.G. informed ALTON that the reason for the renewal is because the earth shift base occasionally and the co-ordinates also changes, as the one taken a year ago may be different from the one taking this year. The earth moves.

"There was no face-off between NCAA and ALTON and its members, though we need clarification on the charges and this led to the agreement at the meeting to form an Advisory Committee which comprises of NCAA and ALTON representatives. Our members are responsible corporate citizens of the country and natural partners in progress that follows due processes.

"We have witnessed in Nigeria today that most of the regulatory bodies have left the regulatory functions and now turn to revenue generating bodies and this brings about Multiple taxation and regulation. Please don't forget that telecommunication operations is not isolated to the ecosystem, the cost of running business in Nigeria, especially telecoms is triple the cost of running same in Ghana and neighboring countries. Almost all agencies of government are after telecommunications, why? We cannot afford to have crisis in the industry because we operate one network in all networks.

"We call on the Federal Government to look into the issue of Tax and Levy Amended Order 2015 signed by the former Minister of Finance in the last administration, Mrs. Ngozi Okonji-Iwaela. This order has created lot of confusion in the taxes and levies regime and making the environment hash for business, not minding the Government Ease of Doing Business programme.

"The telecommunication industry has been the best customer centric sector, where issue pertaining to subscribers are taking very seriously by both the operators and the regulator and despite all challenges there has not for once be an outage compare to other sectors, where you are put on estimated bills and inconsistence in flight schedules that has made several people missed appointments and valued meetings just to mention few.

"We are talking about Smart State initiatives and last mile penetration but some States demands on Right of Way (RoW) are outrageous. The States supposed to provide infrastructure for operators to lease but telecoms spent about 70% of their Capex on Right of Way leaving the remaining 30% to build, this is not fair.

Chuks Egbune/DoP

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