IPC HOlds Stakeholders’ Roundtable On The Role Of The Media In Deepening Democratic Accountability: Presents Presidential Campaign Promises & Launches Media And Election APP

80 delegates will converge for a one-day engagement on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, to delve into the role of the media in deepening democratic governance in Nigeria.

According to Olutoyin Ayoade Communications Officer Component 4 (Support to Media) in a press release he signed today stated that the roundtable will feature a lead presentation by Dr. Otive Igbuzor, founding Executive Director of African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD) on “Beyond The Rhetoric Of Campaigns: The Role Of Citizens and The Media In Ensuring Democratic Accountability”, which will be followed by contributions by a lead discussant and a plenary discourse.

The event, to be chaired by Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, Senior Fellow at Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and chairman of the editorial board of Premium Times and attended by Mr. Tunde Rahman, Media Aide to the president, as guest participant will additionally spotlight President Bola Tinubu’s campaign promises.

The documentation of the promises, which cuts across several development indicators, were part of the benchmarks of IPC’s media monitoring on the coverage of the 2023 electoral processes across ten national print and ten online news mediums.

Representatives of the media, the government, CSOs, development partners and international community will share ideas on frameworks and mechanisms ensuring democratic accountability as part of the event.

IPC shall also launch its recently developed IOS and Media Election App through which hundreds of journalists and other media professionals, the academia, researchers, etc., would be able to download the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage and have easy access to the content. The European Union funded resource publication has been widely endorsed and over 20,000 copies have been distributed across the Country.

In a statement, the Executive Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade said: “ IPC have been supporting the media for more than a decade for the purpose of professionalism in the coverage of the democratic processes and elections and it is expected that this event would lead to the development of collaborative strategies for greater impact”.

“The gathering is also important because the fulfillment of campaign promises is at the core of democratic accountability”, he added.

The meeting is facilitated by the International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria implementing partner with the Institute for Media and Society (IMS) within component 4 (Support to media) of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria-Phase II (EUSDGN II) project.

The specific objective of the EU funded media component is to ensure that, “The Media, including New and Social Media, provides fair, accurate, ethical and inclusive coverage of the Electoral Process”.

Danbatta Woos Investors at GITEX Africa on Nigeria’s Broadband Future

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has invited international telecom companies and potential investors to take advantage of the opportunities presented by Nigeria’s population of over 200 million people to invest in its telecom sector, especially in infrastructure provisioning for broadband.

According to Reuben Muoka,Director, Public Affairs in a press statement he signed on June 15, 2023,
Danbatta, who spoke at the inaugural edition of the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) 2023, which ended in Marrakesh, Morocco recently, said Nigeria presents a stable political and economic conditions.

Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Nigeria’s Ambassador to Morocco, Mansur Bamalli, also spoke in the same direction and commended the Commission for its regulatory prowess which has made Nigeria the next investment destination in Africa.

Danbatta, who was represented at the conference by the Team Lead, Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecom Sector (NODITS), Babagana Digima, said the Commission has a mandate to facilitate the development of the telecom industry in Nigeria, adding that one way through which this can be done is by attracting foreign investors that will further enhance the growth of the economy.

He informed the global stakeholders at the event that Nigerian government has been very supportive of the telecom industry which has achieved an upward growth with over 220 million active mobile voice subscriptions in Nigeria, over 150 million Internet subscriptions and broadband penetration of 48 per cent, the country is yet to be fully connected.

“Our national plan is to achieve 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025. We still have less than 50 per cent penetration. This means there is huge investment potential for investors. Nigeria’s telecom sector needs more investment in the area of infrastructure deployment,” the EVC stated.

He stated that the telecom sector in Nigeria has become a major contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), quarter-on-quarter, driving the growth of digital economy in the country.

“The importance of this event for us as a Commission is to showcase the NCC as a Nigerian brand, a foremost telecom regulator in Africa and beyond and to bring about the much-needed investment that will enhance development of the Nigerian telecom industry,” Danbatta said.

The EVC stated that there is abundant talents in Nigeria that can be tapped by investors to support their business operations. “There is abundant human resources waiting to be harnessed by potential investors for ground-breaking global technological innovations and advancement in providing digital solutions.

“This event provides us with the platform to showcase some of the talents that we have discovered in Nigeria. The Commission has sponsored three indigenous start-ups that are at this event to display their solutions for prospective investors and partnerships,” he said.

The GITEX Africa 2023 was the maiden edition of GITEX Global Summit held in Africa. It is poised to be Africa’s most influential forum to accentuate the vast potential of tech-driven digital economy. It aims to be an international platform for cutting-edge technology for all players from both public and private sectors.

Nigeria’s Telecom Access Gaps Drop by 53%

Nigerians again have come down from 37 million in 2013 to 27 million as we speak. We achieved this by deploying, from 2009 to 2011, a total of 79 new base transceiver stations,” he said

According to Reuben Muoka, Director, Public Affairs in a press release he signed on June 13, 2023, Danbatta stated that in 2013 to 2018, the telecom sector also witnessed the deployment of additional 124 base transceiver stations while from 2019 to 2022, a total of 364 base transceiver stations were deployed.

“So far, the total number of base transceiver stations we have deployed to date between the time the access gaps were identified till the end of 2022 are 567,” he said.

While describing the reduction in access gap so far as a landmark, Danbatta, however, said the Commission will not rest on its oars as it thrives to ensure that the remaining 27 million Nigerians, who currently lack access to telecoms services, are provided with services.

Meanwhile, the EVC said part the regulatory interventions of the Commission to bridge the remaining 97 access across the country to provide ubiquitous connectivity in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria are the issuance of the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Licences and the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) networks, among others.