In another development, the EVC NCC said that even with the internet growing at exponential rate bringing with it new ways of transacting communicating, learning, socializing, and transforming every aspect of life, the benefits are not yet evenly distributed.
Danbatta who said this in Lagos at the 2018 Nigeria DigitalSense forum on Internet Governance For Development (IG4D) internet remains open for development and innovation.
He said, “Creative inventors of tomorrow’s Google, Skype, Facebook and Twitter are out there somewhere browsing the Internet. Their creativity and innovativeness should not be stifled rather should be encouraged to develop new creative ways to use the Internet.”
The NCC boss who was represented by Director, Licensing and Authorisation, Ms. Funlola Akiode explained that one of the main objectives of internet governance is to create a pro-development policy environment which enables further use of the internet as an engine for development.
“A lot has been achieved in African Internet development to date. To take the next steps in building a robust Internet economy, many issues remain, some of which Africa shares with other developing regions (such as interconnection and cross-border connectivity, economic opportunity, local content and multilingualism, and human capacity building), some have a specifically regional dimension (such as digital migration) and others are global concerns (such as data privacy, cyber security, IPv6 transition, and human rights and freedom of expression).
He highlighted some of the initiatives the Commission is working on to provide an enabling environment for Internet Governance in telecommunications to include: IPv6 adoption and transition plan, internet code of practice and development of clearer licensing requirements of current and new licenses to include integrated local content initiatives amongst others