NCC moves to de-risk Nigeria’s telecoms industry

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has commenced plans to de-risk the telecommunication industry.

Speaking during the maiden edition of the telecommunication industry risk management conference in Abuja on Monday, Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman of the commission, stated that minimising regulatory risks has become imperative to ensure that services are not disrupted and consumers obtain the best services that are globally available.

According to him, the information and communication technologies sector is inherently filled with several business and technology risks, including cyber security and online fraud, regulatory burden, access to foreign exchange among others.

“The NCC as the regulator has been in the forefront of ensuring that the telecoms industry is not adversely impacted by these uncertainties/risks.

“One of our strategic visions is to ensure a competitive market for the communications services that foster fair inclusion of all players, promote local content and innovative services in ways that facilitate new investment, job creation and consumer satisfaction.

“All these programmes and initiatives as well as many others would be impacted when we do not take appropriate steps to critically assess the challenges that we are facing as a fast-evolving industry and proffer solutions that sustain the advances in the digital economy ecosystem,’’ he said.

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Represented by Yetunde Akinloye, director of policy, competition and economic analysis department, Danbatta said efforts were ongoing to examine the myriad of issues confronting the country in the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy 2020-2030, adding that it was necessary for a sustainable ICT sector in Nigeria.

“The focus of this conference is to bring to the fore the ever-rising uncertainties in the global economic and the regulatory/operational risks in the areas of increased data security regulations, new partnerships and transforming business models, fast-changing mix of mounting CAPEX burdens, shifting market structures, newly emerging disruption scenarios, regulatory and policy challenges amongst others.

“This conference should be able to position the industry to deal with the above-mentioned issues which will be of immense benefit to the telecoms industry and to our individual operations,’’ he said.

Eniola Olugboyega, in his paper titled ‘X-raying telecommunication risk rader: the operators perspective’, said risk taking can have positive or negative impact on businesses, adding that most common losses from improper management of risk in the sector include, customer dissatisfaction, fines and litigation, product failure, loss of business opportunities among others.

For him, effective risk management aids effective decision-making, prevents financial and reputational loss and addresses potential threats.

“Telecommunication risks from the operators’ perspective include regulatory risk, insecurity, data breach risk, foreign exchange risk, rising CAPEX risk, human resource risk, inability to take advantage of new business models.

“A telecommunication company that buys its technology from abroad will have to pay for transactions in foreign currency, hedging techniques that can help to mitigate the FX risk would include; forward market hedge, money market hedge.

“While telecoms networks have withstood higher usage during the pandemic, telecoms remain under pressure to improve network performance and coverage”, he said.

Kelechi Nwankwo, head of corporate planning strategy and risk management said, “Our role will be effectively achieved when we are able to manage and identify various risks that can plague the industry.

“These risks are multifaceted; the industry must thoroughly eliminate every risk factor through a cost based analysis before adoption.’’