NCC Backs AfricaNXT, Says It Aligns With Tech Vision
OLABISI OLALEYE
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Garba Danbatta, has pledged to sustain participation and support for the AfricaNEXT Conference, saying, “The visualizations and concrete actions of AfricaNXT are in congruence with NCC’s faith in the promise of technology to galvanize Nigeria’s, nay Africa’s, development.”
He declared this during a chat with the Commission’s in-house media team last week, ahead of preparations by the Commission’s delegation to the Confab, which will take place from 27th February to 4th March 2022.
Though he regretted his inability to lead NCC’s delegation to the Conference because he is already slated to play a critical governmental and institutional role at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022, organized by GSM Association, the Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest and most influential forum and exhibition by stakeholders in the mobile technology ecosystem, takes place in Barcelona annually in the same week AfricaNXT happens in Lagos.
Formerly known as Social Media Week Lagos, the AfricaNXT Conference is the largest assemblage of innovators from across Africa and Africa’s Diasporan communities. As a consistent programming partner of AfricaNXT, the NCC has been a regular feature of the conference and festival. Although the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the organizers to observe a low-key, strictly virtual meeting in 2021, the 2020 conference was attended by over 20,000 people (both in-person and virtually). At the 2020 conference, NCC’s discourse overviewed the Fifth Generation technology and services, where the panellists explained 5G, which at that time seemed like an abstract idea to many.
The NCC boss was quick to pledge that the 2022 AfricaNXT, the Commission would take the discourse on 5G further in a more pragmatic contagion of the progress achieved over the past two years.
The thematic focus for its panel of discussants is, “Moving forward steadily, timely and with precision: the socio-economic significance of the deployment of 5G services”.
Participants will have the opportunity to glean the benefits of 5G services to individuals, businesses, and the nation, with positive implications for the Continent as Nige, ria matches steadily to become the first country in West Africa to deploy 5G technology services.