The section of the Nigerian House of Representatives Committee who have been in charge of investigating for the duplication of functions of Ministries, Departments and Agencies In Nigeria have on Wednesday discussed the major possibility of actually merging the Nigeria Communications Commission and also the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The senate committee had also raised the possibility of this merger when Umar Danbatta who is the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, appeared before the Committee.
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A member of the Committee, who had been identified as Ibrahim Isiaka, raised the operational possibility of such a merger.
“I draw an organogram, all these agencies will be under the NCC,” Mr Isiaka said about the information technology-related agencies.
Mr Danbatta stated that the functions of the agencies differ, however, the final decision is within the purview of the lawmakers.
“NITDA regulates information technology, that is why they are called that name. Galaxy backbone provides infrastructure that is promoting governance and key services sector of our economy. They provide fibre networks to various institutions. That is why FEC is having a virtual meeting. The NCC also subscribes to them for network service. I see them as doing important work.
“In some countries, we have what are called converged regulators for the telecoms and related sectors. In this country, we have two separate regulators. One for communication and the other for broadcasting. It must have been the wisdom of the government to separate them,” he said.
He added that it is not in his place to suggest convergence.
The Chairman of the Committee, Victor Danzaria had also revealed that the committee will have an interface with some other agencies to reach a conclusion on the matter.
