By The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has advised the Nigerian government to make the roles of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) clearer. This recommendation is part of a report titled *Collaborative Regulation: Accelerating Nigeria’s Digital Transformation*.
The report highlights that NITDA and NCC have overlapping responsibilities in areas like ICT regulations, data protection, and content control. ITU suggests that the government should define the roles of each agency more clearly, especially as telecommunications, IT, and digital technologies are becoming more connected.
To address this, ITU recommends using the NITDA Amendment Bill, currently in the National Assembly, to clarify NITDA’s role. While the bill aims to define NITDA’s mandate, ITU points out that it might cause conflicts with other regulators like the NCC. The issue is that NITDA has a broad mandate related to the “digital economy,” and it is unclear where the IT sector ends and the ICT sector begins.
ITU also warned that if the roles of NITDA and NCC aren’t properly defined, it could lead to overlapping responsibilities, extra licenses, and fees, making things harder for businesses in the ICT sector.
