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Aminu Maida’s Vision: Driving Nigeria’s Digital Revolution

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By Abdulrahman Aliagan,  Abuja 

When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed Dr. Aminu Maida as the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), it marked a new chapter in Nigeria’s journey towards digital transformation. Known for his visionary leadership and extensive experience in technology and communications, Dr. Maida took office with a promise to propel Nigeria into the league of global digital economies, aligning his agenda with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

In his inaugural address, Dr. Maida outlined his vision for the NCC as a catalyst for innovation, inclusion, and national development. Recognizing the immense potential of the communications sector, he promised to foster an environment that encourages growth, attracts investment, and drives sustainable economic transformation.

Dr. Maida committed to building on the achievements of his predecessors while introducing bold new initiatives to address challenges such as limited broadband access, insufficient infrastructure, and digital literacy gaps.

Dr. Maida emphasized his resolve to bring broadband access to every corner of Nigeria. With the National Broadband Plan (NBP 2020–2025) serving as a guide, he promised to fast-track the rollout of high-speed internet services to underserved and rural areas. He described broadband as a “key enabler of economic growth” and pledged to reduce the digital divide across Nigeria.

Maida highlighted his ambition to position Nigeria as a global hub for emerging technologies. He promised to advance the deployment of 5G networks and explore opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

By fostering collaboration between the public and private sectors, he assured Nigerians of a thriving digital ecosystem capable of driving innovation and job creation.

Dr. Maida pledged to champion digital inclusion as a cornerstone of his administration. His focus would be on ensuring that women, youth, and marginalized groups are empowered with the tools and skills to participate meaningfully in the digital economy. He vowed to expand access to digital resources through initiatives like the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF).

Another key promise was to protect consumers’ rights while improving the quality of telecommunications services. Dr. Maida assured Nigerians of regulatory frameworks that prioritize affordable, reliable, and secure communication services. He committed to addressing complaints and enhancing transparency in the sector.

He vowed to make Nigeria an attractive destination for foreign and local investments in the ICT sector. He promised to strengthen ties with international organizations, global tech giants, and development partners to foster growth and innovation. He also highlighted his determination to position Nigeria as a major player in the global digital economy by participating in international forums and shaping global policy discussions.

With the growing threats in the digital space, Dr. Maida emphasized his administration’s commitment to safeguarding Nigeria’s digital infrastructure. He promised to work closely with stakeholders to develop policies and frameworks that protect users’ data, combat cybercrime, and promote trust in digital platforms.

Dr. Maida’s promises reflect a deep alignment with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which places the digital economy at the heart of Nigeria’s development strategy. He pledged to work closely with Dr. Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Information, Communications, and Digital Economy, to create a seamless synergy between government policies and the Commission’s regulatory efforts.

Dr. Maida however called on all stakeholders—industry players, government agencies, and the general public—to join hands in building a resilient, inclusive, and innovative communications sector. He expressed optimism about the future, stating, “Together, we can unlock the full potential of Nigeria’s digital economy, empowering every citizen and positioning our nation as a leader in the comity of digital nations

   

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Time Nigeria is a modern and general interest Magazine with its Headquarters in Abuja. The Magazine has a remarkable difference in editorial philosophy and goals, it adheres strictly to the ethics of Journalism by using the finest ethos of the profession to promote peace among citizens; identifying and harnessing the nation’s vast resources; celebrating achievements of government agencies, individuals, groups and corporate organizations and above all, repositioning Nigeria for the needed growth and development. Time Nigeria gives emphasis to places and issues that have not been given adequate attention by others. The Magazine is national in outlook and is currently being read and patronized both in print and on our vibrant and active online platform (www.timenigeria.com).
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This is not a story about a reluctant investor. It is a story about capital that wants to move, cannot find enough places willing and able to receive it in a form it can underwrite, and quietly waits instead. Multiply that fund by the hundreds of pension schemes, sovereign wealth vehicles, commercial banks and infrastructure funds now carrying dedicated allocations for emerging-market infrastructure, and a pattern emerges that rarely makes it into a headline: the world is not short of capital for infrastructure. It has capital in historic abundance, sitting adjacent to a historic infrastructure gap, unable to cross the distance between the two. The Comfortable Explanation  The explanation on offer at every major infrastructure summit is a familiar one. Global infrastructure investment needs run into the tens of trillions of dollars over the coming decade; committed capital falls well short; therefore, the problem is one of insufficient funding, and the solution is more of it: more pledges, more blended-finance facilities, more climate funds, more multilateral capital increases. It is a comfortable explanation because it assigns responsibility clearly to governments who under-fund, institutions who under-commit, and it offers a clean remedy: raise more. 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Availability Is Not Deployability  Capital availability and capital deployability are not the same condition, and the conflation of the two is doing real damage to how the world thinks about the infrastructure gap. Availability asks whether money exists somewhere with a mandate that could, in principle, be pointed at infrastructure. Deployability asks something much narrower and much harder: whether a specific project, at a specific moment, has been engineered, structured, documented and de-risked to the point where an investment committee can approve it without exception. The first condition is met, overwhelmingly, across nearly every category of capital that matters to infrastructure. The second is met by only a small fraction of the projects competing for it. The result is a market that looks, from the outside, like a financing gap, and functions, from the inside, like a conversion problem: an abundance of capital on one side, an abundance of infrastructure need on the other, and an underbuilt set of mechanisms in between capable of turning one into the other at any meaningful scale. Where the Conversion Breaks  The break does not happen at the ends of the process. It happens in the middle, in the unglamorous sequence of work that turns a plausible concept into an instrument a fiduciary can sign. A promising transmission project needs a feasibility study rigorous enough to survive institutional scrutiny rather than optimistic enough to attract early interest. It needs offtake arrangements that hold up under real counterparty and currency risk, not the counterparty risk assumed in a base case. It needs environmental and social documentation calibrated to the standards of the institutions being asked to fund it, not the standards of the jurisdiction hosting it. It needs a legal and commercial structure that allocates risk in ways a commercial lender, not only a development financier, will accept. It needs a sponsor capable of executing what has been proposed, not merely capable of proposing it. 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