Danbatta seeks for appreciation of role of digital transformation

Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has highlighted the role of digital transformation in the society beyond the realm of statistics rolled out in the telecommunications sector.

Prof Danbatta made this remark while delivering the 46th Convocation Lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, recently and also called for more deployment of ICT to facilitate socio-economic development of the country.

“We talk about the benefits of ICT and we normally do this by dishing out e-readiness indicators. We say Broadband penetration is 21 percent, internet penetration 97 percent. All these are ICT-readiness indicators that do not tell the entire picture.

“We can go beyond that and explain how ICTs have impacted to provide shared and sustainable prosperity; how ICTs have succeeded in reducing poverty; how they improve learning and make the society more open, more mobile and cohesive. And, above all, how they encourage the economy to be more competitive and innovative. These are the ends of the digital transformation and not the input-output figures we normally reel out,” he said.

“It is in Nigeria’s national interest to harness potentials that exist in the information-driven age through the deployment and exploitation of ICT to facilitate socio-economic development and improvement of the human condition,” he stressed.

He pointed out that developing countries like Nigeria are currently grappling with a broadband divide in addition to infrastructure, knowledge, and information divides.

“Of the world’s over 5 billion broadband subscriptions, North America and European Union control over 50 percent while South America and Sub-Saharan Africa, where Nigeria is account for only 3 percent of this global share,” he observed.