The Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Aminu Maida, has called on telecommunications regulators across Africa to adopt a more structured and beneficial exchange of experiences to strengthen regulatory institutions.
Maida made the call on Tuesday at the Heads of Regulators Roundtable, themed “Building Africa’s Network Intelligence Ecosystem for Evidence-Based Regulation,” held as part of the 7th Ordinary Session of the Conference Preparatory Committee (CPC-26) in Abuja.
He said communications have become central to national economies, with regulators across the continent facing similar challenges despite differences in market size, legal frameworks and national priorities.
“The real question is how we can make this exchange of experiences more intentional, systematic and advantageous for our institutions,” he said.
According to Maida, discussions among regulators often revolve around common issues such as investment, infrastructure resilience, satellite services, cybersecurity, affordability, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies that continue to test existing regulatory frameworks.
He said the roundtable provides an opportunity for regulators to explore how better use of data, evidence and market intelligence can improve decision-making and encourage greater collaboration across Africa.
Maida urged participants to openly share successful strategies, lessons learned and areas where cooperation could help regulators avoid tackling similar challenges in isolation.
Also speaking, the NCC’s Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management, Rimini Makama, said the forum focuses on using data and evidence to drive smarter, more transparent and consumer-centred regulation.
She noted that rapid advances in broadband, satellite services, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital public infrastructure have made traditional regulatory frameworks inadequate.
Makama said regulators now have access to vast amounts of technical, market and consumer data, but the key challenge is converting that information into better regulatory decisions.
She identified consumer protection, competition, investment promotion and network resilience as common challenges facing African regulators and called for greater collaboration among member states of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU).
According to her, the NCC has developed an integrated system that brings together quality of service and quality of experience data, consumer complaints, compliance analytics and market intelligence to support evidence-based regulation.
