By Juliet Umeh
The Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who received Zik Prize’s professional leadership award over the weekend, has said the award will challenge NCC to do more in digitally advancing the Nigeria economy.
Danbatta who dedicated the award to the entire board, management, and staff of NCC noted that the reason was because of the Commission’s collective and untiring commitment and efforts in advancing the course of effective telecoms regulation in the country.
Receiving the award organised by Public Policy Research and Analysis Centre, PPRAC, in Lagos, Danbatta thanked the organizers for the honour, stating that the award was “a recognition for the entire Commission.”
He said: “It is gratifying that our modest efforts at the Commission, especially since the coming on board of our leadership in 2015, are being recognized by the organisers of this prestigious award. I convey my profound gratitude to the organisers for counting me worthy of this award and we accept this gesture as a challenge for to do more in digitally advancing our economy,” Danbatta responded after receiving the award.
According to the citation, Danbatta was described as “a brilliant engineer, astute administrator, philanthropist, and an outstanding nation builder who has brought his wealth of experience and remarkable regulatory finesse to bear as the country’s chief telecoms regulator.”
Within a few years at the helm of affairs, Danbatta has embarked on many regulatory initiatives that have helped in transforming the NCC into a regulator of global acclaim through diligent implementation of the strategic 8-Point Agenda, which gave much-needed direction to the activities of the Commission.
Also, “through several innovative initiatives, such as Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) registration and 112 Emergency Number, Danbatta has helped in the efforts towards stemming insecurity in the country. His efforts have sufficiently led to improvements in Quality of Service (QoS) delivery, broadband infrastructure deployment, broadband penetration, effective spectrum utilisation, consumer empowerment and technology innovation.”