Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, has commended the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for its commitment to its statutory mandate implementation which is ensuring accelerated growth of telecommunications sector, thus making the sector an enabler of Nigeria’s prosperity.
The royal father gave the commendation when the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management (ECSM) of NCC, Adeleke Adewolu, led a delegation of NCC staff to the state where the maiden edition of the Village Square Dialogue (VSD) was organised by NCC in Abeokuta.
The VSD, a version of the Telecom Consumer Conversation which is a strategic, multi-stakeholder consumer outreach programme of the commission was held at the Centenary Hall, adjacent the Alake’s palace in Abeokuta, the state capital.
The VSD is specially initiated by the NCC to interact with telecom consumers at the grassroots for the purpose of sensitizing telecom consumers through information sharing, education and advocacy on telecommunications-related issues. Importantly, the forum provides opportunity for telecom consumers in the rural areas to make contributions to the governance process of the telecom ecosystem, and to equally engage their service providers to resolve complaints.
The monarch, who was the ‘Royal Father of the Day’ at the event said “One of the public institutions, whose activities are felt by the generality of Nigerians in many positive ways is NCC and the leadership of the Commission must be commended for its doggedness in ensuring that Nigerians enjoy the benefits of digital revolutions.”
Oba Gbadebo, represented at the forum by Oluwo of Ake, Egbaland, Chief Samuel Tanimowo, described NCC as a flagship public institution positively impacting lives of all Nigerians and also commended Adewolu, an indigene of the state, for his positive representation of the people of Owu Kingdom, Ogun State, where he hails from.
The royal father said: “We also thank you and your entire Board and management for bringing the first edition of the Village Square Dialogue to us in Ogun State. This is a testament to how important you take our state, which has contributed tremendously to the socio-economic and political history of Nigeria.”
The executive commissioner described Ogun State as central to telecoms growth in Nigeria in that it hosted one of the largest concentration of users of telecoms services, with an active subscriber base of over eight million users as at Q4 2021 based on the data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Adewolu explained: “This huge subscriber base is supported by a dynamic ecosystem of service providers, dealers, marketers and innovators. We are, therefore, here to host the maiden edition of the NCC-instituted Village Square Dialogue and to salute the legendary entrepreneurial spirit of the people of Ogun State.”
