The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday in Abuja unveiled a new five-year strategic management plan to drive its telecom regulatory mandate in the fast evolving telecom industry in the next five years from 2013 to 2017.
The formal unveiling of the plan by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr Eugene Juwah, was the culmination of over twelve months of industry consultations in a process managed by PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PWC) with the cross- section of the industry stakeholders and staff of the Commission making inputs at various stages of its articulation.
Dr Juwah who presided over the presentation of the details of the plan by PWC to the senior management of the Commission, before handing over to Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Mr Okechukwu Itanyi, said in his speech that the formal unveiling of the new SMP would serve as a roadmap for the future, taking into consideration the current and emerging trends in the industry and the numerous expectations of the diverse stakeholders.
He said the SMP document is a living document which must be consulted regularly to ensure that the Commission is on track towards achieving the objectives which have been collectively articulated. “A robust SMP like ours has many purposes such as ensuring the alignment of day-to-day work to the Commission’s strategy; prioritising programmes and projects to achieve NCC’s goals and objectives; ensuring optimal use of NCC’s recourses; providing objective basis for performance monitoring and management, and meeting the Commission’s vision and mission”, he said.
After the ceremonial commitments to the new SMP by all the directors and heads of departments of the Commission on behalf of the entire staff, Mr Itanyi told the staff that the declaration was an affirmation, and indeed a commitment to executive all tasks assigned to them in their departments’ scorecards within the lifespan of the strategic plan and would serve as a measure of their performance in the plan.
The Commission also announced a retune of its mission which now says is to “support a market driven communications industry and promote universal access” while the vision now reads “to be a responsive world class communications regulatory organisation.”
Director of Public Affairs of NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo who expatiated on the new vision and mission said both were predicated on the dynamic nature of the industry today. He recapped that the idea of the new mission designed to support market driven communications industry and promote universal access was because of the new direction the industry was taking,? especially in the area of convergence and frontiers of broadband Internet services which are all aimed at providing quality access to all.
On the new vision which is to be a responsive communications industry regulator, he said this is to put the Commission in a position to be able to quickly respond to the dynamics of the industry for optimum delivery to all the industry stakeholders, especially the consumers.