In a move that signals a shift in regulatory regime, the telecommunication regulatory agency, Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has announced a new licensing framework.
The announcement for the new framework was made by the agency Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Wadia through the agency’s Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder management, Bar. Rimini Makama at a Stakeholders Forum on the Draft General Authorization Framework, held on Thursday, July 17, a 2025 at Abuja.
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Explaining the new framework, the EVC said the framework which at aims at fostering innovation and expand opportunities for startups and other technology-driven enterprises, has three components, namely Proof of Concept Pilots to test novel solutions in real work conditions, a Regulatory Sandbox to allow for controlled testing of ideas and an Interim Service Authorization for services that fall outside of current licensing categories.
The Interim Service Authorization for could allow for the licensing of community networks which is needed to bride connectivity gaps in underserved and unserved communities in the country.
Presently there are over 90 clusters of communities that are officially designated as unserved and underserved, with a combined population of over 27 million people in Nigeria.
This huge population needs to be brought to the digital landscape as Nigeria hopes to use digital technology for social and economic transformation.
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The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has over the last five years been in the forefront of the advocacy for the development of a community network license class to allow communities in unserved and underserved communities to address their connectivity isolation through their own effort given, that market solutions, for obvious reasons of lack of economic profitability, being that these communities are largely poor, with sparse populations and difficult terrains that make it difficult to assure return on profit, are not able to cover these communities.
In November last year, along with several stakeholders including representatives from the NCC and USPF, CITAD hosted an international conservation, organized by the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) at which the National Advisory Committee on Community Networks was inaugurated whose deliberations subsequently led to the adoption of the National Strategy for Community Networks in Nigeria.
This development provides comprehensive treatment of what needs to be done to deploy community networks to bridge connectivity and digital literacy gaps in the country.
Since then, both the APC and CITAD have followed up with the NCC, resulting in the establishment of a joint Committee to look into the possibility of creating a licensing framework for community centred connectivity initiative (CCCI) under which community networks fall.
As part of the conversation of the Joint Committee, with support from the FCDO, the APC in partnership with NCC convened a two-day private workshop on Policy Framework for Enabling Community Networks in Nigeria in June this year.
The deliberation at the workshop reached a conclusion on how to integrate community networks licensing in the country’s general telecommunication licensing framework.
The statement coming from the NCC EVC is the first indication of efforts to mainstream community networks in the telecommunication licensing framework of the country.
While there is no explicit mention of community networks or community centred connectivity initiative (CCCI) in the new framework, it is understood that they could covered under the Interim Service Authorization for services component.
We also note that the new framework excludes non-profits which are the key drivers and facilitators of community networks both in Nigeria and globally.
We in CITAD welcome this development and wish to commend the NCC EVC and indeed the Management and Board of the NCC for this bold step in recognizing the necessity for regulatory framework change to keep in step with current dynamics in the sector and to, especially take advantages of technological developments to bridge the internal national digital divides as well as create condition for the the effective deployment of digital technology for national transformation.
We urge the NCC to provide farther clarity on the framework, especially to recognize the peculiarities of the needs and nature of community networks as tools for bridging connectivity gaps as well as promoting digital literacy in the country in the context in which universal digital literacy is not just an aspiration but a necessity.
Y. Z. Ya’u
Executive Director
CITAD