The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called for a comprehensive overhaul of Africa’s telecommunications regulatory frameworks, warning that traditional approaches are no longer sufficient for an industry being transformed by artificial intelligence, cloud computing, satellite services and digital public infrastructure.
The Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management, Rimini Makama, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja during the Heads of Regulators Roundtable held on the sidelines of the 7th Ordinary Session of the Conference Preparatory Committee of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU).
Makama said the telecommunications sector had become far more complex, making it imperative for regulators to adopt evidence-based and data-driven approaches to policymaking.
“Our discussion today centres on one critical question: how do we use data and evidence to make decisions that are smarter, more transparent and more focused on consumers? Our markets are no longer simple,” she said.
According to her, the rapid expansion of broadband, the emergence of satellite services and advances in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital public infrastructure have fundamentally changed the communications landscape.
“The old regulatory approaches were built for a simpler time. They are no longer enough,” she stated.
Makama noted that while regulators now have access to unprecedented volumes of technical, market and consumer data, the real challenge is transforming that information into effective regulatory decisions.
“To stay ahead of the problem rather than simply react to it, we need trusted intelligence,” she said.
She observed that Africa’s increasingly interconnected digital ecosystem has created shared regulatory responsibilities across the continent, including protecting consumers, promoting competition, attracting investment and ensuring resilient communications networks.
“The challenge is not collecting data; it is turning it into better decisions,” she added.
Makama disclosed that the NCC had developed a regulatory intelligence ecosystem that combines multiple data sources, including quality-of-service and quality-of-experience indicators, consumer complaints, compliance analytics and market intelligence to support evidence-based regulation.
According to her, the platform enables the commission to base its decisions on reliable data and has already produced measurable regulatory outcomes.
She urged African regulators to deepen collaboration by exchanging practical experiences, improving data verification processes, strengthening advanced analytics and adopting more consumer-focused regulatory practices.
Makama also challenged participants to explore ways of safeguarding the independence and accuracy of regulatory data, eliminating barriers to information sharing and developing more effective measures of consumer experience beyond traditional quality-of-service indicators.
Earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said telecommunications regulators across Africa face similar challenges despite operating under different legal and institutional frameworks.
He noted that issues such as infrastructure investment, network resilience, satellite communications, cybersecurity, affordability, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies have become common concerns across the continent.
“We may regulate markets of different sizes, operate under different legal frameworks and respond to different national priorities, but the realities of our work are often remarkably similar,” Maida said.
He stressed that many regulatory challenges confronting one country had already been encountered elsewhere in Africa, underscoring the need for stronger cooperation and knowledge sharing among regulators.
“The question is how we make that exchange of experience more deliberate, more systematic and more useful to our institutions,” he said.
Maida described the roundtable as an important platform for promoting evidence-based regulation through greater use of data, market intelligence and shared practical experience.
Also speaking, the Executive Commissioner for Technical Services, Sunday Oshadami, said the NCC had prioritised transparency by ensuring operators clearly understood their regulatory obligations while making key performance information available to consumers.
He added that the commission had expanded its satellite monitoring capabilities to strengthen oversight of satellite communications and improve regulatory compliance as new technologies continue to reshape the telecommunications industry.
