Mr Lanre Ajayi, the Managing Director, Pinet Informatics, on Thursday said that consistency in policies of the Federal Government had made the relative success noticed in the Nigerian telecommunications sector possible.
Ajayi said this in Lagos during the e-Insurance Conference Lagos 2017, which had the theme: “Driving Insurance Penetration with ICT’’.
He said that policies in the industry did not necessarily change when leadership changed, adding that this had caused it to move ahead.
Ajayi, a former President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), stressed that policy consistency had made the telecommunications industry to stand out among other industries.
“Investors love predictable environment. It enables them to plan ahead, hence, their craving for policy consistency.
“A major policy of the telecommunications regulator in Nigeria is technology neutrality.
“The regulator does not concern itself with the technology adopted by the operators to deliver their services; this is left to the operators to decide.
“This gives room for creativity and innovation.
“Similarly, I believe a marketing channel neutrality policy from the insurance industry regulator would benefit the industry greatly.
“Insurance companies should be given the freedom, without constraints, to choose or create the channels and modes of marketing of their products.
“This will allow for innovations and benefit the industry immensely,” he said.
According to the IT expert, another strategy that makes the telecommunications sector to record relative success is extensive industry consultation.
He said that the regulator – Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) – was well known to consult extensively, particularly with the operators, before enacting regulations.
According to him, this makes enforcement of regulations easy, since they are collective decisions.
Ajayi said another strategy aiding the industry’s success was protection of operators by the regulator, which the latter always went the extra mile to do.
He noted that the telecommunications regulator knew very well that without the operators’ investment, there would not be services to offer to the Nigerian people.
The former ATCON president cited the recent intervention of the regulator in the case of Etisalat with some banks as an example.
“We are confident that a strong alliance between the insurance and ICT industries would benefit the two industries greatly and deepen insurance penetration in Nigeria,’’ Ajayi said. (NAN)
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