The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, has participated at the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), where he shared the country’s approach to data-driven telecommunications governance with regulators from around the world.
The annual symposium held recently in Ankara, Turkey, brought together telecommunications regulators from across the globe and culminated in the endorsement of the “2026 Best Practice Guidelines: Regulatory Governance Essentials,” a digital regulation toolkit designed to help regulators navigate increasingly complex digital markets.
Dr. Maida served as a panelist in a high-level session titled “Harnessing the Power of Transformative Tech: Regulatory Approaches,” alongside Carlos Manuel Baigorri, President of Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL); Philip Marnick, Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Bahrain; and Donna Bethea-Murphy of Viasat Inc.
The panel focused on how regulatory frameworks can harness transformative technologies and redefine standards of regulatory excellence in a rapidly digitising world.
Speaking on Nigeria’s regulatory direction, Dr. Maida highlighted the NCC’s shift from routine data collection to what he described as data intelligence, and from general public transparency to a model that directly empowers consumers and holds network operators more accountable.
He pointed to specific tools driving this approach, including the Commission’s Public Maps, Industry Statistics, Quarterly Network Performance Reports, and simplified reporting frameworks, which he said were helping consumers better understand the quality of service they receive while enabling the broader digital economy to thrive.
At the Regulators’ Roundtable held on the sidelines of the forum, Dr. Maida outlined several of Nigeria’s key regulatory priorities. These include the recently released Internet Code of Practice 2026, aimed at strengthening transparency, responsible conduct, and accountability within the internet ecosystem; and the Cyber Resilience Framework for the Nigerian Communications sector, designed to enhance the sector’s defences against cyber threats.
He also spoke of the NCC’s deepening collaboration with other public authorities to promote a unified approach to digital market governance, as well as ongoing efforts to shape an incentive-based telecommunications market through spectrum and infrastructure regulation.
