ABUJA – The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, has called on telecommunications regulators across Africa to strengthen collaboration by creating a more structured and purposeful system for sharing regulatory experiences and best practices.
Maida made the call on Tuesday at the Head of Regulators Roundtable, themed “Building Africa’s Network Intelligence Ecosystem for Evidence-Based Regulation,” held as part of the 7th Ordinary Session of the Conference Preparatory Committee (CPC-26) in Abuja.
He said the rapid evolution of the communications sector has made regulation increasingly complex, with African countries facing similar challenges despite differences in market sizes, legal frameworks, and national priorities.
“Whether it is investment, infrastructure resilience, satellite services, cybersecurity, affordability, artificial intelligence, or emerging technologies, our conversations as regulators quickly reveal that we are confronting many of the same issues,” Maida said.
According to him, the common challenges across the continent underscore the need for regulators to establish a more intentional, systematic, and beneficial exchange of knowledge and experiences.
“The question is no longer whether we share common challenges, but how we can make our exchange of experiences more deliberate, structured, and valuable for our institutions,” he added.
Maida noted that the Head of Regulators Roundtable provides an important platform for exploring how data, market intelligence, and evidence-based insights can improve regulatory decisions while enabling African regulators to learn from one another.
He urged participants to engage in practical discussions on successful regulatory initiatives, lessons from failed approaches, and areas where collaboration could help prevent regulators from repeatedly solving similar problems independently.
Also speaking at the event, the NCC’s Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management, Rimini Makama, stressed the need for African regulators to embrace evidence-based decision-making as digital markets continue to evolve.
She observed that broadband expansion, satellite communications, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital public infrastructure are rapidly transforming the telecommunications landscape, rendering traditional regulatory frameworks inadequate.
“Our markets are becoming more complex, and the regulatory approaches of the past are no longer sufficient. To stay ahead of emerging challenges rather than simply reacting to them, we need reliable intelligence and data-driven regulation,” Makama said.
She noted that while regulators now have access to unprecedented volumes of technical, market, and consumer data, the real challenge lies in translating that information into smarter policies and better regulatory outcomes.
Makama identified consumer protection, competition, investment promotion, and network resilience as common priorities for African regulators, calling for stronger collaboration among member states of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU).
She added that integrating quality-of-service metrics, consumer complaints, compliance analytics, quality-of-experience assessments, and market intelligence into a unified regulatory framework would enable more transparent, consumer-focused, and evidence-based decision-making across the continent.
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