The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) are thudding support for the 2023 Nigeria DigitalSENSE Africa Forum (NDSF) series on Internet Governance for Development (IG4D) slated for Thursday, June 8, in Lagos.
Disclosing this at the weekend, the Lead Consulting Strategist, DigitalSENSE Africa, and Group Executive Editor, ITREALMS Media, Mr. Remmy Nweke, said that this year’s NDSF comes with the theme: 5G: Data Governance, Safety, and Security.
This, he said, has become important due to the recent licensing of Fifth Generation (5G) in the country, just as experts will be lined up to address various subthemes during the forum.
Nweke said plans are in top gear to ensure the forum held at the prestigious Welcome Centre Hotels, along Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road, Lagos, is successful.
The NDSF series on IG4D, he said, is hosted by DigitalSENSE Africa, an At-Large Structure (ALS) certified by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and top industry stakeholders like the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), among others.
As said by Nweke, the 2023 NDSF series on IG4D will open for registration by 9 a.m. and is free of charge to the participants.
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He recalled that NCC is the apex regulatory authority for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria and was created under Decree Number 75 by the Federal Military Government of Nigeria on November 24, 1992, with the mandate under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 to properly carry out its regulatory functions and activities, including but not limited to consulting with consumers, commercial, and industrial organizations; delegating its functions to a Committee constituted by it; summoning persons to appear before the Commission; establishing and maintaining subsidiaries to enable the discharge of its functions; licensing, to name a few.
In addition, he noted that the NCC, during the recent licensing of telcos for 5G, pledged to develop the requisite strategies, standards, guidelines, and frameworks for the successful deployment of 5G.
IXPN, on the other hand, is a neutral and not-for-profit Internet exchange point (IXP) founded in 2006 to reduce connectivity costs by millions of dollars in offshore internet bandwidth payments, reduce latency from 900 milliseconds to 30 milliseconds for local content, and serve as the central point for connecting higher educational institutions (HEIs) towards the development of the National Research and Educational Network (NREN).
Nweke noted that as of April 2022, IXPN had become the 5th largest IXP in Africa by number of peers and the 3rd in Africa by traffic, according to Packet Clearing House’s IXP directory.
Stressing that IXPN is reputed as West Africa’s Regional Internet Exchange Point (WARIXP) that is keen beyond localizing a single country-based local internet traffic and as an African Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP) extends this further to localize local internet traffic within a designated African region
Even as IXPN was chosen by the African Union to be the Regional Internet Exchange Point for the West African Region, which offers regional traffic localization, faster internet within the West African region, lower cost and reachability between network operators in different countries, and allows more optimal use of existing connectivity infrastructure in the region,
The Nigeria DigitalSENSE Africa forum is hosted annually by the international award-winning ITREALMS Media under its DigitalSENSE Africa Forum series and an At-Large Structure (ALS) at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as part of efforts to shape the future of the Internet.
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