The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has unveiled a draft General Authorisation Framework (GAF), marking a significant move to update the country’s telecom regulatory landscape.
The new framework aims to foster innovation while ensuring regulatory oversight and consumer protection.
Speaking at a high-level stakeholders’ forum on Thursday, Dr. Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of NCC, described the GAF as a flexible licensing model tailored to accommodate emerging technologies and services that fall outside traditional regulatory categories.
“We are at a critical point where innovation requires a regulatory approach that is not just reactive but also enabling,” Maida told industry stakeholders and operators.
He highlighted Nigeria’s telecom progress over the past 20 years, citing a teledensity of over 79.65% and broadband penetration reaching 48.81% as of May 2025.
This growth, he noted, has been fueled by increased mobile adoption, surging data usage, and the expansion of digital services across key economic sectors.
However, Maida emphasized the need for the industry to evolve with emerging trends such as 5G deployment, AI integration, blockchain adoption, and the rise of fintech platforms, all of which are transforming the communications sector.
The GAF is designed to provide a forward-looking regulatory structure to support these advancements.
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
