NCC Boss To Receive Vanguard’s Regulator of The Year Award On Friday

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, is set to receive the 2022 Regulator of the Year Award at the highly-coveted Vanguard Personality of the Year Awards.

VanguardNewspaper Limited, the organizers of the event, has said that Danbatta wouldreceive the award category at a ceremony to be held in Lagos on Friday, January27, 2022 based on the recognition of the professor’s transformational andinspiring leadership, which brought the effective regulatory regime in thetelecoms sector, impacting positively on Nigeria’s digital economy ecosystem.

Alongsideother prominent personalities including state governors like Babagana Zulum ofBorno State, Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, Abdulraham Abdulrazaq of Kwara, UdomEmmanuel of Akwa Ibom and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State as well as the Chairman ofDangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and other Nigerians who have distinguishedthemselves in professional excellence and service to humanity, Danbatta willstand tall before Nigerians on Friday to receive his category of award.

Profoundlydescribed as Africa’s Regulatory model, Prof. Danbatta has become a model toother African regulators.

Arespectable scholar and distinguished academic, Danbatta has displayed ano-nonsense mien in discharging regulatory functions, yet he is generallyviewed in the industry as a calm and calculative leader who takes fair but firmdecisions in his drive to steady the Nigerian telecom environment. This has, nodoubt, inspired many African regulators to adopt Nigeria’s model in order torevamp their regulatory activities.

Aprofessor of telecommunications engineering, Danbatta, before his appointment,had been the Acting Vice Chancellor at the Kano State University of Science andTechnology (KUST), and as a lecturer he has supervised more than 60 PhD, M.Engand B.Eng projects in diverse areas of telecommunications.

Danbatta,however, was not entirely new to the industry before he bacame the NCC boss, ashe had a stint at the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) an international centrefor advanced communications studies established in 2004 by the NCC for capacitybuilding in diverse areas of Information and Communication Technology as theVice President of the institute.

His firstfive years in office witnessed an effective regulatory regime throughcutting-edge initiatives, strengthening the role of the telecommunicationssector as a major contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Currentlyleading the charge to achieve the Nigerian National Broad Plan 2020-2025,Danbatta was acclaimed for spearheading the predecessor campaign, which Nigeriaattained and surpassed the 30% national target in 2018, from paltry 6% when hetook over.

Themultiple award-winning professor also midwifed a highly successful 5G spectrumauction last year, while his strides in reviving the Emergency CommunicationsCenters (ECCs) and the introduction of harmonized national emergencycommunication number (112) helped the NCC to win the International PublicRelations Association Golden Award in the year 2021, because of a pivotal rolethey played in containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hisstellar leadership style was recently rewarded by the organizers of theprestigious Zik Prize, as they bestowed on him the Zik Prize award forProfessional Leadership.

Danbattaearned BEng, MSc degrees from the Technical University of Wroclaw in Poland andreceived his PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science andTechnology. Yet, in spite of his towering achievements, Prof. Umar GarbaDanbatta, remains an epitome of modesty and humility.

Signed:

Reuben Muoka

Director, Public Affairs

January 26, 2023