The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has collaborated with the
Association for Progressive Communications and other institutional stakeholders
towards addressing challenges confronting rural network connectivity in Nigeria.
The collaboration resulted in a two-day workshop hosted in Abuja from June 3-4,
2025, to explore policy framework for enabling community networks towards
bridging the digital divide and accelerating socio-economic development in Nigeria’s
underserved and unserved communities.
The forum brought together regulators, community leaders, technical experts and
potential foreign investors, among others, to examine policy and regulatory barriers,
explore innovative funding mechanisms, ensure sustainable renewable solutions and
strengthen collaboration with stakeholders.
Addressing participants at the workshop, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr.
Aminu Maida, said the workshop is important to bridging the digital divide in Nigeria
and foster inclusive social economic development.
“This workshop is an opportunity for all of us to harness the expertise, insights, and
experiences of diverse stakeholders present here which includes the regulators,
community leaders, technical experts and potential foreign providers to address the
critical challenges such as affordable devices, access, licensing, spectrum allocation,
infrastructure development, sustainability and institutional monitoring,” said Maida,
who was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC at
the event, Abraham Oshadami.
Maida said the workshop demonstrates the Commission’s commitment to advancing
digital inclusion, particularly in underserved and unserved areas. “At NCC, we
recognise the transformative potential of community center networks in achieving
this important goal,” he said.
The EVC said NCC was committed to “this journey and views this workshop as a
catalyst for meaningful change,” stating that the expertise, perspectives and commitments
will shape the future where every Nigerian, regardless of his or her
status, will have meaningful access to opportunities from digital connectivity.
In her remarks, Co-manager of the Association for Progressive Communications’
Local Network (LocNet) initiative, Kathleen Diga, noted that the collaboration was
to tackle identified hindrances to digital inclusion. “This is a space where we can be
open and exchange ideas of possibilities, opportunities that will remain in realising
values of a diversified ecosystem.”
Diga said, “I believe this workshop presents a moment in time that we can explore
the bottom-up approach in local communities, small social enterprises, corporative
among others, which have the ability to fill some of the digital gaps that remain
unfilled,” she said, adding emphasising the need to recognise that community centre
connectivity exists and they are grow throughout the global south, which, she said,
are a “strategic response to digital exclusion.”
The workshop featured presentations from the NCC, the Association for
Progressive Communications and other institutional stakeholders such as the Rural
Electrification Agency (REA) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) all geared
towards exploring a joint policy framework to address rural digital divide.
The Association for Progressive Communications is a 35-year-old international
network member-based organisation encouraging digital inclusion in the unserved
communities, particularly with communities in the global south and the workshop,
through its LocNet initiative aimed at crafting an enabling inclusive regulatory
framework for community networks in Nigeria.