The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),  has discovered, through social listening and environmental surveillance that a fraudulent letter, titled: “Certificate of Site Ownership”, for clearance of “Mast Transmission Antenna”, are being circulated by some unidentifiable individuals, and purporting that the letter was issued by the Commission. 

The fraudulent letter claimed that NCC had conducted an inspection on a certain site which is for “9-Mobile Telecommunications Company G.P.R.S”. The fraudsters also gave conditions that the unsuspecting recipient of the letter would meet to make the certificate valid and effective for use by “10th November 2022”. It is possible that several and variants of the fraudulent letter may have been sent to individuals, and organizations, with the intent to defraud, using the name of the Commission.

This was contained in a statement released to Nigerian Newssphere on Monday by NCC’s Director Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka.

“The Nigerian Communications Commission, therefore, wishes to dissociate itself from the import, and content of this letter, or similar ones, which may have been sent out by the faceless individuals.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the design and format of the forged letterhead bears no similarity with those of the Commission. The department quoted in the fraudulent letter is non-existent at the Commission. The signatory to the letter is also not known to the Commission.

“The public is hereby advised to note that telecommunications services are offered by companies which are issued licences by the Commission. The Commission also maintains a register of all telecommunications companies in the country. Suffice it to say, that, the process of initiating, or exchanging correspondence between the Commission, and the licensees, has definite and distinct standard and style.

“In addition, the Commission has very open and credible channels of communication, through which all information about it, and its activities, including matters relating to correspondence on any subject matter, can be leveraged for verification.

“While the Commission frowns at the nefarious activities of these fraudsters, telecom stakeholders, the Nigerian public, and corporate organizations, are advised to be wary of the wiles of many fraudsters prowling in the streets with all kinds of illegitimate documents, to avoid being victims of their nefarious activities”. 

The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa has described the 2022 edition of the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) as the best outing for Nigeria given the visibility, participation, magnitude of benefits and number of startups brought to the annual tech event.

Inuwa said this while giving a round up of events for the five days as regards Nigeria’s participation at GITEX 2022.

According to Inuwa, Nigeria was the only country that had two start-ups that scaled through to the final stage of the Supernova Challenge Pitch Competition.

“Nigerian Startups got a lot of investments and deals signed this year. Again, we have seen a lot of interest in Nigeria, in the sense that we see a lot of people throng the pavilion, interacting with our start-ups, trying to understand the Nigerian ecosystem and seeking information on how they can come to the country”.

“We have seen others come in to ask details on how they can partner with us to export Nigeria’s technologies to the global stage”, Inuwa added.

While responding to some questions from journalists, the Director-General emphasized that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is about innovation and it doesn’t happen in isolation, stressing that one would need to come out of the box to be part of the global ecosystem where there would be exchange of ideas, knowledge and expertise.
“GITEX said they want to start going to Africa, and that they would want to start with Morocco”.

“They have also opened conversations with us that they want to also come to Nigeria for the hosting of GITEX Africa, and this is very strategic because if they want to reach core Africans, they would need Nigeria”, the DG maintained.

He reiterated the fact that Nigeria has the biggest ecosystem as the country capitalizes on the continental free trade agreement which allows access to the rest of Africa from Nigeria.

While recounting the gains of the Nigerian team at GITEX, the NITDA Boss mentioned that about $10m investment deal was signed, apart from the plans and interests other investors have shown in Nigerian Startups.

More so, he noted that the global prize won by one of the start-ups named “Shap-Shap” in which he got a whooping sum of $8000 was another feat worthy of mention.

Other Chief Executive Officers of Parastatals under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy including the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Aziz and his counterpart from Galaxy Backbone, Prof. Muhammed Abubakar gave their impressions known.

They narrated how beneficial their participation would impact the workings of their respective organizations and how they were able to also showcased their services and got the desired attention.

The CEOs unanimously gave a thumbs up to the National Information Technology Development Agency ( NITDA) for sustaining Nigeria’s participation at GITEX over the years and hoped that the bigger picture would not elude the country especially as it inches towards achieving a Digital Nigeria by 2030.

The start-ups who also made their impressions known were grateful to the Federal Government for always supporting Start-ups to thrive.

Meanwhile, the founder of Shap-Shap and winner of the Mobility and Logistics Innovation category, Khalil Halilu was hopeful that the money would go a long way in improving his innovations.

He encouraged Nigerian start-ups to keep their innovative ideas alive and always give their best in every Innovation.