Authorities of the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) on Friday concluded a three-day retreat for the Board of Commissioners and management.
The retreat, which took place in Kenema was to improve the regulatory sector as they prepare to continue to make the Commission a key player in the socioeconomic development of Sierra Leone.
NATCOM's Director General, Maxwell Hinga Massaquoi, said since he was appointed, the Commission had never been taken to court because he initiated and implemented the alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
He said he inherited a Commission's headquarters that hadn't got a gate at its entrance but had now fixed it, adding that the roof of the entire building was leaking and had to solve it.
“The toilets were out of order and were quickly fixed. We inherited records where our predecessors were spending five hundred and fifty million Leones (Le550m) every year on water bowsers. We thought it was not financially prudent. We got a borehole for little over one hundred million Leones that would serve us for many years,” he said.
He disclosed that they inherited a Commission that was indebted to international telecoms organisations, noting that efforts were made to pay.
“This has enhanced our visibility at international level. Whenever we attend international telecoms meetings, there is now much respect for Sierra Leone because of our administrative skills. There had been a semblance of significant improvement at the Commission,” he said.
He said every penny paid to the Commission was for the services rendered.
“We inherited a Commission that was having five zonal offices but we have increased that figure to eight. Plans are underway to have one office in eastern Freetown,” he said.
The NATCOM Director General said in the year 2020, they would embark on a regulatory information management system (RIMS), adding that plans were underway to bring into existence the Cybersecurity Act.
He said they were currently investing in fixed spectrum management to improve telecoms in the country.
NATCOM’s Deputy Director General, Daniel Kaitibi, who presented the NATCOM Agenda 2020, said there would be a ‘results-based’ framework for staff performance management system to measure work done and output of individual staff and their collective department.
“NATCOM shall review and execute third party contracts in the areas of international gateway monitoring and reporting, local interconnect, roaming and on-net call tariff monitoring and reporting, network quality of service monitoring and reporting, and finally central subscriber and numbering resource database administration,” he said.
NATCOM’s Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Alhaji Mohamed Fouad Sheriff, said today’s NATCOM was better than the previous one.
He said many people who wanted to obtain services from NATCOM were now very happy because of the maximization of time, especially in the area of processing applications for the licensing of FM stations, internet service providers, and mobile network operators.
He applauded all for doing “a good job” at the Commission and encouraged all staff to do things that would be geared towards improving the institution.
Director, Regulatory Administration, Sahr Sewa, said NATCOM had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Scientific Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police to tackle cybercrime and subsequently improve cybersecurity.
NATCOM’s Director of Corporate and Industry Affairs, Abdul Ben-Foday said since he took up office the Commission rarely got negative press because they had intensified activities on the resolution of public complaints.
“At NATCOM the consumer is the king. We have done the guidelines to consumer protection,” he noted.
He said there was 13 percent internet penetration in the country, adding that there were 76 percent of people in Sierra Leone using 2G, 43 percent using 3G, and 25 percent using 4G.
Ben-Foday noted that the mobile penetration in Sierra Leone was 55 percent.
© 2019 Politico Online
