Profiled: Meet Danbatta, Nigeria’s new telecoms sheriff

There is a new sheriff in town to maintain order in Nigeria’s multi-trillion naira telecoms industry and his name is Professor Umar Garba Danbatta. Professor Umar Garba Danbatta became the new Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Office (EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the influential telecoms regulatory agency, when he was hired August 4 this year by President Muhammadu Buhari. [caption id="attachment_21366" align="alignleft" width="167"] Immediate past EVC of NCCC, Dr Eugene Juwah[/caption] Professor Danbatta takes over from Dr Eugene Ikemefun Juwah. NCC has since released the official profile of its new boss, which reveals his journey through the ivory tower, stints at an NCC-owned training unit, and several other paths that the new chief has crossed. Born in Danbatta Local Government Council of Kano State, Prof. Danbatta obtained his BEng, MSc degrees from the Technical University of Wroclaw in Poland and his PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) UK respectively. [blockquote right="pull-right"] "Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, became the new Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Office (EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the influential telecoms regulatory agency when he was hired August 4 this year by President Muhammadu Buhari." [/blockquote] [caption id="attachment_28027" align="alignright" width="564"] President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria[/caption] He has served as a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Technology of Bayero University Kano for 28 years, where he taught courses in telecommunication engineering and electronics and held academic positions of Dean of the Faculty and Head of Department at different times. His main administrative responsibilities, in the university, included Deputy and Acting Dean of Students’ Affairs, Administrator of the Works Department and later, Director of the Centre for Information Technology (CIT). He was also a member of over 60 University committees and task forces, including numerous stints as Chairman. In administrative and other responsibilities outside the university, he has served on over 20 committees, prominent among which was his Chairmanship of the Implementation Committee of Kano State University of Science & Technology, after which he became its pioneer Deputy and Acting Vice-Chancellor when it took off in 2001. Prof. Danbatta has supervised more than 60 PhD, MEng and BEng projects in diverse areas of telecommunications and has also served as external examiner to seven universities and polytechnics and is an assessor, technical reviewer and editorial member to eight research journals. He has to his credit more than 50 articles in journals, conference proceedings and technical reports. He is also the author of a six-chapter, 167-page book titled Elements of Static Engineering Electromagnetics. He is a recipient of 18 distinguished awards and certificates of honour. Prof. Danbatta has served two terms of five years as a Member of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), and is also a COREN registered engineer and member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE). [blockquote right="pull-right"] "He was the Vice President of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), International Centre for Advanced Communications Studies, which was established in the year 2004 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to build capacity for the Nigerian/African telecoms industry in the diverse areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)." [/blockquote] [caption id="attachment_32224" align="alignleft" width="480"] Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta[/caption] He was the Vice President of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), International Centre for Advanced Communications Studies, which was established in the year 2004 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to build capacity for the Nigerian/African telecoms industry in the diverse areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). While at DBI he has developed expertise in the following major areas of ICT implementation, policy and regulation: Regulation of the Telecommunications Sector of the Nigerian Economy; Competition, Interconnection and Price Regulations in a Developing Economy; Issues concerning Authorization of Telecommunications Services in a Developing Economy; Strategies for ensuring Universal Access and Service to Telecommunications Services; Strategies towards Effective Spectrum Management in a Developing Economy; Issues on Institutional and Legal Framework for Effective Regulation of Telecommunications Services; and New and Emerging Technologies and Impact on Regulation of the Telecommunications Sector of a Developing Economy. Until his appointment as the EVC of NCC, Prof. Danbatta, who recently served as a member of the Implementation Committee of the Northwest University Kano, served as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the Kano University of Science & Technology, Wudil.

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