Fagbemi Champions NCC, Legal Synergy | ClipTV Online

The Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef O. Fagbemi, SAN, described the need to engage federal and state levels of legal institutions to regulate the communications environment in Nigeria by asserting that, synergy among stakeholders is the key solution to harnessing the digital growth potential of the country.

In a high level workshop by Attorneys-General in 36 states in the country on the role of Attorneys-General in the regulation of the telecommunications industry organized by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Fagbemi stressed that proper regulation is an important approach towards the improvement in terms of socio-economic development of the country in the light of digital connectivity.

According to Fagbemi, digital transformation is the key to national development and a well-regulated communications industry is fundamental to upholding rights, innovation, and thriving ease of doing business.

Digital growth and Justice Sector

Pointing to the justice system, the AGF said that the provision of the rule of law, enhancing legal frameworks, and ensuring that regulations are enforced and even against vandalism of infrastructure are among the issues that cannot be negotiated when it comes to progress.

He emphasized that the judiciary should make it an uphill task by ensuring that saboteurs are made to pay dearly with the legislature reassessing the laws that cushion the communications infrastructure.
Challenges of the Communications Sector
According to recent NCC data, which were quoted by Fagbemi, there are now more than 220 million active voice subscriptions and a 52 percent broadband penetration rate into the first quarter of 2025. He however admitted that the sector has had various issues that have still threatened the development. These include:

The risk of paying multiple taxation at the Federal, state, and local levels

duplications of regulations leading to confusion to the operators
The destruction of infrastructure particularly in conflict prone areas
Discontinuous Right of Way (RoW) policies between states

Using previous cases like the 2024 multiple taxation case in Ogun State, and base stations vandalism in Kano (2023) as a reference, the AGF cautioned that such occurrences constitute economic sabotage and hurt the national transformation.

Synergy and Reform

In order to overcome these issues, Fagbemi proposed a number of strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing the coordination and regulatory efficiency, such as:

Standardization between federal and state codes of law

Creation of a Federal- State Regulatory Coordination Forum

Standardized RoW countrywide adoption of a uniform RoW policy

united enforcement of the infrastructure protection laws

National approach to digital taxation Consolidation of a national digital taxation policy

The state level innovation that is worth emulating, as mentioned by him, is the incorporation of a unified RoW policy by the state of Anambra in 2023 that enabled a 38 per cent growth in fibre optic build out in six-month time.

Attorneys-General

In an accentuation on the constitutional roles of State Attorneys-General, Fagbemi implored his peers to frontline advising governments on digital economy policies, advocate data privacy, cybersecurity and digital rights implementation.

To this end, he said that, as Chief Law Officers, we must make sure our legal advice is innovative, rights-protecting, and enabling of dispute resolution, not litigation prolongation.

Conclusion
Fagbemi concluded by asking all the stakeholders to keep working with the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and other regulatory agencies towards initiating inclusive digital transformation in Nigeria.

He ended by recommending a perfect synergy and provide the communications revolution that Nigeria so badly needs.