Departments
 |
The Telecommunications and Postal Services Development Department was created in January, 2004, in order to address the Telecommunications needs of Rural and remote areas that are not affected by the new GSM revolution.
THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT
The Structure
The Telecommunications and postal Services Development Department consists of two Divisions namely 1.Telecommunications Development 2. International cooperation and postal Services Development
(i) Telecommunications Development Division:
(a) Universal Access
(b) Rural Telecommunications Development Branches
(ii) International Cooperation and Postal Services Development Division
(a) Global Telecommunications Cooperation
(b) Postal Services Development Branches.
Functions of the Department
- Promoting the economic, social and political development of Nigeria by integrating Nigeria into the global information society
- Implementing integrated National Rural Telecommunications Programmes
- Providing public access to telecommunications services in all the LGAs through telemetries
- Providing telecommunications equipment to deserving public institutions
- Designing and maintaining schemes for the upgrading of existing infrastructure and telecommunications equipment
- Granting of low interest loans to institutions or persons investing in rural telecommunications
Postal Services Development
- Coordinating matters relating to international organizations such as Universal Postal union, Pan African postal Union; etc
FUNCTIONS OF THE DIVISIONS
The functions to be performed by the Divisions are as follows:
Telecommunications Development Division
1. Promoting the availability of telecommunications services in the rural areas and under-served urban communities in Nigeria through the installation of public pay phones in defined geographical areas so as to meet a defined per capital teledensity level
2. Liaising with ITU on matters relating to telecommunications sector
3. Responsible for ICT and postal services implementation matters as they relate to National, Global, Regional and sub-Regional organizations such as NITDA, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Universal Postal Union, Pan African postal Union, UNDP, ATU, RASCOM and ECOWAS.
International Cooperation and Postal Services Development Division
1. Representing Nigeria in global, regional and sub-regional ICT matters in relation to various international telecommunications unions
2. Liaising with relevant international organization on matters relating to telecommunications sector
3. Responsible for ICT and postal services implementation matters as they relate to national, Global, Regional and sub-Regional organizations such as NITDA, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Universal Postal Union, Pan African postal Union, UNDP, ATU, RASCOM and ECOWAS
4. Developing, promoting and providing adequate and efficiently coordinated service and economic postal services at fair and reasonable rates and fees
5. Relations with international postal organizations such as Universal Postal union, Pan African Postal union
6. Coordinating matters relating to courier companies
The Department is currently engaged with the implementation of the first phase of the National Rural Telephony programme (NRTP). The first Phase of the programme is being executed by two Chinese Companies Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB) and ZTE Corporation and will be completed before the first half of the year. A total of 218 Local Governments (108 for ASB and 110 for ZTE) are being connected in this phase.
The contract for second Phase of the project was signed in November, 2006 and December, 2006 respectively. The companies involved are ASB, ZTE and Huawei Technologies and will cover 358 Local Government Areas. The 15% down payment as required by the contract is almost completed. The implementation of the project will therefore commence soon.
Mr. President has granted approval for the contract on the 3rd Phase to be signed within the tenure of this Administration in order to ensure that all the Local Government Areas (LGAS) in the country are covered. In this Phase, 200 LGAS will be covered:
(a) Capacity building and Institutional strengthening
(b) On-shore Funding (Management and Clearing Agency Fees).
CAPACITY BUILDING
• Forty-two (42) Engineers and technologists drawn from the Ministry, NCC and NITEL have been trained in China in various categories of the system namely: Switching levels Band C Billing System, Transmission and Power Systems.
• Our staff participated in the inter ministerial meeting at Grans Montana Forum, Monaco, and other International Meetings such as UPU, WSIS, as a way of capacity building measure for our projects.
OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE NRTP
The Government has decided that exchanges within the NRTP will be handed over to the rivate Operators to operate and manage on lease basis. So far, interested Operators had expressed their interest in the arrangement. Consequently, Mr. president had constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee to evaluate the bids received. It is anticipated that the Exchanges will be handed over to the successful operators soon after the commissioning of the project by Mr. president. Furthermore, another Inter-Ministerial Committee was constituted by Mr. President to harmonize the NRTP with other initiatives in some Ministries and Parastatals in order to avoid duplication of responsibilities.
The Department has the responsibility for supervision of NIPOST. The Director is also on the Board of the Parastatals. Some of the NIPOST performances in the last One year are as follows:
(i) Training of Ministry and NIPOST staff on Postal Reform in Zambia Organized by Universal Postal Union (UPU).
(ii) Acquisition of Mails Delivery Vehicles.
(iii) Completion of special design Post Office and Territorial Headquarters.
(iv) Joint Venture partnership between Private Organization (NETPOST), to electronically interconnect all the post Offices in the country, thus elevating NIPOST service delivery.
(vi) The Committee for the proposed Postal Services Commission has finished the preparation of a draft for National postal policy and postal Bill (Act>. The stakeholders forum to discuss the draft Bill was convened and the Report was put forward.
RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER MINISTRIES AND AGENCIES
The Department has been relating with Telecom Investors such as INDAFTEL, HUAWEI of China, UNIDO and CHINA Telecom etc. on ways of developing telecommunications infrastructure to the rural areas.
The Department has been collaborating with NEPAD, Ministries of Science and Technology, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs on the promotion of deployment of ICT in the rural and under served areas.
| Your name: | |
| Email Address: | |
| Mobile Number: | |