NCC Sets Up Working Group To Boost Internet Code Compliance

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has established an Internet Governance Working Group to enhance stakeholder participation and help telecommunications licensees in assembly the necessities of the Internet Code of Practice (ICOP) 2026.

The initiative follows a survey carried out by the fee, which discovered that solely two of the 19 licensees assessed had been absolutely ready to implement the code, whereas 9 reported partial readiness and 5 mentioned they weren’t prepared.

Presenting the survey findings on the NCC’s Internet Governance Symposium in Lagos, the Head of the Commission’s Governance Unit, Dr Ibiso Kingsley-George, mentioned operators wanted clearer implementation tips, reporting templates and explanations of the code’s necessities.

She recognized cybersecurity obligations and provisions referring to synthetic intelligence (AI) as a number of the most difficult areas for licensees.

The survey concerned 47 respondents from the telecommunications trade, academia and civil society, together with seven cell community operators, 5 web service suppliers and 12 educational establishments.

It additionally revealed restricted engagement in web governance actions, with 53 per cent of respondents saying they’d participated within the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum, whereas 40 per cent had not attended any web governance occasion. Five organisations reported no engagement in such actions.

According to the findings, low consciousness, the absence of inner directives and the notion that web governance was unrelated to enterprise operations had been among the many components discouraging participation. About 34 per cent of respondents had been additionally unaware of the Internet Governance Forum’s everlasting mandate.

To deal with these challenges, the NCC mentioned it could publish implementation tips and incessantly requested questions, alongside organising workshops for licensees that weren’t but ready to adjust to ICOP 2026.

The survey additional highlighted shortcomings in AI governance. Although 73 per cent of respondents mentioned their organisations had been utilizing or testing AI, solely 39 per cent had an permitted AI coverage, whereas 34 per cent reported making use of human oversight.

The proposed working group is anticipated to offer a sustained platform for stakeholder engagement and assist shut present participation gaps.

The findings additionally confirmed that 94 per cent of respondents believed shoppers must be knowledgeable when interacting with AI, though 40 per cent favoured periodic reporting over notification earlier than deployment.

Cybersecurity, on-line security and little one safety, knowledge safety and cross-border knowledge transfers, in addition to AI governance, had been recognized as main priorities for 2026 and 2027.

Opening the symposium, the Executive Commissioner for Technical Services, Abraham Oshadami, who represented the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Aminu Maida, mentioned web governance choices had vital implications for financial alternatives, public belief, safety and customers’ rights.

He famous that the rising use of AI had launched further issues involving dangerous content material, fraud, privateness, accountability and the safety of youngsters and different weak teams.

“These questions cannot be answered by one institution alone,” Oshadami mentioned, emphasising the necessity for stronger cooperation amongst stakeholders.

He added that profitable implementation of ICOP 2026 would require clear expectations, engagement with affected events and constant enforcement.

Oshadami additionally highlighted the Cyber Resilience Framework for the Nigeria Communication Sector (CRF-NCS), which requires stronger safety measures and larger resilience throughout infrastructure supporting digital companies.

The symposium, the fee’s first, additionally examined points referring to the .ng area, area identify system safety, area abuse and the ISO/IEC 42001 commonplace for AI administration techniques.

Oshadami urged contributors to brazenly talk about implementation challenges and decide to their respective duties in strengthening web governance in Nigeria.