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How 5G technology will revolutionise Nigeria’s creative industry ─Danbatta

Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO of NCC

*The Nigerian Communications Commission tasks creative industry practitioners on next phase of growth to catalyse innovativeness and creativity as the Commission  receives  the ‘Best Agency in Government Sustainable and Development Agenda’ Award

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The current efforts of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) at facilitating the deployment of the 5G technology will further catalyse the inventiveness and creativity of the entertainment industry in the West African country.

The country’s telecoms sector regulator has said such efforts will raise the industry productivity and contribution to the Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to new levels.

L-R: Sunny McDon; Grace Ojougboh Receiving NCC’s Award from Chief Zeb Ejiro as Lancelot Imasuen and Don Pedro Look on  Photo: NCC

Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of NCC, stated this in a keynote address delivered at the Nollywood Economic Outlook (NEO 2022) organised in Lagos recently.

The Commission stated that the well-attended event attracted Nollywood personalities and other critical stakeholders in the creative industry in Nigeria.

The NCC disclosed that the organisers of the NEO 2022 forum also presented the Award of “Best Agency in Government Sustainable and Development Agenda” to the Commission for its role in facilitating digital connectivity to fast-track Nigeria’s economic growth, and accelerate attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the economy.

Speaking on the theme, “Leveraging 5G Technology for the Advancement of Creative Industry”, Prof. Danbatta, represented by Mrs. Grace Ojougboh, Head of Media and Public Relations of NCC, said 5G technology would disrupt the media business models in the creative industry just as he emphasised the need for practitioners to leverage the power of 5G technology to expand the frontiers of the industry for the next phase of its growth.

The NCC EVC/CEO also stated: “The 5G will revolutionise how content is produced, distributed, and consumed while unlocking existing technologies for wider audiences and enabling a new wave of applications.

He further said that the new technology would enable broadcasters to transmit footage back to their base within a short period of time, thus creating more coverage opportunities.”

Danbatta explained that 5G networks would transform businesses leading to higher productivity via real-time flow of information. “Consequently, this will permit the optimization of business functions and creation of new value chains for customers through advances in Internet-based web technology and search engines.

“This is expected to lead to the development and pervasiveness of Over-The-Top (OTT) services,” he said.

According to him, running 5G networks, OTT platforms and applications will also offer video content over the Internet as against the traditional cable or satellite television.

The NCC Chief said this was because technologies enabled by 5G would utilise novel and innovative channels to enhance consumer experience.

“So, for the creative industry, 5G will also enable delivery of high-quality content direct to consumers by the broadcast industry at the touch of a button. Accordingly, it will offer users seamless experience when they stream videos on mobile devices (Smartphones and tablets) and web televisions that use solutions such as Chromecast, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, as well as Smart TVs,” stated the EVC/CEO.

He as well informed the audience that as demands for high-quality content and streaming increase, 5G connectivity presents the perfect opportunity to push the OTT viewer experience to the next level.

With super-fast 5G download speeds up to 10 times faster than the current networks and therefore, lower latency that will improve viewers experience of video on demand and make them to enjoy highly reliable services, stated he.

Danbatta further noted: “The 5G technology will allow the creative industry to better understand future requirements, explore new creative formats, build new mobile video capabilities, pursue strategic partnerships, and assess their data collection practices and database requirements.

“Information and Communications Technology has already made the world a global village due to its ubiquitous connection to remote locations across the globe.

“The 5G technology capabilities will make the world even smaller, thus enabling easy distribution of content across the globe in real time.”

The Commission’s Chief Executive also stated that 5G technology is set to redefine the way people live and work, and will usher the much-talked-about Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) with its promise of a rapid social and economic development of the country.

Danbatta took the opportunity of the event to intimate the audience with the policy and regulatory efforts of the government, through the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the NCC, which have culminated in the licensing of spectrum resources for the deployment of 5G networks in the country.

He asserted that disruptive innovations shaping the future of the world, such as Mobile Broadband, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, Autonomous and Near-Autonomous Vehicles, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality, Block-Chain Technology, Robotics and Quantum Computing, and more are pivoted on telecommunications, especially the 5G technology.

Earlier, Sunny McDon, Executive Secretary, Board of Trustees of Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) and host of the programme, said there had been all sorts of predictions about the introduction of 5G technology and the sheer number of devices that will become connected through its introduction in Nigeria.

McDon, therefore, advocated a focus on the impact on the creative industry, businesses and socio-economic development of the country.

Mrs. Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, Lagos State Honourable Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, represented at the event by Mr. Idowu Johnson, as well spoke on “Imperatives for Building Lasting Structures for the Sustenance of the Creative Industry”.

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