 Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand. I'm very pleased to be joining the studio today by Professor Umar Garba Dambatta, who is Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission. Professor Dambatta, thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much. My pleasure. Now I'd like to start off by talking about smart communities. I know it's a key message here and perhaps we could talk a little bit about the importance of it, particularly in Nigeria. I understand why this project on smart communities is important. We need to look at the way legacy systems, processes, and services are being run. We all agree that these are not being run very efficiently. An alternative is needed that can be able to contain the destruction, the unintended destructive effect that this alternative would bring to legacy systems, processes and so on and so forth, as well as ensure that there is improvement in effectiveness, in efficiency, in productivity of what the legacy systems are doing. And there lies the argument for leveraging information and communications technology and bringing it to VR. In the way and manner we are doing things using legacy processes and systems. The whole purpose is to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, at the same time being able to contain the unintended effect of destruction of these processes. Such is the power of argument in favor of leveraging ICTs to run processes, services, as well as other related issues, governance in fact, to a large extent. That people are saying it is possible to do this, to transform the way we do things, using legacy processes and systems, as well as be able to contain the unintended destructive effect that smart systems should not bring with them. So the argument will be in favor of full scale adoption of smart processes or a gradual way of doing it. I think in Nigeria we have started experiencing this. We would like to do it, not by going the whole hog. We are trying to go for pilot projects in which we can be able to test the efficacy of smart processes. And then from there the argument for adopting the smart systems in their entirety would have been made from what successes are recorded through the adoption in a piece, mail approach of smart processes, smart systems, smart processes, and so on and so forth. What single factor do you think is most important in stimulating ICT adoption? I think first of all we need to again, it's a related question to the past. What are we trying to do? We all know what ICTs can do. The argument has been made that they can improve tremendously efficiency, effectiveness, and ensure productivity more than the way we are doing things without leveraging the file of ICTs. So the whole essence of adoption of ICT is on the need to improve efficiency, efficacy, as well as productivity in things that we are doing on a day to day basis. We want to be able to do those things better, effectively, and efficiently. And what role do you think regulation can play in driving digital financial services? Well, we need to look at the ecosystem in Nigeria. I'm not saying it is the same in every country. The ecosystem that drives financial inclusion now is one consistent of principle two elements. The banking sector, okay, and the financial regulator, incidentally which is not, you know, the Nigerian Communications Commission. And the results are there for all to see that the mobile money service penetration is too low. It's only 1%. Which confess unparably with 60% for Kenya. Then you need to ask, then how is effective? How effective is this bank-driven money mobile service? Obviously, if that is the kind of penetration, you know, we have in Nigeria. And then all of a sudden, the opportunities that we have are offered by telecommunications companies in Nigeria, together with the fantastic statistics that are there for all to see, you know, it becomes very, very relevant if such services could possibly be extended to drive the money mobile service, you know, in Nigeria. Now, but then we are being very careful. Do we have capacity to bring this additional burden to the telecommunications sector? And I'm talking about capacity in terms of infrastructure. So what did we do? We understand the importance of mobile money service to rural communities, underserved communities, as well as communities that are even unsolved with telecommunication services. We would like to see communities participate in this very, very important, you know, inclusive initiative. Empowerment of, you know, rural communities, you know, irrespective of where the communities are and what their circumstances are. So all of a sudden, then, the need to collaborate, okay, to widen the ecosystem, to include maybe the telecommunication companies, the financial regulator, you know, as well as the users, you know, becomes imperative. And I think that is the stage that Nigeria is now. The telecommunications companies in Nigeria are willing to serve as super agents to drive the mobile money services in Nigeria. The regulator is saying, I need to be convinced that you have capacity, okay, so that the complaints we are getting about poor quality of service are not aggravated by bringing an additional burden to VIA on the telecommunications infrastructure. Once we can address and sort out this, you know, little problems, then I would like to see a situation where the telecommunications companies with their, you know, with their good records of providing, you know, telecommunication services bring that same experience to VIA to the money mobile service, you know, industry. And perhaps we'll see the statistics, you know, changing for the better. Finally, it would be very impressed by Nigeria's Pavilion here. There's a lot of interest in that, but obviously a lot of interest in being here in general. I wanted to find out from you, what's the value of attending events such as ITU Telecom World? Well, this is a very, very collaborative event. There is a facilitation of collaboration where we can be able to learn from global best practices, you know. And those global best practices are what we bring to VIA in, you know, the regulations, you know, we make in Nigeria courtesy of, you know, frameworks as you are aware, cutting across, you know, the major areas of regulation, competition, spectrum administration, you know, licensing and authorization and so on and so forth. Also, this event offers an opportunity for Nigeria to make, you know, its case to the international telecommunications audience, so that through this engagement, we can be able to move the investors that we need to continue to make the telecom sector more vibrant, more resilient as well as provide better, efficient and, you know, qualitative services. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much. I appreciate this engagement.