Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Companies (ALTON) said that the federal government should criminalize the destruction of telecom equipment and infrastructure after a series of attacks had crippled the sector recently. The move, said Gbenga Adebayo, would help deter criminals from attacks. He argued that as Nigeria attempts to bolster its telecom industry and has seen large growth in recent years, the time has come to develop and maintain infrastructure for user continuity and to avoid outages. Telecom infrastructure should be viewed a social construct and thus if attacked would be a security risk that only legislation could prevent. He added that, on a related topic, Nigeria should push forward on increasing personnel development in the telecom sector. Adebayo admitted that there are numerous challenges to recruiting IT personnel even as “it is more challenging to retain such a workforce.” “Part of the challenges facing the industry today is human capital, mainly because of the technology dynamic. To find human resources to support IT in the world is very difficult and even more difficult for developing economies,” he added. BM
