The newly appointed Executive Vice Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Aminu Maida is faced with pressing challenges of the industry.

With a target of 70 percent broadband penetration by 2025 and penetration currently at 45.57 percent, definitely all eyes will be on him to deliver.

There are also other pressing challenges in the industry that he will be required to resolve such as poor quality of services and declining investments in the telecom sector.

But as a technocrat, there is no doubt that there is light at the end of the tunnel judging by the load of experience he has in the field.

Yes, he was appointed from outside the telecom industry but his verse experience in the sector cannot be overemphasized.

Maida until his latest appointment was the Executive Director, Technology and Operations at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the country’s central switch company owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and all licensed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria.

He is a seasoned technical professional with over 15 years of multi-functional and international experience in FinTech, Telecoms and Enterprise Technology.

Prior to his appointment at NIBSS, Aminu was CTO at the Nigerian-based FinTech Acra Payments Network and Senior Manager at Cisco Systems UK. Earlier, between 2010 and 2014 Maida had worked as a Network Design Consultant at EE, part of BT group and one of the largest mobile communications companies in the UK.

Around 2006-2010, he was a System Engineer at Ubiquisys, a leading company in intelligent 3G and LTE small cells, which is now part of Cisco.

These and many other engagements are simply the reason why there are high hopes that the NCC has a bright future. 

More so, going by his academic qualifications, Maida, who is now married with children, graduated from the Imperial College London in 2002, where he obtained a Master Degree in Engineering in Information System Engineering.

Maida who hails from Katsina state and was born in 1979 was awarded a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bath, United Kingdom in 2006.

He also completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship (FinTech Pathway) programme at the Cambridge, United Kingdom between 2018 and 2019.