Yemisi Izuora
Telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is leading the industry in mopping up support for the 2023 edition of the ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue scheduled at the prestigious Welcome Centre Hotels, Mohammed Murtala International Airport Road, Ikeja, Lagos by 9am this Friday.
Even as skillful professionals drawn from National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) and E-Waste Producer Responsibility Organisation of Nigeria (EPRON), to name a few, have queued up to analyze the theme of the dialogue “You can recycle anything with a plug, battery and cables.”
Revealing these at the weekend, the editor-in-chief, ITREALMS Media group, Mr. Remmy Nweke, said that the ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, slated for Friday, December 15, 2023 at Welcome Centre Hotels, Lagos would have the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida to deliver a keynote address to the occasion.
Maida’s keynote, he disclosed, would focus on ‘NCC: Recycling plug, battery & cable in telecoms sector.” while NATCOMS national president, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo would share insight on “The Place of Telecoms Consumers” on the main theme.
Nweke pointed out that the importance of tackling electronic waste in the country cannot be over-emphasised, as with the introduction and deployment of 5G in the country, more devices and appliances are expected to bring out an influx of electronic devices and usage.
Recalling that the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) emanates from the likes of mobile phones, computers, TV-sets, and fridges among other electronic devices have become a set of fastest growing waste streams across the globe, just as small as the plugs, batteries and cables constitute e-waste.
Nweke also noted that the newly appointed Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida was appointed by President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 and holds an MEng in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College, London in 2002, and in 2006, he bagged a PhD in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Bath, United Kingdom.
In between 2018 and 2019, Maida completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship (FinTech Pathway) programme at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
And until his latest appointment by the President, Dr. Maida 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.
At NIBSS, Dr. Maida was responsible for holistically spearheading the technical and operational standardization of all devices deployed in the financial system in Nigeria for interoperability. Maida led a dynamic team that ensured that all terminals used in the e-payment industry and all devices deployed in Nigeria would accept all cards issued by banks and other licensed card schemes without discrimination.
Prior to his appointment at NIBSS, Maida was the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at the Nigerian-based FinTech Arca Payments Network and Senior Manager at Cisco Systems, United Kingdom.
As a seasoned technical professional with over 15 years of multi-functional and international experience in FinTech; Telecoms; Enterprise Technology, Maida between 2010 and 2014, worked as a Network Design Consultant at EE, part of BT Group, and one of the largest mobile communications companies in the UK.
He was also at some point (2006-2010) a System Engineer at Ubiquisys, a leading company in intelligent 3G and LTE small cells, which is now part of Cisco. Dr. Maida, a professional par excellence with a broad range of experience, making him technically strong and commercially aware, is married with children.
ITREALMS Media, he recalled, in commemoration of the International E-waste Day (IeWD) 2022, has advanced plans to host a day discourse on e-Waste in Nigeria this Friday, December 15 in Lagos.