The Nigerian Communications Commission, the National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency and telecoms operators will soon meet to address the issue of multiple taxation at the Information Communications Technology Taxation and Clean Environment conference in Lagos.

The round table, according to the organisers, became necessary following the brewing conflict between telecommunications operators and the regulatory agencies over multiple taxation, which is reportedly affecting their bottom-line.

NESREA has given telecoms operators a deadline to clean the environment of unnecessary telecoms towers. But the NCC, through its Acting Executive Vice-Chairman, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, has argued that the issue of multiple regulations in the telecommunications industry is frightening investors out of the country.

The organisers of the conference noted that, currently, stakeholders were shooting arrows at each other on the issues of multiple regulations, multiple taxation and cleaner environment from distant and disparate positions. ”The stakeholders need to rally to a common platform offered by the conference to thrash the nagging issues,” the organisers said.

AIT Infotech Network, eWorld Magazine and IT Edge News.com are rallying industry stakeholders to the conference, which promises to pave the way for the resolution of the thorny issues.

According to them, multiple taxation and regulation are a sore in the seamless deployment of telecommunications networks and infrastructure and operators have continually claimed that the situation slows down operations.

Already Gwandu had indicated his interest to speak at the conference. He is joined by Globacom Group Chief Operating Officer, Jameel Mohammed. NESREA is also expected at the conference which has already attracted the MTN Corporate Services Executive, Wale Goodluck and the Director-General of the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency of Nigeria, Professor Cleopas Angaye.

The Presidents of Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu and Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo will also feature at the conference.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Science and Technology, Dr Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat and the National Orientation for Technology Application have also been confirmed to speak at the conference.

Companies which have thrown their weight behind the conference include, MTN, NITDA, Omatek, Veda Technologies and Alteq.

Last week, the President of ATCON said that a number of ICT companies were unhealthy due to a number of reasons, some of which are not unconnected to illegal and multiple taxation.