Nigeria’s ICT sector needs local content development to compete globally, says Ekuwem
Former president, Association of Telecommunications corporations of Nigeria (ATCON) and CEO of Teledom cluster, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, whereas assessing the Nigeria’s ICT development in 2011, reiterated the necessity to encourage native content developments in 2012, if the world should live up to expectation. He spoke with ADEYEMI ADEPETUNYear 2011 has come back and gone. within the ICT sector, there have been such a big amount of problems to speak concerning. From your perspective, how can you access the world within the year that simply went by?
The Nigerian ICT sector continued to witness lots of growth in 2011. Our ICT trade is one amongst the fastest growing within the world and definitely the fastest in Africa.
First, the trade rose to the occasion of providing some level of automation within the Nigerian voter registration exercise nation-wide. It provided, on time, the voter information capture system: laptops, acceptable software, stand-alone webcams connected to the laptops, biometric sensors (fingerprint), voter card printers, sufficiently skilled manpower to control the systems from the NYSC and a few level of voter education. The time given for the items of ICT equipment needed to hold out the voter registration to be assembled was thus short that it appeared not possible. However, our selected member corporations like Zinox Technologies did us all proud. though individuals might not bear in mind this and provides it all the kudos it deserves. That feat was a good contribution to the expansion and sustenance of the Nigerian democracy. Don’t forget, constant voter used constant ICT facilities throughout the elections for voter accreditation to avoid multiple voting either in one station or in multiple stations.
Second, the trade witnessed the creation of a federal ministry with a full Minister to superintend over it. we tend to witnessed the approaching along, beneath one umbrella ministry, of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) that was hitherto within the erstwhile ministry of data and Communications on one hand and, the National info Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Nigerian Communications Satellite restricted (NigComSat) and Galaxy Backbone Plc that were within the ministry Science and Technology, on the opposite. The Presidency deserves commendation for bringing these ICT-centric agencies of presidency into one ministry for effective coming up with, coordination, supervision, management and assessment of our national ICT growth and development.
Third, the rise in landing points and enlargement into the hinterland of fibre optic cables that have arrived the shores of Nigeria within the last 2 years. we tend to commend the efforts of MainOne and Glo-One during this regard. they're partnering with different broadband infrastructure suppliers to confirm speedy broadband infrastructure penetration of all cities, towns, villages, homes and offices in Nigeria. we tend to are simply beginning in terms of broadband infrastructure provisioning in Nigeria. Since we tend to are heading within the right direction we'll eventually get there; I mean broadband in its ubiquity. but the speed of broadband infrastructure rollout isn't high enough. as a result of problems with Awareness, Access, Availability and Affordability broadband has not nonetheless become a revolution. The day it's accelerated via correct Awareness campaigns and popularization what we tend to are witnessing within the voice revolution are a child’s play.
Fourth, the launching of Nigcommsat-1R with C-band, Ku-band, Ka-band and L-band constitutes a really wonderful augury for the long run broadband in Nigeria. The platforms thus provided by NigCommsat can boost productivity within the telecoms, broadcasting, net service provisioning, value-added application, office, home and industrial tele-automation, national security, education, health, agriculture, entertainment, government, transportation and hospitality sub-sectors. Partnership and collaboration between the fibre optic-based broadband service or infrastructure suppliers are strongly suggested. When broadband infrastructure builders and repair suppliers still as content suppliers partner, synergize and collaborate, we'll see quantum leaps in productivity across the complete landscape of the Nigerian economy. The contributions of broadband to national growth and development are by much more than the narrowband voice that we tend to appear to dwell on in celebration.
Fifth, preparations are on high gear by the ICT trade to supply an economical, secure, safe, accessible, obtainable and cheap platform for the take-off of our cashless economy with impact from 2012. we tend to commend the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NCC and also the relevant trade associations and stakeholders during this regard. this can require secure terminals at points of sales (POS) and points of transactions (POT) during a net of secure and seamless telecom transport via switching centres to banks and different relevant monetary establishments with lots of price added software applications therein across the country.
Sixth, the institutionalization of SIM card registration processes as a would-be subscriber buys a replacement SIM card could be a resounding accomplishment. I commend the Presidency, the National Assembly, the Nigerian Communications Commission, the telecom operators, the trade associations and also the entire Nigerian telecom client public for this nice feat. it's smart for national security. it's smart for criminal investigations. it's smart for telecom information analyses for growth and development assessment. I commend the Association of Telecom corporations of Nigeria (ATCON) for having fought a decent fight that has eventually resulted in SIM card registration as we've got it these days. i used to be privileged to function National President of ATCON at the time of the advocacy for SIM card registration.
The media was the primary to support our decision. The workplace of the National Security Adviser (NSA), the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the National Assembly (both Houses) and late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua failed to waste time to present us support. I had these feelings that they'd been wondering what to try and do within the light-weight of the rising use of mobile phones by kidnappers, armed robbers, employed assassins, 419ners and thus on to commit crimes till we tend to, the professionals, created the clarion decision.
However, we tend to failed to hold the national ICT event of e-Nigeria in 2011. This was a large setback. With the launch of the National ICT policy in last year’s e-Nigeria, we tend to were expecting to possess sector by sector ICT report, state by state ICT report, agency by agency ICT report, MDA by MDA ICT report, our broadband preparedness and scenario report, trade response plans, methods and ways, etc within the e-Nigeria of 2011. It failed to hold for reasons we tend to don't understand.
We now not have the Nigerian Telecom Summit, that used to carry at the initial stages of the Nigerian telecom revolution. It ceased. we tend to used have AfriNet. It ceased. e-Nigeria was sustained until this year. we tend to hope that it's not ceased. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World event passed this year in Geneva. that is our national event platform to debate and articulate positions on ICT development? currently that NCC, NITDA, NigComSat and Galaxy Backbone are in one ministry, the time has come back for a serious annual event in Nigeria that addresses ICT development in our country. we tend to should raise ourselves yearly: where are we tend to? How current are the policies? Where are we tend to heading? that are our goals? What are our success factors? What are our success indicators? Where are we among the ECOWAS sub-region, in Africa and globally? What are our time frames for accomplishing earmarked tasks? how briskly is every sector of the economy being impacted completely by ICT? Are we tend to sufficiently boosting productivity within the economy with ICT as tool? The queries are several. it's during this space that's the absence in 2011 of a veritable national ICT event platform like e-Nigeria, organized by the key ICT agencies of presidency, to handle these problems and place our country on a path to speedy economic development and transformation that I score our trade terribly low.
Several complaints greeted telecoms services within the last 12 months and operators are blamed for not doing abundant during this space. what's your war Quality of Service within the country?
For any telecom operator, quality of service could be a industrial imperative if you wish to retain your subscribers still as grow your subscriber base. A glad subscriber is your unpaid marketer and an sad one de-markets you. thus an operator ignores cries concerning poor quality of service at his own peril.
However, there are 2 sides to the current issue. If i need to focus on my core telecom business; then I face Access, Switching and Billing. I ought to assume Transport. In different words, I ought to assume that enormous transmission facilities are in place on behalf of me to move my traffic. I don’t have to be compelled to hassle concerning security, electricity at every cell web site, free access to web site for routine maintenance, simple right of thanks to roll out my access network, etc. In Nigeria, i'm sorry to mention, of these assumptions are false. You, as an operator, you have got to supply a full gamut of those facilities. You face multiple taxation. Even native Government officers would demand one style of revenue or the opposite from you. You see, between the calling and known as parties during a seamless telecom network you have got several nodes and media, all of that are powered by electricity. ought to PHCN power fail, what happens to the call? It drops after all. Whose fault? that the operator grapples with {of several|of the many} issues and faces many hurdles in his or her telecom service delivery. However, the opposite a part of the coin consists of scramble for subscribers by operators, that shows itself in bringing onboard much more subscribers that a network capability will address.
So, the scrambles cause biting quite the network capability will chew. Another is an insufficient switching node within the network. the upper the density of switches the freer the transport facilities are in capability for long-standing time traffic.
A simple analogy is this: the door to the current boardroom will solely pass one person at a time. If i need ten persons to suffer that door to select gold or diamond (revenue) on behalf of me, then i need to increase the width of the door to require ten persons. If I don’t, then there'll be congestion at the door within the scramble to urge in to select gold or diamond. thus discipline is needed on the a part of the operators, within the injection of recent subscribers into their networks.
Creating additional dissatisfied subscribers is dangerous business! Having terribly glad manageable range of subscribers is nice business. i do know that my recommendation might not hold water within the highly competitive telecom marketplace. However, they have to strike a balance. we tend to should even be awake to the very fact that the telecom trade is growing. The operators are steadily increasing capability as their subscribers’ bases increase. we've got not nonetheless reached a saturation purpose. With steady increase in capability, broadband infrastructure penetration to off-load bandwidth-intensive information from legacy cellular networks, subscriber base stabilization, range portability and regulator shut monitoring, we tend to are heading to a state of steady prime quality of service. the entire Quality of expertise are excellent. i need to say that excessive promos generate capability congesting spikes within the network.
