Posted by BY KAYODE OGUNBUNMI on
The received industry wisdom is that Internet penetration in Nigeria is still low. Yet, like most things in the country, this would appear to be undervalued, and overhyped in all the wrong instances.
The received industry wisdom is that Internet penetration in Nigeria is still low. Yet, like most things in the country, this would appear to be undervalued, and overhyped in all the wrong instances.
Though agreeably from a low threshold, the impact of information technology on the Nigerian society has continued to extend further into all facets of life.
"The Internet is still largely employed for email services," said Bade Onipade, a computer scientist in Lagos. "And this is understandable in a society where the surface mail system was not as reliable as it used to, and that is without considering the cost. However, there are now all kinds of internet-based services that Nigerians are plugging into."
Of these, perhaps the most ubiquitous, and the one most likely to drive Internet growth faster is the decision of educational institutions to move their examination and admission processes online. Though the Internet might be little more than carrolian wonderland to many Nigerians, millions now have to deal with it as their children and wards approach the admission process. It is not particularly PayPal, the electronic payment system displacing credit cards in the US, but the scratch card phenomenon and other services is moving financial transactions in the country online. And many are signing up depite themselves.
Yinka Salami is part of this new group. A sprightly 15 year-old, his worried parents had earlier discouraged him from patronising Internet cafZs because of all the negative information they hear about the place. There are talks of kids spending hours on pornographic materials or wasting time and money chatting with ghost figures in foreign lands. Then, there are the so-called 'yahoo-yahoo' boys. Though Yahoo! is the leading Internet portal in the world, a 'yahoo boy' is often an object of scorn, or awe. He is the one who uses the Internet to scam and dupe - and his corruptive influence is dreaded by several parents.
"I first used the Internet to check my JAMB result," said Salami. "You know, you have to browse to check your results. I later became fascinated with the information you can get online and I have started going there frequently."
Salami said his parents were won over when they realised there was no going round the internet; and right now, they have to spend time there themselves to fill in the examination forms for Salami's younger brother.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) are some of the educational and professional institutions whose services can now be accessed online. Bisi Popoola, the Managing Director of Fleet Technologies Limited, the company behind some of the projects, said there are close to five million users of the internet-based services a year and many more are lined up.
"There are currently about four education products in the country," he said. "These include online result checking; online examination registration; online verification of results; school admission. We also do membership and registration for associations like the CIBN."
Indeed, it is a relief of sorts for all parties. As an official of WAEC said, the usual crowd of harassed kids at their offices, and the touts who serve them, are no more.
"It is an additional source of funds for the organisations," he added. "It also makes the system more manageable. A lot of parents can check the results of their wards online, thus reducing the possibility that the kids would give them fake results. And several of the kids don't have to travel long distances before they could purchase forms or check their results. You know, there are only few local councils without internet centres."
This service, he said, is now being extended to Ghana, Gambia and Sierra Leone.
Fleet Technologies and Fountain Trust Bank Limited are also behind 'evaps,' the online visa applications payment system accepted by the United States Consulate. Like the education ones, this works through the purchase of a scratch card equal to the application fee. The number on the cards is now used to log on and fill the forms.
"This removes the need to stay on the queue to make payments," said Popoola. "Evaps, for instance, is a convenient and easy payment system that makes the life of both the embassy and the applicants easy."
Fountain Trust is indeed one of the first banks in Nigeria to seek the utilisation of the internet for the provision of services, and was the recipient of the e-banking award 2002 by an outfit in Lagos, Intermarc Consulting Limited. It is the medium for the sale of most of the scratch cards, and it is a leader in the provision of other online products, including its FountainOne card, a debit card that works in locally and internationally.
"The development of the internet-based products," Tunbosun Kola-Daisi, Head, Special Projects of Fountain Trust Bank, says, is largely due to the needs and demand of world-wise Nigerians. "When you are travelling, you want to avoid the risk of carrying cash. People travelling abroad could access up to $10,000 in the first instance, from their account. And this could be refilled as necessary. And if you lose your card, they can't even use it."
He said account holders could even make Internet payment with the card, either to service their credit card or for online purchases.
But, perhaps the largest internet-based network in the country is the one currently being constructed by the National Sports Lottery Company. Though the first phase has been deployed at a cost of about N10 billion, the second phase is being planned to cover most of the states of the federation.
Though the primary aim of the network is the sales of lottery ticket, there is no doubt that this will also extend into the provision of other needed services to Nigerians.
"Just imagine, 2400 high street retail outlets across 30 states in Nigeria where you could go to buy variable amounts of GSM Airtime, withdraw cash, pay utility bills and pay for goods and services using a 3inch by 2inch flat piece of plastic," said Charles Ogunmola, the Chief Technology Officer for NSL LLC.
Incidentally, the strength of the network is also its area of operation. The system has to be running for 24 hours because, as Ogunmola said, "if we the network is not up, we don't sell." The system also has to meet the conditions of the World Lottery Association, reputed to be one of the most stringent in the world, and this takes care of the security issues.
"The levels of encryption for each lottery transaction go beyond the norm and it is widely agreed that even if you could hack into the network, it would take the average intellect the best part of a year to break the encryption," Ogunmola said. "The potential, from a financial transaction point of view, is only limited by the nature of the transaction."