Nigeria’s ICT sector after 59 years

The development and use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the world dates back many decades. Nonetheless, Nigeria didn’t have it’s share of the phenomenal success in innovations which le to socio-economic growth of many nations reducing the gap in information and socialisation.

Talk about the global village. The world is one touch away and this made businesses and interactions seamless.

Upon gaining independence from 46 years of British colonization (1914-1960), the development and implementation of ICT in Nigeria had been very slow, but the past decade and half had seen a tremendous shift to a better landscape as Nigerians and it’s government have since embraced technology and innovators are excelling daily both home and abroad.

Presently, the following policy interventions are in progress towards making the communications sector a major driver of the national economy: full implementation of the National Broadband Plan as the foundation for infrastructure development; encouraging service providers to use renewable energy for powering Base Transceiver Stations for improvement of Quality of Service and Access; engaging with the Federal Ministry of Education to ensure mandatory ICT education at the primary level and alignment of the ICT education curriculum to meet current global trends; accelerating the bridging of the knowledge skills gap in the Nigeria ICT skills set ecosystem; establishment of ICT Park, establishment of ICT hubs and learning centers across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

Encouraging implementers of e-services to incentivize users to migrate from lower to higher technology things provided ICT utilization and exploitation across sectors; promoting initiatives that will advance innovation and creativity; creating a sustainable funding framework for the implementation of the e-government Master Plan and other ICT initiatives of government through active engagement with the private sector; enforcing implementation of the Local Content Guidelines to ensure patronage of indigenous products and services, as well as increase participation of Nigerians in the ICT economy; including patronage of NIGCOMSAT by government and local private investors; Implementing the National Addressing Policy to promote national security and support e-commerce; accelerating the passage of the Nigeria Postal Commission Bill to optimize the capacity of NIPOST to be relevant for improved service delivery and bridge the digital divide towards inclusive development.

Also, a new policy framework to anchor innovation and digital inclusion in Nigeria has been launched.

To ensure QoS to the populace with the growth on the telecom industry Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) launched the “Year of Telecom Consumer” campaign programme designed to give concrete expression to the centrality of the consumer in the telecom ecosystem.

Deriving life from items 2 and 6 of the NCC management’s 8-point agenda launched February 27 2016, the declaration of year 2017 as ‘Year of Telecom Consumer’ was meant to focus on the needs and satisfaction of the Nigerian telecom consumer.

According to NCC, the Quality of Service (QoS) had deteriorated beyond what was permissible, particularly the drop call rate which was quite high by the last quarter of 2016. Having received a barrage of complaints from consumers and having undertaken studies to confirm what the consumers have said to be factual, the NCC was galvanized to institute processes to check the deterioration.

The key components of the campaigns for the Year of Telecom Consumers included: Creation of greater awareness on Quality of Service; Facts on Electromagnetic Fields Radiation; Do Not Disturb (DND) Code 2442, which consumers can use to stop unsolicited text messages; and the NCC’s toll free line – 622 – through which consumers can reach the commission in cases where service providers fail to resolve their complaints.

Cyber crimes and other criminalities

Vandalism and theft of telecom infrastructure and facilities have been central recurring challenges to the attainment of the parameters defining the applicable quality of service standards for specific services in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria.

FDI & telephony

The information and communication technology sector has attracted over $1.73 billion foreign direct investment to the country in recent years, while the Nigeria telephony subscribers rose from 151million to over 170 million. Accordingly,  telephony subscribers stood at 151million in 2015; 155 million in 2016; 145 million in 2017 and 173 million in 2018 and will continue to grow.

Subscription to telecommunications service in Nigeria has peaked at 173,670,035 million as at February 2019. Records from NCC indicate that there were no fewer than 114,725,357 million internet subscribers on the mobile GSM as at February, this year. Subscribers’ teledensity at the same time was placed at 124.05%. This is a phenomenal growth considering the fact that Nigeria embraced the GSM technology barely 17 years ago.

Two new satellites

Battling with just one satellite over the years, Nigeria is already on path to acquiring two new satellites — NigComSat-2 and NigComSat-3 Satellite, that would improve reliability, attract new markets and address the need for additional critical infrastructure to meet the nation’s telecommunications requirement of oil and gas, defence, maritime and aviation thereby reducing capital flight.

Broadband penetration

The country broadband penetration has continued to grow and now stands at 33%. Nigeria currently has about over 50,000 base transmitter stations and over 150,000 kilometres of fibre broadband infrastructure. Greater investment in the area of infrastructural is being achieved.

Nigerians can now own and control the telecom Spector

Former president Olusegun Obaasanjo liberated Nigerians from non-connectivity and non-operability when he licensed the telecommunications companies in the country, thereby bringing Nigeria and Nigerians at par with their counterparts in the world.

However, the Buhari administration was able to take it a step further by ensuring that telecommunication giant, MTN Nigeria is listed in the stock exchange, giving room to Nigerians to buy into its shares and practically own and control the sector; a feat which seemed unattainable in the past.

It became obvious that the communications sector is presently focused on information technology infrastructure development, promotion of ICT local content, ICT deployment in government, extending ICT access to Nigerians and providing an enabling environment for competitiveness in the industry.

Growing GDP

Commitment was made to turn the ICT sector into a “Cash-cow” so as to revive the economy leveraging ICTs in all its ramifications. Meanwhile, the country telecommunications sector contribution has continued to grow. The contribution to the GDP now stands at 9.5% to the tune of N2 trillion per quarter. The ministry also generate over N500 million from Radio Licensing.

“Indeed, it has been a remarkable feat growing investment in the sector from $50 million to over $80 billion in the last four years. Within this period, it as raked into the federation account over N15 trillion, positively influence the way we work and live and added new dynamics to transparency in governance.

“Indeed, Nigeria currently ranks among the top five fastest growing telecom markets in the world. This record places our country on the same pedestal as China and India and other top economies.

Globally ICT/ Telecoms has become a veritable tool for advancing growth and economic diversification in countries, even those that are not endowed with natural resources.

“ICT has changed the way people communicate, learn, and conduct business. A World Bank econometric study carried out in 2009 showed that every 10% increase in ICT investments generates a 1.38% increase in GDP. The Nigerian ICT sector today is one of the fastest growing despite the economic recession and contributed about 10% in GDP in 2019. Foreign Direct Investment and local investments is over $70billion dollars, according to the executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta.

International recognition

Nigeria witnessed phenomenal growth in its ICT sector and acknowledges the support of the ITU in the country’s ICT evolution.

Nigeria and 12 other African countries were elected into the membership of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Council and, Radio Regulations Board.

Nigeria also made history at the CTO forum in 2015 mid-September in Kenya where member states rose to elect Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, the EVC, NCC as the new chairman and Engr. Shola Taylor as the secretary–general and chief executive of the CTO.

Nigeria became the first African country to head the World Radio Communications (WRC) Council an arm of the 150-year-old International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The country bagged the honour through Engr. Festus Daudu, former director spectrum management department of the Federal Ministry of Communications.

IT deployment

With the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and BVN, the federal government of Nigeria has been saving a minimum of N24.7 billion monthly, just because of the implementation of this IT software.

Job creation

Several job opportunities have been created with the use of ICT.

An ICT expert with over 15 years cognate experience, Jude Ozinegbe described the moment as satisfactory as several monumental strides had been achieved in the last 59 years.

“It is delightful to see various advancements in the ICT sector today but looking back, some may not know how far the sector has come.

“As Nigeria marks her 59th independence, it is an opportune time to reflect on these achievements and also seek ways of making more advancement.

“Focusing on the telecommunications sector as a basis for this piece,  Ozinegbe noted that, “In the wake of Nigeria’s independence, telephone communication was possible by analog lines, provisioned via rotary phones by the then Nigerian Telecommunications – NITEL.

“These lines were only available to corporate bodies, government institutions and some high net worth individuals.

“As time went by, the rotary phones were replaced by another analog model but now with keypad, this was an improvement on the rotary phones and made dialing numbers faster.

“At this time, there were telephone booths in some public spaces and within NITEL offices, where people could go to make calls by inserting coins into the boxes – it was really an interesting time.

“However, developments and the need for communication saw the introduction of digital lines, now telephone boxes began showing up in people’s homes and smaller businesses as well.

“Those were the days you would hear phrases like “trunk calls” – making calls to distant states like from the South West in Lagos to the North East in Borno.

“Few years ahead and mobile phones started making their way into the Nigerian business community. They were bulky with long antennas you could pull out from the top of the phone in other to get good reception.

“Anyone who owned such was regarded as well to do. Those were the days of 090 (Popularly called “NOT-9-NOT”)

“A few years later featured phones like Nokia’s 3310 and Sagem’s Buddy started making their way into the scene, they were still pricy but more people could now be connected.

“Let’s not forget the providers powering the communication in the background, the likes of NITEL (now ntel) MTN and Econet (now Airtel), some others joined later, like Globacom, popularly known as Glo and Etisalat now 9Mobile.

“Few years down the line, we have smart phones, working up from 2G to 4G LTE and the expectation of 5G. Communication has become much faster, clearer and even cheaper, thanks to all the innovations that have occurred through the years.

“The government has also done a lot in ensuring regulation and quality service delivery through its parastatal, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and her sister agencies.

“Today, as Nigeria celebrates her 59th independence, she can look back and appreciate how she has fared as regards the telecommunications sector, however, there is still room for improvements,” Ozinegbe said.