IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Nigeria’s economy has almost slipped into recession, no thanks to falling oil prices and long years of pillaging and mindless looting of the treasury. The resurgence of attacks on oil facilities by rampaging militants in the Niger Delta has complicated the nation’s economic woes. Experts advise the Federal Government to make the ICT sector its economic diversification option, LUCAS AJANAKU reports.

Experts have said the Nigerian telecommunications sector has the potential to take the country’s economy back to recovery and reverse the downturn. This assertion has been an “old song”. But what has always constituted a clog in the wheel is lack of political will and policies to drive this potential to fruition.

Basking in the euphoria of 58 years of independence, one critical part of Nigeria’s economy that has performed creditably well is the Information and Communications Technology (ICT)/ telecoms sector. Currently contributing about 12 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the sector was adjudged a ‘Star Performer’, at the last rebasing exercise of 2014, which put the economy’s worth at $510 billion.

The chairman of Tata group, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, is on record as having said that “Going digital is no longer an option, it is the default”. When we consider how the world is evolving almost at the speed of light, we can confirm these words as valid and ones that everyone must digest and understand its implications for the benefit of everyone.

Nigeria has, indeed, gone digital, having made giant strides and bold steps that have been taken by this current government to enhance digital transformation. However, there is still a lot of ground to cover, a lot of room to bring in public and private sector organisations, communities and individuals to bridge the digital divide and enhance the gains of digitization. This, underscores critical importance of the National Shared Services Centre (NSSC), powered by Nigeria’s Digital Infrastructure Company, Galaxy Backbone (GBB).

This development is part of the federal government’s desire to enhance the capacity of the public sector in order to deliver government programmes using information communication technology (ICT).

Olatunde said in Abuja that ICT was one of the sectors through which, Nigerian youth could be empowered.

``ICT is a broad sector that can create jobs for Nigerians, especially the youth, without necessarily depending on government for white collar jobs or waiting for someone's assistance to meet daily upkeep.

At the recent celebration of the 150th International Telecommunication Union (ITU) anniversary in Abuja, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications Technology, Omobola Johnson, revealed that the country now accounts for 29 percent of Africa’s internet access, having increased internet usage to 52 percent in 2014, from 11 percent in 2013.

A key driver of this upsurge is the Ministry of Communications Technology itself. Since its creation in 2011, the country has moved up in the UN e-government development ranking while internet access and adoption have significantly improved across the country.

The advent of the information age in the mid-twentieth century promised to flatten the whole world in such manner that no physicality could claim ‘invisibility’ due to the limiting barriers of space and time.

And true to that promise, the internet opened up the planet in more ways than one can name. Since its launch in the early nineties, the World Wide Web has significantly reduced ‘distances’ amidst people and places.

The two-day workshop on digitization held recently in Lagos provided another opportunity to appraise the process so far and map out strategies to ensure that the deadline of January 1, 2015 set by the government for the switch over is accomplished with least or no hitches.

Last week, two major events occurred simultaneously, one was in Geneva, Switzerland while the other was in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital. In Geneva, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency that regulates information and communications technologies (ICTs) released a report which measures the progress nations make with ICT. In Abuja, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) member states gathered to push Nigeria to jump-start her much talked about broadband policy towards effective implementation.

Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Aziz, has identified seven key conditions necessary to unlock opportunities and potential in Nigeria’s digital market.

He spoke at the presentation of a paper at the just concluded eNigeria conference.

According to him, Nigeria must establish “the right regulatory and industry policies to encourage infrastructure investment in digital infrastructure” such as “communications networks (broadband, mobile telecoms, Internet, online e-government and services) and smart cities.”

At the launch of the city which has the capacity to create hundreds of jobs for Nigerians, the governor declared that his administration would continue to use “technology as a means of economic empowerment and good governance. It is the determination of our administration to be a player in the ICT game.”

The auspicious target set by Nigerian government is designed to encapsulate a policy target to make Nigeria one of the 20 leading economies in the year 2020.

Speaking in a paper during an e-Business conference orgainsed by the Nigeria Internet Group in Lagos, the Chairman of Council of CPN, Alhaja Sekinat Yusuf, said ICT was a key driver of economic growth.

The Minister of Communication, Barrister Adebayo Shittu on Tuesday said that the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) if properly put to use in Nigeria, has the capacity to employ over 45 million Nigerians.

Shittu disclosed this while inaugurating the Board members of Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT).

We are aware of the new trend in the growth of big data across organisations in the country, and we have gone ahead to invest more in big data storage and management, in order to address the new demands. We operate a Tier 111 data centre with modern facilities that best address data storage and management and it is for this reason that we have most bluechip companies and several organisations across all sectors of the Nigerian economy, patronising our data centre.

Nigeria’s Information, Communications and Technology sector has the capacity to employ 40 million workers across the country, the Federal Government has said.

According to the government, the ICT currently employs more Nigerians than the oil and gas sector, and contributes 10 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, the same as the oil industry.

Could you shed more light on how the project keys into the Central Bank of Nigeria’s “cashless Nigeria” scheme?

It really keys into the process of financial inclusion and banking the unbanked, and giving access to formal financial services in the country. That’s the original goal, which Nigeria has set to be achieved. I think, the next checkpoint is in the next seven years — that is, the year 2020 — to reduce the number of unbanked by certain percentage.

Briefing newsmen, NIMC Director-General, Mr Chris Onyemenam, said the gesture would ensure that the more than 100 million Nigerians without official identity cards were captured.

Onyemenam said the commission would register and issue a National Identity Number (NIN) and National Smart Card to every Nigerian from 16 years and above.

Speaking during the formal opening of the 3rd ordinary session of the African Union of Communication and Information Technologies Ministerial Conference at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria, Architect Mohammed Namadi Sambo said for Africa to achieve rapid and sustained economic social and human development, “we must overcome the knowledge and technology gap that divides us from the developed world.

Funke Opeke, chief executive of the Main One Cable Company which has laid a 7,000 km fibre optic cable linking West Africa to Europe, forecast at least one in three people in Nigeria could have direct internet access by 2013.

"We would say a number in the 35-40 percent for internet access penetration over the next 18-24 months would be a worthwhile objective," Opeke said in an interview.