| How ICT drives the new economy
– Engr Ernest Ndukwe, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian
Communications Commission(NCC)
By EMEKA OKOROANYANWU, SOLA FANAWOPO and OMODELE
ADIGUN
Monday,
November 12, 2007
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Ndukwe
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Telecommunications is one area that the country has recorded
an appreciable progress since 2001.Prior to the introduction
of the Global Services for Mobile (GSM) communications, the
teledensity in the country was a mere 400,000 lines to the
120 million Nigerians then. But with the introduction of GSM
in 2001, telecommunications began to enjoy an unprecedented
boom.Today, there are about 45 million active lines in the
country.Apart from that, telephone services are now being
enjoyed by both the rich and the poor unlike what obtained
it the past where only the well to do had access to telephones.
However, this seeming revolution may not have been achieved
without one man. That man is Engineer Ernest Ndukwe, the Executive
Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian
Communicatins Commission (NCC), the government agency vested
with the regulation of telecommunications services in the
country.
Said Engr Ernest Ndukwe, "ICT is driving the new global
economy. People, businesses and communities with ready access
to information technologies are better equipped to participate
actively in the global economy".
He declares : "No modern economy can thrive without an
integral information technology and telecommunications infrastructure.
This is because ICT provides the veritable platform for development
across economic and other sectors if well harnessed. ICT is
in fact an enabler of broad based social and economic development
of education, health and governance, but are also key enablers
of sustainable human development in a more general sense."
In this piece, he gives the performance of Nigeria in the
ICT sector since he assumed the reins of office as the NCC
boss, the emergence of age digital and how ICT is driving
the world economy.
Excerpts.
ICT in Nigeria
The most dramatic impact of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) has undoubtedly been economic. It is now
accepted that the productivity and competitiveness of all
economic sectors and their capacity to innovate depend on
information and Communications networks.
ICTs networks are making it possible for Nigeria to participate
in the world economy in ways that simply were not possible
in the past by enabling us to take advantage of our intellectual,
human, material and cultural resources.
Computer networking, for instance, has taken over localized
computing all over the world to allow for resources and information
sharing. The interconnection of computers and internet has
brought about greater efficiency and better information sharing
and management.
Clearly, ICTs is driving the new global economy. People, businesses
and communities with ready access to information technologies
are better equipped to participate actively in the global
economy. International investors that demand efficient and
reliable access to ICTs as the basis for investing in a market
are now taking Nigeria seriously because ICT access is now
readily and speedily available.
Healthcare
The development of mobile communications, teleconferencing
facilities and multi-media capabilities of ICTs, have been
of immense benefit especially in healthcare delivery. By this
revolution, medical centres patients have been eliminated.
Today the doctor on call can move freely with his mobile phone
and can easily be reached, in case of an emergency, to give
initial instructions on how to manage the patient while he
is on his way to the hospital if necessary.
With broadband facilities and video conferencing, doctors
in one part of the country, or in any part of the world for
that matter, can consult with other specialists in any part
of the world on any medical case of interest.
Education
Perhaps one of the most important applications of ICT is in
the education sector. A number of educational institutions
are not only able to run courses concurrently, but lectures
can also be received, simultaneously as they are delivered,
in different lecture rooms that are located in places far
away from the actual point of delivery.
The internet has also become a universal and virtual library,
where books, journals, articles and other materials can be
sourced right within the confines of individual’s home
in any part of the globe.
At many Nigerian universities, polytechnics and secondary
schools, students and lecturers, are afforded the benefits
of constant and easy access to updated information on different
subjects via the internet.
Transportation
Transportation, as a medium of establishing contact between
people and of exchanging goods, is another major beneficiary
of developments in telecommunications. Be it in the air, at
sea or on land, telecommunications facilities have facilitated
and enhanced businesses.In Nigeria , improvements in communications
networks have also greatly enhanced services such as the monitoring
of travel schedule and bookings which are heavily dependent
on telecommunications.
Rural development
The role of ICTs in the development of rural communities is
generally appreciated. At all levels, concerted efforts are
being made at improving access to ICT services in the rural
areas.The availability of ICT services to rural communities
is essential to Nigeria with about 80 per cent of our population
located in rural areas. Improvements in the provision of ICT
links to rural areas bring with it the following benefits
to the rural populace. Improvement of the living conditions
of the people in the rural areas by allowing them to communicate
easily amongst themselves and with relatives, friends and
business associates living elsewhere; easier and faster access
to up–to-date market and price information thereby assisting
farmers and rural- based traders in their businesses;
more rural businesses and better employment opportunities
that can greatly reduce the problem of rural–to-urban
migration.
Other benefits are better access to agricultural extension
services such as prompt information on improved seeds, availability
of fertilizers, weather forecasting and pest control; improved
health services including remote diagnosis and treatment advice;
more efficient handling of civil emergencies and natural disasters;
wider access to education resources, especially through distance
learning and the internet.; easier access to government and
wider awareness of government programmes and activities;enhanced
security of lives properties;Improved patrolling and monitoring
of border villages and towns and reduction of rural to urban
migration in search of better living standards which sometimes
is wrongly perceived.
Digital era
In the effort to optimize the utilization of communications’
limited natural resources and attain greater efficiency in
operations, the digital era emerged logically in sequential
order to analogue systems after many years of progressive
research and development work.
The analogue era lasted for over a century beginning with
the discovery of telegraphy which is basic telecommunications
mid 19th century, to, the emergence of Radio towards the end
of the same century which promoted the advent of the broadcasting
industry in the early part of the 20th century. The need to
decipher coded electronic messages during the first and second
world wars and attain computation capabilities at speeds faster
than normal human capacities and competence encouraged the
development of electromechanical computing technologies and
computers from mid 20th century onwards.
The three distinct industries of telecommunications, broadcasting
and computers converged in the digital era to what is now
generally known as Information Communications Technologies
(ICT). The present era began only within the last two decades
of the 20th century and has since developed at a relatively
tremendous rapid pace, driven by technological advancements,
liberalization of markets, globalization and the realization
of the global information highway first advocated by Vice
President Al-Gore of the USA.
Multimedia messaging from a single terminal is the principal
distinctive feature of this digital era. The fact that any
information in the form of voice message, data, image and
video can be digitized, stored, processed and transported
for delivery point to point and/or point to multipoint in
real time is central to the digital age. It must also be emphasized
that the internet, an offshoot of the ARPANET (Advanced Research
Projects Administration Network) of the US Defence Department
as well as the World Wide Web are driving the ICT world today.
It is evident from all the above statistics that while Nigeria
is developing at a fast rate to attain the world advanced
nations’ level of achievement in this sector, a lot
of challenges still have to be overcome in the immediate future.
Digital storage
The concept of digital storage centres emanated from the practical
effects of technological convergence. It is the collation
and storing of information, physically or electronically,
by sorting, scanning and/or archiving in an accessible and
retrievable form that would stand the test of time. The experienced
continuous growth of electronic transactions in escalating
proportions presently justifies the need in Nigeria now more
than ever before, to provide services associated with DSC
(Digital Storage Centres). This would place Nigeria in a predominant
position as one of the fastest growing economies in the West
Africa region as well as in Africa and probably globally too.
Competitive pressures require that organizations become more
efficient and responsive in order to survive and thrive. As
the volume of documents within establishments explodes, the
management can be tasking and pose real challenges. The traditional
system of having paper documents, e-mails, faxes, PDFs, CAD
and other office documents left unmanaged and stored in filing
cabinets, on file servers or on desktop PCs around the office
exposes organization to compliance risks, service delays,
cost overruns and a host of other challenges. Resultant from
this is the fact that to date, lots of data and critical information
lie waste in vaults in some offices, libraries, banks, schools,
law courts etc. which make them susceptible to being inaccessible
forever, though they are still relevant and valuable.
Today, software solutions are available that combine document
and records management capabilities into a single, complete
offering. These solutions enable savings in operating time,
cost, complexity of storage and access to documents throughout
the information life cycle. They are also empowered by offering
improved access to critical documents, promote customer service
and operational efficiency while reducing risks and addressing
compliance demands.
The deficiencies in Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) services on the African continent can be associated
with the lack of adequate infrastructures and facilities,
resulting from long years of state ownership and control of
economic activities in the sector. However, following global
trends in the current digital era, countries in Africa have
created, and are adopting national policies that are private
sector driven, and aimed at delivering evenly spread services
to communities throughout the countries. Consequently, the
challenges to achieving increasing access to telecommunications
on the continent will include ensuring deployment of appropriate
infrastructure, and adequate connectivity of these infrastructure
within countries and across the continent to promote sustainable
social and economic development of the countries in particular,
and the continent in general.
These are indications and high expectations that satellite-based
systems – VSATs and the SAT-3 submarine fibre optic
cables with other planned similar projects will radically
improve access from the most remote areas of the continent,
especially with the latter when fully developed. Two distinct
planned projects by the Nigerian Communications Commission
along these lines are the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative
(SABI) and the Wire Nigeria (WIN) projects. Although wireless
solutions offer rapid rollout, greater reliability, better
security and lower maintenance costs they may not suffice
for many African countries unless complemented by cable based
terrestrial system in more densely populated areas. There
is therefore the need for more creative and cost effective
solutions similar to those enumerated above to achieve optimum
network connectivity and facilitate services. There is also
the need to sustain the existing enabling climate for private
sector to build sustainable networks.
Challenges
Challenges facing this service include commercial subscription.
Subscription is coming from different organizations and as
such will have different formats of documents and needs. The
Digital Storage Centre must be proactive and be adequately
staffed with skilled staff to cope with the diverse platforms
and applications.
Connectivity: It is obvious that communications links will
either be by leased capacity from providers or by private
links through microwave, point-to-point, point-to-multipoint
methods. There is need for connections to Internet Service
Providers or backbone providers and other high capacity links.
IT future
Kindly allow me to reiterate the fact that this era of digital
storage had been long expected, more so when it is seen as
a catalyst to achieving optimum efficiency in industrial processes
and other methods of production. It behooves all stakeholders
in industries that make use of ICT facilities therefore to
take advantage of this relatively new phenomenon for their
benefit and that of the nation at large. It is worthy of note
that the global trend and direction is clear: the future of
information gathering and processing procedure is well known
and the legality of electronic data has been tested and adopted
in many countries of the world. The operations of digital
centres would go a long way to open up a whole lot of new
possibilities as it is being currently experienced in countries
like South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States of
America. Moreover very recently, Ghana has joined the league
of digitally aware nations when the needed legal instrument
was given to its National Databank (one of such Digital Storage
Centres so acknowledged). Some of the benefits of digital
storage era is employment generation and access to modern
state of the art technologies.
The fears are known, new challenges are being handled, there
seems to be nothing capable of hindering the modern world
in this direction. The stakeholders are therefore advised
to accommodate, patronize and project this our Nigerian digital
storage centre because the success or failure of its operations
obviously depends on the support given by the respective industries
such as banking, insurance, capital market, legal, medical,
IT, etc. I respectfully urge you all in this director.
Furthermore, efforts towards putting in place the legal instrument
and framework that will integrate Nigeria into the global
community should also be commended and supported. Our experience
with various multinationals is an evidence to the challenges
Nigerians will face while doing business with the rest of
the world if the legal issues are not given the immediate
attention they deserve.
Today, our business men and public officers are not operating
at their full potentials internationally because our relatively
archaic legal system has not taken into consideration the
use of electronic information as a valid tool to transact
business and communicate official directives.
Experience, research and interaction with different nations
that have espoused technologies have proven that the operation
of Digital Storage Centres would strengthen economic, political
and the legal facets of our development in Nigeria, as well
as stimulate the confidence of the international communities
in our country during this current Information and Communications
Technologies era.
ICT vs economy
It has been widely established that the economic development
of a nation can be accelerated by improvements in a country’s
ICT infrastructure. The explosion in technology which ushered
in the information age has become the basis for defining power
in the modern world. No modern economy can thrive without
an integral information technology and telecommunications
infrastructure. This is because ICT provides the veritable
platform for development across economic and other sectors
if well harnessed. ICT is in fact an enabler of broad based
social and economic development of education, health and governance,
but are also key enablers of sustainable human development
in a more general sense.
It is this realization of the importance of ICTs to human
and economic development that propelled the UN General Assembly
through Resolution 56/183 on December 21, 2001 to endorse
the world summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in two
phases. The first phase took place in Geneva from December
10 to 12, 2003 and the second phase took place in Tunis ,
from November 2005 . The objective of the first phase was
develop and foster a clear statement of political will and
take concrete steps to establish the foundation of an Information
Society for all, reflecting all the different interest stake.
The role of ICTs in the world order is captured vividly in
the declaration of principles issued at the end of 2003 World
Summit as follows: ‘We declare our common desire and
commitment to build a people –centered, inclusive and
everyone can create, access and share information and knowledge,
enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their
full potential in promoting sustainable development and improving
their of life’.
Furthermore, a recent publication by the Global Knowledge
Partnership organization based in Malaysia reviewed the question
of whether the information and communications Technologies
(ICTs) are ‘a fast track to making poverty history?
Or are they increasing existing inequalities leading to exclusion
of entire peoples and populations from the new information
society being built?’ Drawing on their knowledge and
experience, leading experts examined the potential and actual
role of ICTs in meeting major development challenges such
as fighting poverty, promoting gender equality, fostering
participation in political processes, increasing transparency
and aid effectiveness., they concluded that ‘ICTs can
be a unique and powerful platform for promoting sustainable
human development, provided the focus is not on technology
but on the people who use them’.
The publication further stated that ‘the power of ICTs
can most effectively be harnessed through the participation
and corporation of all stakeholders in all sectors of society
government, civil society and private sector. Only by combining
their particular competencies and resources can massive roll-out
of innovative ICT- based services and the scale up of development
interventions be achieved, all of which are necessary to make
a lasting developmental impact. There is no doubt that without
ICTs , a nation or person cannot reach her full potential
in today’s global economy.
Two reports by the World Bank (Information and Communication
for Development Report, 2006) and World Economic Forum (Global
Information Technology Report, 2005-2006), underline the fact
that economic development depends on overall progress in a
country’s ICT sector, and that, without such progress,
both economies and private enterprises suffer. Thus the World
Bank’s study also found that companies that use ICTs
grow faster, and are more productive and profitable than those
that do not.
The value of products and services is increasingly a function
of their information content and the knowledge used to produce
them rather than the raw material content. Consequently, the
ability to easily access and share information and stimulate
the creation of new ideas is viewed as essential to maintaining
a strong economy and enhancing the quality of life of every
citizen.
Telecommunications networks are now making it possible for
developing countries to participate in the World economy in
ways that simply were not possible in the past. This reality
is reflected in the rapid growth telecommunications has been
experiencing around the world: In 1999, there were 1.4 billon
connected lines worldwide (490millon Mobile ; 905 million
fixed). Today, there are nearly 4.5 billion lines (3 billion
mobile and 1.5 billion fixed). Thus in the last eight years,
we have added 3.1 billion lines to the 1.4 billon lines connected
in all the year before. In fact, to quote an ITU publication,
‘today, most of the planet’s 6.1 billon inhabitants
are within reach of telephone service… There are now
more telephone subscribers worldwide than there are households’.
All these statistics go to demonstrate the importance the
world attaches to the development of telecommunications infrastructure.
Increased universal adoption of ICTs implies that nations
need to adopts ICTs or become less competitive. New and emerging
developing economies are therefore creating the enabling environment
to encourage the development of ICT infrastructure.Indeed,
the developing world is becoming the investment destination
for new investment opportunities. In the last eight years,
exponential growth in the mobile subscriber base mostly was
generated in developing countries.
Between 1993 and 2002, mobile users in developing countries
increased from three million to over 500 millon.
For some of these nations, the statistics are staggering.
For example, China now boasts of over 500 million phone subscribers,
while India currently adds 6 million new subscribers every
month even in Nigeria, the subscriber growth rate approximates
1 million per month.
Scorecard
I am sure I will be stating the obvious if I say that Nigeria
is widely recognized as a major market for telecommunications
equipment and services on the Africa continent. With a population
of over 140 million, Nigeria remains Africa ’s most
populous nation and is in fact home to at least one fifth
of the population of Africa . The nation therefore has what
it takes to attract attention of potential investors.
The government of Nigeria has been conscious of the role telecommunications
can play in national development and has therefore been committed
over the last eight years to ensuring that the telecommunications
facilities and services are expanded rapidly. Since the democratic
governance was ushered in on 29th of May 1999, the attention
of the world has returned to Nigeria as the country with the
highest potential for investment on the continent.Let me now
review the scenario in Nigeria today in terms of progress
so far and future prospects:
The government owned company, Nitel, has been privatized.The
nation’s teledensity stands at 27 per cent with about
45 million connected subscriber lines by the end of August
2007.
Since 1999, the Government of Nigeria has pursued a continuous,
progressive and aggressive market liberation policy that has
made Nigeria perhaps the most liberalized telecoms market
in Africa .
Since 2001, the telecommunications industry had experienced
exponential growth, as well as rapid progress in policy and
technology development, resulting in an increasingly competitive
industry which has reduced and continues to shrink the nation’s
digital divide.This growth and advancement in telecommunication
within the last six years has brought about improved teledensity
and has positively impacted all sectors of the economy.Due
to the phenomenal growth in telecommunications, Nigeria has
been described as one of the world’s fastest growing
telecommunications markets in Africa .
These achievements can be attributed largely to the foresight
by government and the enabling and conducive environment with
respect to government policies and regulatory regime.The Nigerian
Government has proven its commitment to promoting a regulatory
environment that is independent, fair, transparent and predictable
within nationally and globally defined agenda for sustainable
development.
Quality of Service
The quality of services is inadequate. While not trying to
hold brief for the Telco’s, there are some fundamental
reasons why we are not having adequate quality of services.
On the side of the operators, the careless sales promotion
often embarked upon by them without corresponding network
expansion has become very worrisome. They did this most of
the time without regards to capacity constraint.
The telecos are also found wanted in delaying of deployment
of necessary switches, transmission network and base stations.
The general shortage of manpower in the entire sector is also
a very big problem. Other remote cause, which the operators
often harp upon, is inability of NITEL to deploy new networks
as at when due and the gradual collapse of its transmission
links.
There is also the problem of multiple regulations, especially
in Lagos and Abuja. Operators were unable to add new base
station to their network for over three years in Abuja because
of double regulations.
On public power supply, your guess is as good as mine. Operators
are spending a huge amount of resources to maintain alternative
power systems. This is not often reliable. Security challenges
is also an issue. At time, armed robbers and area boys would
cart away generators in remote areas.
Actions taken by NCC
To reverse some of these worrisome trends, we have order the
stoppage of promotions by the operators. We are also talking
with the operators to ensure infrastructure deployment is
accelerated. We are also enforcing published guidelines on
co-locations to encourage the Telco’s to share infrastructure. |
