How would you assess the telecoms industry generally in Nigeria today?
In the last 15 years, the telecoms industry has made tremendous progress in many respects. Economically, it is being seen as a significant contributor to our GDP and is among the top three fastest sectors of the Nigerian economy. It has become a major platform for the creation of new jobs and new businesses especially Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) such as Value Added Service (VAS) firms.
Telecoms is also a major driver of our digital economy in tune with the global trend in the ICT industry. This is particularly true with respect to the number of Nigerian start-up firms whose strategic positioning is hinged on a solid and reliable telecoms infrastructure and services.
What in your opinion are the challenges facing the industry and how can we overcome these?
However, in the midst of all the progress earlier alluded to, there is a lot that needs to be done. First, there is an urgent need for more indigenous firms to participate in and contribute to the telecoms value chain. The recently launched local content initiative by the Ministry of Communications Technology and NITDA is a good starting point to achieving this. Second, there is the issue of insufficient infrastructure rollout particularly in the unserved and underserved areas.
Although, the NCC and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) have made a lot of efforts in providing subsidies to deal with this issue, more needs to be done to connect more Nigerians to digital economy. Third, the issue of no availability and sub optimal availability of power in many parts of the country is evidently increasing the cost of providing telecoms services to Nigerians. Removing the bottlenecks being faced by the new owners of the power companies will clearly help in increasing the volume of grid-based power available to the operators which might in turn reduce the cost of providing services. The deployment of off grid and renewable energy infrastructure especially in rural areas is likely to contribute to addressing the power challenge.
How would you rate the telecoms operators today considering quality of services?
The quality of service leaves a lot to be desired. The frequency of dropped calls is at an alarming rate. In some cases, customers’ accounts are debited for services they neither know anything about nor authorised under the guise of caller tunes. Although, some of the operators have made some progress in addressing this issue, they need to do more.
The regulator, NCC, has also made some progress in penalising defaulting operators but more needs to be done to protect consumers and give them the confidence to do more with the telecoms services and infrastructure. Having the confidence of subscribers with respect to the quality of service is key to expanding the use of the telecoms infrastructure to provide new services for programmes such as digitally enabled financial inclusion through mobile banking.
Again, how would you rate the regulators ie, the NCC and the supervising ministry?
The Ministry of Communications Technology and the NCC have clearly steered the ship in the right direction. This is evident in the impressive rate of growth of the sector over the last couple of years as can be seen from the contribution of telecoms and ICT on Nigeria’s GDP. Under the current leadership, a lot of programmes and policies have been put in place. These include the Broadband Initiative, the Local Content Development in ICT, Incubation Programmes for tech startups, the Innovation and Venture Capital Fund for tech start-ups, etc.
The results from some of these programmes are already visible in terms of the number of tech startups in Nigeria, the level of investment going into the sector and the global recognition of Nigeria as Telecoms success story. However, the real impact of these programmes and policies will only be felt a few years from now provided their implementation is not slowed down or truncated.
Broadband remains a critical issue in the industry, what and what do you think are missing and how do we wriggle out of these?
You are right in your statement. Our quest to become a digital nation and run a digital economy will be won or lost on our ability to deliver a solid broadband infrastructure across Nigeria connecting all the communities regardless of their economic or social status as well as their political inclinations. A pan-Nigerian broadband rollout will create new businesses and new industries, which will in turn create millions of jobs for our teeming youths.
The availability of that infrastructure is likely to lead to the creation of “digital warriors” ready to conquer the world digitally speaking. At the moment, what is missing is the speedy implementation of the well articulated Broadband Blueprint released by the Minister of Communication Technology last year. Our ability to form partnerships to mobilise the required resources for implementation will also help us make more progress.
Do you think the present administration has done well for the industry?
Yes, I believe so and it has done well despite all the systemic challenges. The creation of the Ministry of Communication Technology, the appointment of the current Minister, Dr. (Mrs) Omobola Johnson and the focus of the current administration on ICT have certainly gone a long way in establishing what we can confidently call an “emerging industry”. Of course, like everything else in life, there is always room to do more and get greater and better results.
How do we develop our software area of ICT and do you think we are not over dependent on external intervention?
Certainly we are over dependent on imported software and services and even external intervention. The economic potential of the software, as well as software related services, is one of the several reasons why members of the industry have been advocating for more interventions in our software sub sector. Software products and services is one area where Nigeria can make tremendous progress in a shorter amount of time, create more value from the abundant creative talents of Nigerians, enable existing businesses perform better, disrupt existing business models and even create new industries.
One of the attractiveness of the software and software related services sub industry is the lower barrier to entry compared to the hardware sub industry which requires significantly more investment resources to set up the infrastructure. Also, we have far less legacy systems to contend with thereby making it easier for Nigerian businesses to adopt new software systems being proposed by indigenous players. If you recall, about 12 months ago, the Ministry of Communication Technology and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) launched the Guidelines on Local Content Development in ICT Initiative. This initiative is aimed at creating more opportunities to grow the local ICT industry in general and the software space in particular, enable the emergence of more indigenous ICT firms, and increase their level of contribution to the value chain. The Ministry and NITDA also launched the Software Policy which is aimed at enabling and directing the growth of the local software industry.
As an experienced stakeholder, what do you think we can do better for the industry?
That is a general and yet interesting question. I can write a whole book to answer this question but that is not practical. For the sake of this interview, I will make three key recommendations. First, we as Nigerians need to have more confidence in ICT products, services and professionals. This will be reflected in domestic consumption of Made in Nigeria ICT products and services.
Second, the indigenous firms must recognise the need to provide the best ICT products and services at competitive rates to the consumers without relying solely on the consumer’s loyalty to consume Made in Nigeria products and services. In other words, we as entrepreneurs must ensure that our customers get the best experience when they patronise our products and services.
And, third government must continue to play its strategic role as an enabler for the growth of the ICT private sector. Government agencies cannot be seen to be competing with private sector firms for the same opportunities as this sends the wrong signals to the private sector, who are striving to do their best despite all the attendant challenges.
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