Wooing investors into broadband development Following rising interest in broadband technology, Nigeria promises to be the gateway for the African continent, OZIOMA UBABUKOH writes Efforts by the Nigerian Communications Commission, in conjunction with the Ministry of Communication Technology, to attract investment to the countrys broadband sector has been commended with experts saying the country is poised to be gateway to African continent in terms of broadband development. With the ongoing efforts by the NCC and the ministry, industry experts have openly stated that Nigeria will soon become the first country to be reckoned with on the African continent in terms of having a robust and pervasive broadband Internet network. They have argued that this is possible due to current efforts of the telecoms regulator, the NCC, to drive increased foreign direct investment in the broadband segment of its Information and Communication Technology industry. The Ministry of Communications Technology is also collaborating with the NCC in this endeavour. Experts at the International Telecommunication Union based this on projections, more so given that Nigeria has continued to play a prominent role in the past decade. Following the approval of the National Broadband Plan 2013-2018 by President Goodluck Jonathan early in 2013, the country has been embarking on various projects and attending most international ICT forums to woo potential investors into the country to invest in its broadband market. According to experts from KPMG, consultants to the regulator, the investment drive has become imperative, as Nigeria will need about $10bn investment in its broadband sector in the next five years with $2bn investment yearly. Nigerias broadband penetration, which currently stands at about six per cent is to be increased fivefold to about 30 per cent in the next four years. It is, therefore, instructive that the recognition of Nigerias efforts towards attaining a leading position in the area of robust broadband network development has informed the commendations given to the NCC by the outgoing Secretary General of ITU, Dr. Hamadoun Toure, at the recently concluded ITU Telecoms World 2014 conference held in Doha, Qatar. Toure said, ... The incoming secretary of ITU, Mr. Houlin Zhao, who expressed excitement about the colourful nature of the Nigeria pavilion at the global event, said, There has been a massive growth of the ICT in Nigeria. Zhao should understand Nigerian telecoms ecosystem better, having been the Deputy Secretary General of ITU for about 16 years, during which he had witnessed the growth trajectory in the countrys ICT sector compared with other countries on the black continent. According to him, Nigerias adoption of Long Term Evolution/ Fourth Generation (4G) is one of the fastest in the world, expressing assurance that broadband growth will experience same growth pattern and so encouraged investors to visit Nigeria to tap into its huge investment opportunities in broadband. According to him, After China, India, then Africa and Nigeria is the gateway. Nigeria has shown the way on how ICT should be implemented and we congratulate Nigeria on showing the way. In Lagos, while noting that Nigeria still needs a lot of hard work to achieve its targeted status in the global broadband ecosystem, the Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, said the broadband initiatives in Nigeria were still work in progress. This is why we went to ITU and our focus of discussion has been to woo foreign investors into Nigeria to invest in broadband, she said, adding that necessary incentives would be given to willing investors. Also, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, while reeling out statistics to explain where the country is, agreed with the minister that ICT was, indeed, work in progress. He said that Nigeria currently has over 134.5 million subscribers, 96 per cent teledensity and over 74 million Internet subscribers connected via narrow bands, and over $32bn ICT investment, saying that growth in the sector today continues to be impressive. Juwah, however, said that despite these, opportunity for growth was still high, hence, the adoption of the Open Access Model for the regime of soon-to-be-licensed Infrastructure Companies to promote healthy competition, affordability and access to all in the seven zones for which the InfraCos will deploy services. Our adoption of global best practices in regulatory activities has become an inspiration to many African countries that come to ask us to tell them how we do it. Juwah said broadband offered huge returns on investment, stressing that those, who said ICT was next to oil and Gas for countries that have opened up their frontiers were right. He said government would provide incentives like tax holidays of between five and seven years and provide financial incentives of between 15 and 30 per cent of the operators capital expenditure. This is to create attraction for operators to go to areas they believe may be unattractive. While updating our stories and sharing our experiences, Juwah said, We must report that the positive ways in which ICT is affecting lives and businesses in our nation is breathtaking. According to him, broadband availability and usage are top on the NCC agenda, and that is why we have entrenched the Open Access Model to actualise this. This is why we have hinged our participation at ITU World 2014 on the theme, Broadband Nigeria, Enabling Access, and Transforming Communities. He said, You may be aware that the Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan, has graciously approved an inclusive national implementation plan for effective nationwide pervasive broadband deployment. Juwah said part of NCC story was the successful auctioning of a wireless broadband licence on the 2.3 gigahertz frequency spectrum in February 2014. Explaining further, he said, A lot more potential and opportunities exist in financial sector of our economy where the banks are yawning for broadband services to enable their indispensable data applications. The education sector has huge demand for broadband data applications, and so do government agencies. The potential is simply enormous. In their submission at a recent event in Nigeria, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Mike Ikpoki and a Director with Etisalat, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko, expressed their belief that with good regulatory regime being put in place by the regulator and the telcos continued investment in broadband, Nigeria was poised to become a gateway for ICT investment. Ikpoki and Dikko were also at the ITU conference. By Toby
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 20:49:57 +0000
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