Nigeria’s Endless Search For Broadband

*President Goodluck Jonathan

With the berthing of three international links in Nigeria, broadband users expect nothing short of quality, affordable and seamless access to broadband Internet services. But the reverse seems to be the case as claims by Internet Service Providers in the country of offering affordable and genuine broadband services to consumers are everything but true.

ROMMY IMAH in the following reports looks at the need for seamless broadband infrastructure in Nigeria and why broadband providers abound yet, the service seems elusive as well as the panacea to guaranteeing uninterrupted availability.......

 

*Fibre Optic cable.....broadband enabler

Where Is The Broadband?

If there is any topical issue that has consistently engaged the information and communications technology industry in Nigeria, it is broadband – how to ensure the availability of broadband service in the country. Ever since the Nigerian Communications Commission under erstwhile Executive Vice Chairman, Ernest Ndukwe declared 2008 as the ‘Year of the Broadband,’ several fora organised by both the public and private sectors, have all focused on how to make broadband available and accessible to Nigerians.

The case of broadband in Nigeria has become that of the proverbial water which appears to be everywhere yet, there seems to be no water to drink. Close followers of developments in the country’s ICT sector had heaved sighs of relief following the historic landing of three major submarine cables in Nigeria namely, Main One, Glo 1 and WACS, driven by telecommunications giant, MTN. They all join the existing SAT-3. However, even with the successful landing of all of these, broadband users are still lamenting the elusiveness of this economic driver.

Experts had argued that the submarine cables combined, are sufficient enough to provide highly improved service availability and penetration in the country, and significantly reduce consumer and end user subscription prices yet, they have not been able to impact on the end user or the consumer market.

Broadband according to Wikipedia is a “telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device; the broader the band, the greater the capacity for traffic.”

Expectations were high that with the avalanche of undersea cables landing on the shores of Nigeria, access to broadband services would have become a thing enjoyed by every Nigerian irrespective of where the person resides. Cost of bandwidth too would have drastically dropped. But all these seem to be mere wishes that have refused to translate into reality.

Engineer Gbenga Adebayo is the chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, ALTON. He believes that the country can only begin to enjoy these recent developments following the landings of the submarine cables when proper investment opportunities are created.

According to him, “broadband services are anchored on availability of bandwidth and with excess capacity of it at Nigeria’s shore, investment is needed to be encouraged to distribute this capacity to various geographical areas of the country for broadband revolution to be experienced as is the case with voice service.”

For a country desirous of becoming one of the 20 leading economies of the world in less than 10 years from now, the availability and seamless access to broadband cannot be overemphasized. And good enough, government seems to have underscored the importance

Nigeria Must Retool Her National Workforce With IT -----Uwaje

Gradually, governments all over the world are waking from their slumber resulting to a paradigm shift in the style and system of governance. Many countries are now adopting e-government strategies in readiness for the new emerging global economy- the Knowledge Economy.

In this exclusive interview, president of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) and chief executive officer of Connect Technologies Limited, Chris Uwaje diagnoses and re-examines the country’s e-Readiness within the context of the emerging knowledge society and seeks the application of strategies for the retooling of the nation’s workforce through e-Government’s initiatives. Excerpts……….

*Chris Uwaje

What do you think is the place of IT in the present administration’s public service reform programme?

Several existing research works have revealed that as the human population index surges on (now 7.1billion), no nation can govern its people effectively, equitably and transparently nor protect and defend their life and property adequately, without a well articulated retooling strategy and Government e-Readiness Framework.

In clear terms, it has become not only mandatory but indeed a time-sensitive national priority and strategic imperative that Nigerian Government at all infinitesimal levels, must ensure the establishment of digital ‘Retooling’ models for the actualization of effective e-readiness for the automation of all government processes, functions and operations, which must be sustained by highly skilled and IT literate work force.

The main reason for the critical state and poor status of government IT development programme is perhaps “Technophibia” on the one hand, and limited involvement of core IT Professionals in Government on the other. Contractors have taken over professional IT projects.

The concept of fear and/or ignorance of Technology and Information Technology in particular in top government policy makers, have become a critical factor to the actualization of e-readiness of government domain. There is therefore, an urgent need for the implementation of Government-to-Government Automation.

Government-to-Government (G2G) process automation is fundamental to the actualization of the following: Objectives set forth in our National Economic Empowerment Development Plans; Vision 20-2020 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These plans are focused on how Government-to-Citizen (G2C) interface can grossly benefit the citizenry.

Above all, G2G is critically essential to facilitate and accelerate the transformation and enhancement of the vital component of Government-to-Business (G2B) processes. This is perhaps the most logical and cost-effective way to leapfrog global competitiveness

As the world transits into the information age and knowledge society, new conditions are being created for future economic/industrial direction and creation of wealth.

Can existing structures in Nigeria within the context of Civil Service and governance processes sustain the 21^st century global and critically rapid development competitiveness?

Today, government officers all over the world are confronted by the challenge of making the right decision from the bulky files in their possession. Reliable studies have shown that indeed, only 10% of the available content in those bulky files are humanly accessible at a given timeframe for making those decisions.

Therefore, the first priority of government in this 21^st century knowledge economy is a mandatory function to retool its workforce, automate government content and processes and build robust, secured and sustainable computer-communication networks to establish IT connectivity backbone across all government departments, all over the country.

Once the networks are established, Integrated Information Systems have to be implemented and they have to be updated religiously.

The key problem seems to be that, once they complete ICT studies, not enough ICT graduates stay in ICT career paths. The first point to make in relation to this observation is that it is not uncommon for employees starting a career with particular skills set to move outside their skills-specific occupations.

Conditions in the ICT sector that contribute to this phenomenon

Mobile Money: GTB’s Robust Banking Pedigree Is An Edge

*Segun Agbaje, GTBank MD/CEO

BY ROMMY IMAH

It is no longer speculation but has become a reality that the cashless society regime proposed by the apex financial institution in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has come to stay. It is a revolution that will involve about 11 mobile money operators for a start, telecoms operators as well as the commercial banks in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria says Mobile Money Service is aimed at promoting savings in addition to enabling people carry out financial transactions, including sending and receiving monies from phone. The service will also enable a subscriber to buy airtime both for self and others, pay bills, pay for goods and services in shops and on the Internet.

This revolution may not have come the right time than now if a research compiled last year by Microfinance Information Exchange, MIX is anything to go by. MIX had reported that Nigeria ingloriously lies in the first position in Africa as the country with the largest number of people with little or no access to financial services. The country is said to have the largest gap between populations living in poverty and those with access to financial services.

Promoters of this new regime argue that the benefits derivable from mobile money service are enormous. They include financial empowerment, job creation, increase in income of rural dwellers and the absence of Cost of Transaction, CoT often charged when one is doing direct transaction with the bank. It will also increase the tempo of business activities as well as move cash to the hands of people.

Nigeria is following the footsteps of Kenya where M-PESA has changed the face of banking and financial transactions. As a branchless banking service, M-PESA is designed to enable users to complete basic banking transactions without the need to physically visit a branch of a bank. M-PESA is today a huge success story.

Some banks have already embraced this new regime and leading the pack is Guaranty Trust Bank, GTB Plc known for its pacesetting position in banking and financial services in not only in Nigeria but countries where it has operational licenses. The bank in line with the revolution sweeping across the financial sector of the nation’s economy has launched a mobile

How Zinox Group Is Taking Corporate Social Responsibility To Next Level

Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Executive Governor of Imo State holds up the keys of 

the 4 fully fitted Security Vans presented to him by the 

Chairman of the Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, FNCS, OFR.

Governor Babatunde Fashola SAN (2^nd right), Chairman, Zinox Technologies Limited, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh 

(3^rd right), Deputy Governor, Hon. (Mrs) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire (right), Commissioner for Science and 

Technology, Mr. Adebiyi Mabadeje (3^rd left), his Education and Physical Planning and Urban 

Development counterparts, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye (2^nd left) and Mr. Olutoyin  Ayinde (left)

BY ROMMY IMAH

The global norm is that a corporate organization can only be considered to be performing corporate social responsibility when it identifies and is involved in the overall development of its area of operation.

Only recently, one of Nigeria’s foremost IT conglomerates, the Zinox Group donated items worth over N100million to both the Lagos and Imo state governments as one of the company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives aimed at enhancing the efficiency and digital comfort of the Police Command and other security organizations in the states in line with what is currently obtainable the world over.

At the presentation of the items in Lagos, which included four units of fully equipped Security Vans, 150 units of Digital Radio, 150 units of Digital Solar Lamp and 150 units of Solar Torch, to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, chairman of the Zinox Group and leader of the group’s executive management team to the visit, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh noted that the state has done well to merit the ‘A’ list of the Zinox CSR portfolio.

In Imo State, the Zinox Group chair announced the donation of four fully fitted security vans, 150 Jonta flash lights, 150 self-charging digital lanterns, and 150 I-Max radio sets to support the security monitoring functions of Imo State. This is in addition to the donation of N10million to the Imo Foundation launched by the Governor a few months ago in support of structured overall social development of Imo state.

He said that as a group of companies primarily concerned with knowledge development and building a new generation of Nigerians, the Zinox Group would also donate digital knowledge content encapsulated in Zinox Whizkid Version 2 to four schools in the State.

This content according to Ekeh would make kids from privileged and exposed public schools better while enhancing the overall academic performance of the underserved. “We would also provide digital training sessions for teachers to improve

Airtel: Reclaiming Market Leadership With Innovative Products

Emeka Oparah, Director, Corporate Communications and CSR,Deepak Srivastava,Chief Operating Officer and ED and Bayo Osinowo, Lagos Regional Director, Airtel Nigeria at the launch of Airtel's Electronic Recharge Card Voucher in Lagos

BY ROMMY IMAH

The Nigerian telecommunications market is aggressively competitive such that any player, who fails to initiate offers that will retain its customers, is bound to suffer churn. Little wonder operators seem to be busy with how to satisfy subscribers to their network and consequently retain them. Consequently, the Nigerian telecoms market is awash with all manner of products aimed at retaining the subscriber especially at this period of unending complaints about poor quality of service.

A cursory look at the networks shows that almost all the operators have come up with offers aimed at making the subscriber have a sense of belonging. One network operator that has consistently come up with enticing products is Airtel Nigeria. This perhaps, could be as a result of the company’s customer-centric philosophy.

Just within a space of two weeks, Airtel Nigeria came up with two excitingly innovative products aimed at making communication easy for its teeming subscribers. In the words of the Chief Operating Officer of the company, Deepak Srivastava, “we are masters of innovation and we delight in changing the rules of the game positively. As true innovators, we always put the customer first in all that we do.”

Few weeks ago, Airtel Nigeria recorded another milestone with the successful unveiling of the first ever physical and electronic data recharge options in Nigeria aimed at expanding subscription options for data subscribers on its network. The same day, it announced a major reduction of its dongle price from N6,500 to N3,990 so as to give more Nigerians the opportunity to experience and enjoy its superfast Internet services now available in all Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT, Abuja.

With the new development, all new and existing Airtel data subscribers in the prepaid platform can now activate their desired data bundle using the physical recharge cards available from N99.00 to N7,999.00 denominations, for a corresponding data

Symantec: The Passion For Information And Business Protection

Symantec Channel Manager, Nigeria & Ghana at Symantec, Mr. Adeyemi Adeleke; Finance Director, JSP Communications Consultancy, Mr. Joseph Adeboyejo and Symantec Territory Manager, IWECA (Indian Islands, West, East and Central Africa), Sheldon Hand during the Company's Media Roundtable in Lagos

By ROMMY IMAH

Global businesses are under serious threat posed by malware proliferation and spam. Unfortunately, those businesses seem to be at a loss as to how to confront these challenges. In fact, research has shown that about 50 percent of Small and Medium businesses in the world does not have a disaster recovery plan yet, about 81 percent of the same business sector consider data their company’s most valuable asset. The most fatal is that about 71 percent of small businesses that suffered cyber attacks, never recovered to tell their story.

Today, world business is confronted by new complexities and challenges represented by security risks and threats, level of consumerization of IT and the explosion in the information realm. A situation like this needs the deployment of reliable solutions from reliable providers to tackle.

For over a decade, Symantec, a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world have been helping businesses in Nigeria to remain afloat even in the face of growing cyber attacks resulting from boost in economic activities in the country.

Sheldon Hand, Territory Manager, West, East and Central Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands for Symantec recently at a media round-table in Lagos, identified four key trends that have emerged to increase fears surrounding cyber attacks on businesses. Those trends include the growth of malware attack by as much as 81 percent; expansion of targeted attacks; the expository impact of mobile attacks as well as the rise in data breaches.

“While profits remain lucrative in the Personal Computer space, mobile offers new opportunities to cybercriminals that potentially are more profitable. Mobile also creates an urgent concern to organisations around the possibility of breaches. Given the intertwining of work and personal information on mobile devices, the loss of confidential

Why MTN Nigeria Is Spending US$1.3Billion On Network Modernization

L-R: General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Funmi Omogbenigun; Chief Technical Officer, Mrs. Lynda Saint-Nwafor; and Corporate Services Executive, Mr. Akinwale Goodluck; all of MTN Nigeria at a press conference announcing MTN’s nationwide network modernisation project in Lagos

By ROMMY IMAH

One issue that has repeatedly surfaced at telecommunications meets in this part of the world is that of poor quality of service by telecom service providers. Since the coming of the Global System on Mobile (GSM) communications in Nigeria, the phrase- ‘poor quality of service’ has stubbornly refused to disappear from the country’s telecoms dictionary.

In fact, consumers of telecommunications services especially those of GSM services have ceaselessly accused GSM operators of deliberately indulging in delivering poor quality of service to Nigerians. At the phenomenal Telecoms Consumers Parliament introduced by the country’s telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, issue of poor quality of service has consistently dominated complaints by parliamentarians.

Only a couple of months ago, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC brought the sledge hammer on the four GSM operators in the country for not meeting with the industry’s Key Performance Indicators, KPIs especially that of quality of service. All the four GSM operators were cumulatively fined N1.7billion.

But the service providers have attributed the perceived poor quality of service to an avalanche of problems ravaging the industry. They have and rightly too, argued that they were in business to make profit and so, do not see the reason why they should revel in poor service delivery that would obviously affect their Return on Investment, RoI.

MTN for instance, had about a month before the imposition of the fine on it complained bitterly about the growing damage to its fibre optic network across the country, alleging that its network suffers more than 70 fibre cuts every month. MTN attributed this development to poor road construction practices which account for 42 percent of the incidents; damages by criminals and hoodlums which account for 25 percent; as well as other incidents including sabotage, accounting for 33 percent.  

MTN’s Corporate Services Executive, Wale Goodluck had in his reaction to the NCC fine stated that the leading GSM operator remained committed to ensuring the provision of the best quality of service for its teeming subscribers. “MTN continues to employ the greatest effort to overcome the infrastructural and environmental challenges that impede the delivery of consistently good quality of service”, he said.

Goodluck reiterated the challenges faced by operators in Nigeria including unavailability of regular power supply, insecurity of infrastructure, vandalization, and the menace of multiple taxation and regulation. He revealed that the company expends billions of naira annually on diesel, to power its generating sets across the country.

He cited as examples, the difficulties encountered by MTN in Abia State in 2011 when it was involved in a face-off with the State Government over infrastructure levy as well as the face- off between NESREA and NCC over jurisdiction to intervene in specific regulatory issues, leading to the closure of a number of MTN sites in Abuja, the FCT. In each case, as with numerous such incidents all over the country, MTN’s ability to service its customers has been severely impaired.

“In the past, we have lost network availability in over 1000 base stations cumulatively across the network as a result of these cuts. This has affected services predominantly in the South East, particularly, Onitsha and Port Harcourt, and also other

Microsoft Office 365: Introducing The Business Booster

Awawu Olumide-Sojinrin, Marketing Lead, Microsoft Nigeria, Emmanuel Onyeje, General Manager, Microsoft Nigeria, Marc Israel, Information Worker Business Group Lead, Microsoft Africa and Dele Akinsade, Developer Platform and Evangelism Lead, Microsoft West East and Central Africa at a press briefing to announce the availability of Microsoft Office 365 in Nigeria

 

There are some musings in some quarters especially amongst IT disciples that the sky is no longer the limit. Some IT freaks now see the Cloud as presenting every firm with a big and exciting opportunity to revolutionize their IT estate and realize ‘cloud economics’ by achieving more with less. Again, increasing simplicity yields greater productivity.

And if going by the features of a recent product introduced into Nigeria by leading global Software Company, Microsoft, then this thinking could well be true. Businesses in the country are in for rapid growth which experts argue could result to spontaneous national economic transformation.

Known as Office 365, the innovative product is a cloud productivity solution that simplifies IT management and provides virtually anywhere access to familiar Office tools, email, file sharing, conferencing, and many more services.

Businesses in Nigeria can now leverage on the good features of Office 365 to get their work done securely and communicate real-time from almost anywhere. In fact, when combined with office, Office 365 full potential is unlocked as the best solution for productivity, collaboration, communication, and worry-free IT.

Commercially made available in Nigeria about three months ago, businesses can try it for free for 30 days by signing up at the office website or from Microsoft’s 31 leading local Nigerian service providers. It will integrate Office 365 with other offerings and market the service to the hundreds of thousands of small and midsize business customers in Nigeria.

Office 365 for instance, helps professionals and small businesses to grow with Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and an external website in just 15minutes.

Office 365 for enterprises has an array of choices for midsize and large businesses, as well as government organizations. It also includes the option to purchase Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop software on a pay-as-you-go basis, for the first time.

These tools put email, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, video conferencing, web conferencing and more at everyone’s fingertips.

The new product is quite rich with varieties of business-boosting offerings. For instance, while Office offers all the familiar tools including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on your computer, Office 365 comes with Cloud-based