Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is no doubt recognized as the preferred and fastest growing industry with the power to actualize national visions and enrich economies. This explains why players in the ICT sector seem to take the anticipated success of the recently inaugurated Presidential Economic Team with a pinch of salt following their non-inclusion in the team. ROMMY IMAH examines the situation............
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| *President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeri |
Recent developments in Nigeria have shown that the country is not relenting in its effort at becoming one of the world’s 20 leading economies come the year, 2020. The country’s leaders strongly believe that with Nigeria’s vast population spiced with rich human and natural resources, her membership of the elite global Club 20 is guaranteed.
Even if there has been doubts before now about government’s commitment to actualising this, the recent inauguration a couple of weeks ago of the 24-man Presidential Economic Managemant Team by the president himself, Goodluck Jonathan is an attestation of government’s willingness to ensure that the country plays in the exclusive Club of 20 by the year 2020. Analysts see the team’s major task as being how to manage the country’s dwindling resources in a depressing global economy in order to achieve the most profound results for her overall development.
Vision 20:2020 as it is commonly known today in Nigeria is a grand agenda, which the federal government has adopted as the main thrust of what it is out to accomplish between 2007 and the year 2020. It is a 13-year plan of dramatic socio-economic transformation of the country. The goal of the vision is to transform the Nigerian economy to be in the league of the 20 most industrialized countries of the world. Nigeria now has nine years to make this a reality.
Nigeria’s economic potential is well recognized not only in sub-regional West Africa but the whole of the African continent. It remains the biggest economy in the West African sub-region. And given the country’s considerable resource endowment and coastal location, there is potential for strong growth.
Yet, Nigeria has realized very little of this potential. Previous efforts at planning and visioning were not sustained. The much-touted Vision 2010 was for long, in a state of suspended animation for as long as one can remember. The history of economic stagnation, declining welfare and social instability, has undermined national development for most of the past four decades.
However, the Federal Government, promoters of this new project believes that in recent years (in spite of the global economic recession), the country has been experiencing a growth turnaround and that current situation of things seems right for launching the country unto a path of sustained and rapid growth hence Vision 20:2020.
Government‘s confidence seems to be bolstered by a study conducted sometime ago by Goldman Sachs, which said that by 2025, based on their parameters for growth and development, the 20 largest economies in the world would most likely include Nigeria and the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China. These are the countries identified by Goldman Sachs to have the potential for attaining global competitiveness based on their economic and demographic settings and the foundation for reforms already laid.
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| *Dr. Chris Uwaje, apostle of ICT-based local content growth |
Nigerian ICT professionals are worried that in spite of the very obvious relevance of information and communications technology in the overall actualization of Vision 20:2020, the Nigerian government seems not to be taking this into consideration. This worry is strongly aggravated by the glaring non-inclusion of any known ICT player in the recently inaugurated Presidential Economic Management Team.
Little wonder the composition of this team is accepted with mixed feelings by majority of Nigerians. This is why no one can blame the generality of the Nigerian population for seeing yet another case of déjà vu if the place of ICT in realizing this project is not taken into consideration especially now that the global slogan is Knowledge economy.
From $50million in 2001, Nigeria has today earned over $15billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) with telecommunication alone accounting for over 80% of this earning. Developments in the ICT sector have shown that FDI in this sector will continue to rise as long as the country remains Africa's largest ICT market.
Unfortunately, government appears to be paying deaf ears to this. In the key indicative parametres listed for development towards the actualization of the Vision 20:2020 project, for instance, government was silent in the area of ICT. This has therefore, raised concerns among stakeholders in the ICT sector about government‘s genuine intention or otherwise in actualizing the dream of becoming one of the 20 leading economies in the world by 2020.
Government had listed areas like policy formulation, macro economy, infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and manufacturing as important indicators for focus and development. The conspicuous omission of ICT in the list has continued to confound Nigerian ICT experts.
Experts reckon that for the country to become a member of this club of the biggest industrialized nations of the world, greater investment has to be made in the development of the country’s Information and Communications Technology infrastructure. Their argument is hinged on the fact that the new economy, the Knowledge economy, which is gradually spreading across nations of the world, is driven by the instruments of ICT.
But a cursory look at the list below shows that ICT has no place at least for now, in the country’s economic planning. The following is the composition of the Economic Team as at the time of going to press:
President Goodluck Jonathan
Vice President
Minister Of Finance (Coordinating Minister for The Economy)
Minister of National Planning
Minister of Trade and Investment
Minister of Power
Minister of Petroleum Resources
Minister of Agriculture
Minister of Works
Minister of Education
Minister of Health
Minister of State for Finance
Minister of State for Health
Governor of the Central Bank
Chief Economic Adviser
Special Adviser, Monitoring and Evaluation
Director General, Budget
DG, Debt Management Office
DG, BPP
DG, ICRC
Honorary Adviser On Agric, the Governor of Adamawa State
Honorary Adviser On Finance, Governor Of Anambra State
Honorary Adviser On Economy, President Of Nigerian Economic Society
Mr Atedo Peterside
Alhaji Aliko Dangote
Mr. Jim Ovia
Mr. Femi Otedola
The World Bank believes Nigeria’s quest to becoming a member of the global 20 leading economies in 2020 can only become a reality if a solid ICT platform is built especially putting into consideration that Nigeria has already become a regional powerhouse in all areas driven by ICT.
In fact, it was the acclaimed Oracle of the Nigerian IT industry, Engr. Chris Uwaje who once asserted that the Nigerian nation has for long, tinkered with IT. And that if rated IT-wise as a student, family, community and particularly as a nation, the verdict score will be an apologetic 25% as the country’s abandoned human potentials, leaves much to be desired.
“All potential analysis this century point to the fact that Nigeria’s continental and global competitiveness edge and ability lie in the knowledge habitat of her human capital which is the core ingredient and requirement for success and survivability in the information society where IT tools will remain the oxygen and centre of gravity to the 21st century digital society,” said Uwaje.
Becoming a member of the 20 leading economies of the world in 9 years from now might sound ambitious but this is achievable in an economy that understands what currently drives national development. With continued emphasis on wastage of public fund, blatant ignorance of human capacity building in line with modern economy as well as inability of authorities to identify the importance of IT in national development, this might as well become wishful thinking.
IT experts argue that for the country to compete favourably with other leading economies of the world come 2020, the overall role of information technology in the actualization of this task cannot be swept under the carpet. They argue that time has come for government to allow for greater public participation in governance through the deployment of IT tools and applications. IT is widely accepted all over the world as an optimal tool for improving social, educational and commercial performances.
A little over two years ago, IT experts, professionals and government officials gathered at the prestigious Transcorp Hilton Hotels Abuja, Nigeria’s seat of power at the instance of the Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) and the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) to examine, assess, evaluate and determine the e-readiness status of Nigeria and provide a global ICT update for the benefit of stakeholders.
With the theme: “Advancing the dynamics of ICT Policy Engineering for e-Government,” the conference extensively looked at Nigeria’s developmental potentials and the obvious hindrances to actualizing meaningful development in the country with particular focus on government’s seeming negligence of the power of ICT tools at ensuring successful economic development.
For instance, Chairman of the World Information Technology Services Alliance (WITSA), Dato’ Dan Khoo then acknowledged the country’s enormous potentials which he stated were enough to turn her into a super power when fully harnessed.
As a developing nation, the WITSA chairman advised economic policy makers in the country to always bear in mind that fiscal measure that enhance ICT-based information and infrastructure does not only accelerate short-term economic recovery but also prepare nations for long term economic growth. He called for private sector collaboration in growing the national economy.
“The adoption of ICT in virtually all aspects of the economy and society has been growing rapidly around the world. This has boosted productivity, created new jobs, enabled more efficient businesses, produced higher quality of goods and services and led to greater innovation,” the WITSA chairman said.
“If any African economy refused to take up the advantage of digital revolution now, there may be problem for such a country, because, presently, it is the fastest growing sector around the globe. So, there must be knowledge-based economy driven by the power of ICT. Africa must move fast to avoid being left at the back,” Dan Khoo added.
Participants at the four-day event agreed that Nigeria’s greatest impediment to the implementation of the recently introduced e-payment policy and the e-government strategies has been the absence of the much needed infrastructure to drive these and of course the erosion of the mentality of maintenance culture among Nigerian leaders at every level.
The Abuja conference in its communiqué among other things, observed that emerging technologies are speedily moving the world into a globalized Information Society (IS) and therefore, recognized also that unless ICT is recognized and made the engine room of nation building, many of the economic and social developments in many developing countries such as Nigeria may become irrelevant and/or submerged especially now that the Internet has become the centre of gravity of world affairs, economic development, power, competitiveness and survivability for all nations.
The Worry
Two years since these recommendations were made, government seemed not ready to appreciate the place of ICT in the overall economic development of the country. The composition of the Presidential Economic Team is a classical attestation of this stance. And this has evoked worries among ICT industry stakeholders in Nigeria.
Engineer Ernest Ndukwe, former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) once noted thus: “There is no doubt that without ICTs, a nation or person cannot reach her full potential in today’s global economy. No modern economy can be sustained today without an adequate and pervasive ICT infrastructure. The impact of ICT in development covers various aspects of a nation’s socio-economic life.”
Ndukwe insisted that ICT is driving the new global economy where people, businesses and communities with ready access to information technologies are better equipped to participate actively in the global economy. He added that international investors demand efficient and reliable access to ICTs as basis for investing in any country.
Nigeria’s IT oracle and avowed advocate of local content growth, Chris Uwaje contends that the character of a nation is determined by the architecture (in form and content) of her information structure and systems coordinates arguing strongly that building core technology and skilled capacities of Intellectual Capital is strategically imperative if Nigeria must compete globally.
According to him, “Information Technology has unarguably become the answer to resolving the colossal conflict of poverty in our nation. And no amount of foreign aids and so-called transfer of technology are capable of delivering a functional and sustainable solution. Technology is the process of ensuring that development is properly organized, executed and sustained through motivated creativity and innovation.”
Uwaje who is the president of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) opined that constructive IT deployment and diffusion is the panacea to a significant reduction in the various levels of poverty in the country while insisting that the origin of the overt poverty enveloping the country today and prevalent in her citizens’ everyday life activity, is directly rooted in the “Thinking Poverty” of governance and leadership and indeed of followership within the context of technology vision, processes and implementation standards.
The software expert maintained that Nigeria needs to rethink and restructure her future, within the context of Information Technology and Globalization else she may become one of the pathetic victims of the 21st century Digital colonies or Digital Slaves discovered by IT and later visited by digital disaster.
Engineer Gbenga Adebayo, president, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) said the world today is a virtual village on account of the strength of ICT adding that ICT provide the vehicle for running commerce.
“Nothing can be achieved unless the economy of the nation, I mean all the sectors are driven to a large extent by ICT. There is no alternative to it. We must do the right investment and give the right consideration to ICT. ICT plays a big role on the progress of any economy.”
Immediate past president of the Nigeria Internet Group, Engineer Lanre Ajayi expressed surprise that even with the obvious impact the tools of ICT have made in the economic development of nations of the world, the Federal Government has not found it pertinent to leverage on ICT tools to fast-track the country’s economy.
“Software development for instance is not doing very well and yet, it is a sector that cuts across all other sectors of the economy. It is a sector that can bring in massive foreign exchange for the country; it is a sector that can create enormous employment opportunities. And here we are talking about creating employment; talking about economic growth. I wonder how we can achieve this economic growth without the ICT sector.
“So, I consider the composition of that economic team without any ICT player as strange because ICT is the driver of the other sectors of the economy. If any sector should be considered the most vital in building the economy, I think ICT should come first. An ICT representative in that team is imperative,“ he said.
Ajayi noted that the non-inclusion of any ICT person in the composition of the Economic Team is indicative of government’s sustained negligence of the importance of ICT in the country’s overall economic development adding that it is enough evidence that government is not thinking along the line of the private sector.
“May be, government has a different strategy of attaining its goal; may be they are looking in the direction of other sectors like agriculture. Countries that have very vibrant economies today have relied hugely on ICT to get to where they are. I thought we should have taken a clue from them to use ICT as a platform to jumpstart the economy. At the private sector, we all agree that ICT has the potentials of speedily driving the economy and knocking it to shape.“
However, president of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Engineer Titi Omo-Ettu does not see anything bad in the non-representation of the ICT sector in the Presidential Economic Team arguing that it is not only when an ICT representative is included in an Economic Committee work that the Committee’s output can be enhanced.
“What is important is the content and quality of input the Committee seeks from the diverse sectors of the entire economy. It is possible for someone who is a loafer in ICT to be included only to make up figures and not make any meaningful contribution. Would that have been a good alternative? A Committee is expected to spread its feelers to all areas of its need and seek input.
“To me, the character of committee derives from who the Chairman is and I usually judge seriousness of Government by the pedigree of who they choose as Chairmen of public assignment teams. I have respect for the Chairman of the Committee in question and I may just think the Committee may be ok. I do not know who is who in the Committee as a matter of fact and it counts to know them and assess who they are rather than what they represent.”
Engineer Omo-Ettu, however, added that his association is watching with keen interest, the activities of the Economic Team and would not hesitate to send input even if unsolicited as long as such input will serve a purpose. “Once we see the Terms of Reference of Committees of such nature we send input even if it is not solicited and if we think it will serve a purpose. For us, once we assess the chairman of a Committee we make up our mind on seriousness of Government and decide how to handle it.”
How far can the Economic Team tell their success story without any input from the modern economic driver, the ICT sector? Only time will tell.
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