The Nation Newspaper

Category: e-Business

  • Motion without movement

    The information technology sector (ICT) witnessed inertia in the first quarter of the year, writes LUCAS AJANAKU 

    IN the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector, analysts say its arrowheads are yet to wake up from their slumber as activities remained at their lowest ever.

    Head, Media, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Reuben Muoka, had raised the hope that the industry would witness an upbeat in the first quarter of this year. He had told reporters last year at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja that many major events were being expected.

    According to him, the first thing will be the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP), which experts say, will usher in a new wave of healthy competition. Another milestone expected in the first quarter, he added, would be the completion of the ongoing subscriber identity module (SIM) registration, which got more than N6billion from the National Assembly and more cash from the operators.

    He claimed that the quarter would witness another round of issuance of licenses to operators in different segments of the industry.

    But at the end of the quarter, all these promises have remained wishes. President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Lanre Ajayi, agrees. According to him, expectations were not met. He added: “We should wait and see what happens in the second quarter.”

    Mobile Number Portability

    Speaking at a forum organised by the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) in Lagos late last year, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NCC, Eugene Juwah, accused the operators of delaying the implementation of MNP by not putting the requisite infrastructure in place.

    According to him, the fact that the operators were foot-dragging on the implementation of the project would not make NCC to shift its goal post.

    However, the Communications Technology Minister, Mrs Omobola Johnson, said the Federal Government was committed to the execution of MNP in spite of the problems associated with quality of service in the industry. “We are going ahead with Mobile Number Portability because it is going to give subscribers lots of choice and freedom. MNP will bring new dimension to the competition in the industry. All network operators will have to work harder to earn the trust of subscribers because they will now have choices,” she said.

    Though MNP was scheduled to take off at the close of last month, it never did.

    SIM registration

    Adjudged by experts to have fallen short of internationally acceptable levels because of many lapses, the NCC has still not stopped the registration of SIM cards. The commencement of the exercise about three years ago came after long delays.

    While the exercise has been marred by fraud, the ad hoc workers employed by the operators and those hired by the NCC have not been helping matters. Since payment of the ad hoc workers is hinged on meeting certain targets, they (agents) adopt some tricks to line their pockets. “The target is that you register 20 people every day. So, if you don’t meet this target, you are on your own. What we are paid is too meagre to take care of costs,” an Internet SIM card registration agent lamented.

    Another problem with the SIM registration is capturing the demographic and biometric data of the subscribers. Instead of capturing the 10 fingers prescribed by the consultants to the project, NCC settled for three six fingers (three from each hand).

    Besides, instead of capturing the two ear lobes of the subscriber, the barely computer literate take different photograph to ‘fulfill all righteousness’.

    It was alleged that some of the operators got different sizes of palm kernel seeds to capture the finger prints of potential subscribers to outdo one another in their quest for get more subscribers.

    SMS rate pegging

    However, in a move commended by stakeholders, except operators, the regulator pegged domestic off-net short message services (SMS) at N4. The operators lamented that it was an overkill because traffic and revenue originating from SMS had shrunk tremendously due to the emergence of instant messaging platforms, such as Blackberry and Whatapps, yet subscribers say it has brought an end to fleecing, arguing that in some countries, SMS are free.

    Interconnection rates

    The NCC announced a reduction in interconnection rates for voice calls. The rate was reduced from N8.20 to N6.40; N5.20 and N3.90.

    The regulator explained that the decision to reduce the interconnection rate was taken after consultations with stakeholders.

    “After comprehensive consultations with various stakeholders, the NCC released a new set of interconnection rates determination for voice services for the country’s telecommunications industry, starting April 1, 2013. The new determination rates, which significantly reviewed prices downwards, are informed by the depth of competition in the industry while taking into consideration the position of new entrants and small operators,” Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs, NCC explained.

    He also said the termination rates for voice services provided by new entrants (defined as newly licensed operator entering old or new market within zero to three years) and small operators (defined as an existing operator with a market share of 0 – 7.5 per cent in terms of subscriber base in Nigeria irrespective of the originating network shall be: N6.40 from April 1, this year; N5.20 from April 1, 2014; and N3. 90 from April 1, 2015. The rates remain valid and binding on licensees for the next three years until further reviewed by the NCC.

    Subscribers hailed the new interconnection rate, but want the regulator to also put a price cap on how much operators can charge for voice calls as this cannot be left to the whims and caprices of the operators.

    President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), Deolu Ogunbanjo, said it is good the NCC heeded the call of the subscribers. “We welcome the development. But the NCC should put a cap of N15 on per minute call across the networks. Like it did with the SMS when it imposed a N4 price cap on all off-net SMS, it should do same with voice calls as it should not be left to the operators who will say it should be left to market forces,” he said.

    Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, said the motive of the NCC was suspicious. “Well, the objective of the NCC in carrying out that review wasn’t particularly clear, since it is within their legal responsibility to do so, one will not raise any objection to it. But the (secret) behind appears that they are not in touch with the reality of the industry and the market as it is today. That is how it looks like and I don’t think that rate will allow for competition, which is not healthy for the industry.

    “Considering that there are so many areas of losses for the operators, it will be difficult for us to continue the way things are going. I cannot promise any review in end user tariff because tariff is a commercial issue all the time. It is better left to market forces,” he said.

    Quality of Services

    During the period under review, like the proverbial leopard that never changes its spot, the quality of telecoms services continued to drop. Call drops, unsuccessful call rates, cross-talking, unauthorised call diversion and other problems continued to be the daily experience of subscribers across all the networks in the country. Ajayi attributes this development to surge in subscriber base. He acknowledged the fact that there has been a continuous investment in capacity expansion, lamenting that this has not appreciably translated to quality service delivery.

    In data services, the subscribers experienced untold hardship. If the problem is not downtime from the service providers, it is the speed and bandwidth promised that are not being made available to the subscribers.

    Communications Technology Ministry

    For most part of the quarter under review, there was silence from the supervising ministry which is supposed to galvanise investment into the sector.

    All the promises made by the ministry last year were never kept. First, the minister’s promise that the software incubation centres (pilot) to be sited at the E-Learning Centre, Lagos and Knowledge City, Tinapa, Cross River State were never kept.

    Under the plan, unveiled late last year, the pilot phase was for between October last year and March, this year.Within this time, steps to be taken include initiation of selection process for incubatees; induct first batch of incubatees; organise services for members; develop curriculum; complete and launch of Tinapa Centre.

    National Single Window Portal

    The Ministry of Communication Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Information launched the National Single Window Portal to create an entry for Nigerians to access government information and services online.

    It will showcase the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government on a window portal that will enable Nigerians at the click of a button to view and engage any government’s agency.

    Microwork for job creation

    The Ministry of Communication Technology also unveiled a job creation scheme called Microwork for Job Creation-Naijacloud’ that seeks to reduce unemployment and create wealth for youths.

    With support from the STEP-B project, in the Ministry of Education, the ministry launched the scheme to address employability and job creation using IT.

  • ‘Nigeria loses N47.5b yearly to intellectual property theft’

    Nigeria loses N47.5 billion ($300 million) yearly to intellectual property theft, Country Manager, Microsoft Nigeria, Emmanuel Onyeje, has said.

    Although he did not explain how he arrived at this figure, he said if this problem was not checked, it could threaten creativity and encourage criminality.

    He said criminals could easily get cheap funding through the patronage of the intellectual properties they sell to people.

    Such funds, he said, would have been used to develop the economy through the provision of infrastructure.

    According to him, intellectual property theft is a disincentive to investment in the creative industry. He urged to arest the situation.

    “Intellectual property theft discourages investment into the country. It is one big disincentive to investment to the economy. If there are no laws that protect investment, investors will always lose out. Therefore, if economic development is the fundamental goal of the government, then it must do something about piracy. The government must empower the appropriate agencies to do its works,” he said.

    According to a report by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the global body responsible for the advancement of the goals of the software industry, Nigeria is said to be losing $513 million yearly. This, according to the report, harms local resellers and service firms; lowers government revenues and heightens the risk of cyber crime and security problems in the country.

    BSA added that reducing intellectual property theft (software piracy) by just 10 per cent over four years could deliver billions of naira in economic growth and create thousands of new jobs to occupy the growing army of the youthful unemployed.

  • Sony tackles theft with new mobile phone

    Respite may have come the way of mobile phone users. This is because Sony MobileRCommunications has developed a mobile phone that will be unattractive to thieves and it could easily give them away to security agencies.

    This is coming after the failure of the anti-mobile theft (Anti-Mophti) initiative of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The Commission had registered Messrs NetVisa Nigeria Limited to disable stolen phones through the Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR) used in detecting the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)/Serial Number, by dialing the code *#06# on GSM Mobile Phones.” Like a pack of cards, the programme crashed because the country is haven to counterfeit mobile phones, the NCC said.

    Speaking with The Nation in Lagos, Izzat Kittaneh, the Director, Business Management and Pricing, Customer Unit, Middle East and Africa, Sony, said nearly a million mobile phones are sold in the country every month.

    He lamented that most of these mobile phones were either lost to thieves or damaged easily at the slightest contact with water.

    “Nigera is a huge market, a market that sells almost a half million mobile phones a month. With a population of about 170 million, economic development of Nigeria is a single point percentage, so this is why it is called an emerging market,” he said.

    According to Kittaneh, the software will allow the person that stole the phone to be detected and the phone, subsequently disabled.

    “It is third party software integrated into the phone to save people’s money. In case your phone gets stolen, you would have set up a software to send a predefined SMS to a predetermined number so, as soon as the SIM card removed and another inserted, because the person that stole the phone will have to use it at some point, as soon as he inserts the new SIM card, an automatic SMS will be sent without thief’s knowledge to that predefined number that you have set up.

    This number will let you know who is using the phone because the number will be there. It will also let you know if it is being used or you left it somewhere or not because sometimes, your phone could get stolen or you could misplace it somewhere. For us it is very important that we guide against that,” he said.

    He added that the mobile phone, Xperia TM Z could also stay at a certain depth of water for at least 30 minutes without compromising its functionalilties.

    The phone, according to him, boasts of a range of unparalleled features, including a 5″ full high definition (HD) 1080p reality display, Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, the mobile Bravia Engine 2 and a 13-megapixel fast-capture camera.

  • Power supply threatens e-transaction, says IBM

    Irregular power supply has been identified as the major threat to the success of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) efforts at encouraging the use of electronic platform as alternative way of paying for goods and services.

    Taiwo Otiti, General Manager, IBM West Africa, who spoke in Lagos, said if the Federal Government concentrates its efforts on fixing the nation’s power debacle, so many other things will fall in line.

    According to him, stability in the services offered by telecoms operators on whose network services like e-transaction, mobile money and other forms of electronic transaction would ride may not be guaranteed untill the power issue if fixed.

    He said the operators were running their cell cites on generators. He argued that there would always be glitches in services as the generators will need to be refuelled at some point in time, arguing that there will be huge economic transformation if the power sector is fixed.

    “I think the main issue in telecoms is not just stability, majority of the cell sites are running on generators. So if the Federal Government can fix the power (sector), you will see a big transformation because if a generator goes down, the cell site also goes down and therefore, the nearest cell site which might be congested at that particular moment, your PoS (Point of Sale) is diverted to that one. So there are many issues. The major issue around it is power. If you fix power (the success of the initiative would be assured). It (power) has a big role to play in ensuring the success of the initiative,” he said in an interview.

    Worried by the high cost of managing cash and determined to deepen financial inclusion in the country, the apex bank had introduced cashless project and also licensed some mobile money operators in the country assist in bringing the rural unbanked into the banking sector. But these initiatives have been fraught with myriad of challenges. While the uptake of mobile money services has been adjudged sluggsih, the cashless policy which pilot project was done in Lagos last year did not record impressive success rate.

  • Samsung showcases Galaxy Note 8.0, HomeSync

    Samsung Electronics has unveiled a new tablet designed to add value to its consumers whether at work or at play. The new tablet, Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, is a compact device offering convenient, multi-tasking capabilities and sophisticated S Pen features for the busy, modern and creative person.

    Speaking at the media presentation of the device, Managing Director, Samsung Electronics West Africa (SEWA), Mr Brovo Kim, described the latest product as a slim and compact on-the-go work and play companion, which brings powerful performance and functionality support even to the most demanding of lifestyles. The firm also unveiled the HomeSync, a solution that is a shared storage fit for family entertainment experience on a big screen TV with high definition (HD) HDTV through smarter Android user experience.

    The HomeSync’s 1TB drive can synchronise multiple devices, support eight separate accounts to cover a whole family, allows each user to upload and download content from multiple devices and instantly share with other family members. Users can enjoy the full and familiar Android experience with HomeSync’s Jelly Bean media player and access to Play Store and all of their apps.

  • Mobile phone marks 40th anniversary

    Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the first mobile phone call. The first call was made 3 April 1973. That day, Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, called a rival colleague at another telecoms company and announced he was speaking from “a ‘real’ cellular telephone.”

    Nigeria joined this super-highway in 2001 when operators were issued licences that ushered in the era of global system for mobile (GSM) communication. Currently, the nation has a subscriber base of 113 million, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). In 2012, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) did a report which showed that while global population stood at seven billion, there were six billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide.

    Cooper, now aged 85, is renowned as the “father” of the mobile phone, said his vision for a mobile phone was first conceived in the late 1960s when the car telephone was invented by AT&T.

    He wanted to create “something that would represent an individual so you could assign a number not to a place, not to a desk, not to a home but to a person,” he said.

    “It pleases me no end to have had some small impact on people’s lives because these phones do make people’s lives better. We envision that some day, the phone would be so small that you could hang it on your ear or even have it embedded under your skin, ” Cooper was quoted as saying.

  • No going back on mobile number portability, says govt

    The Federal Government has said there is going back on the proposed mobile number portability (MNP). It said it would not stop the proposal despite the lingering poor telecoms services. Speaking in Lagos, the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, said the MNP would lead to efficiency in the sector, adding that it would foster competition.

    “We are going ahead with Mobile Number Portability, because it is going to give subscribers lots of choice and freedom. MNP will bring new dimension to the competition in the industry. All network operators will have to work harder to earn the trust of subscribers, because they will now have choices,” she said.

    Though she said the MNP would not stop the quality of service problem because it is a national issue, she said  the government was working to get some things in place to make the operating environment more business-friendly.

    “However, MNP does not stop the quality of service issues. This is because we have a nationwide issue around service improvement. What we are doing presently is working on so many things that will ensure that telecoms services improved tremendously. We are working to ensure that network operators are able to roll-out infrastructures without hitches including bottlenecks of multiple taxation and regulations; right of ways challenges; kicking against vandalism of ICT infrastructure among others,” she said.

    According to her, the ministry is working with other stakeholders to surmount the problems facing the sector. “We are working on this with the state authorities, agencies of government, the ministry, NCC and the telecoms operators to ensure that we have improved services in 2013.

    “MNP will definitely give consumer varieties of choice. However, it is the best of bad situation kind of thing, but the major issue is for us to improve on our infrastructure and improve services, so that we don’t have to be moving from network to network,” she said.

  • Waiting for a national database?

    Waiting for a national database?

    The  idea of  a  national data base was mooted about  35 years,But the Federal Government is yet to create it despite the hugeallocation for the project. LUCAS AJANAKU writes. 

    ABOUT 35 years after then military head of state Gen Olusegun Obasanjo first morted the idea of a national database, Nigeria is still searching for a reliable identity for its citizens.

    Although a national identity card was re-introduced after several years of trial by error, the project failed to deliver cards to millions of Nigerians, who did all they could to be registered.

    The first attempt at implementing the project landed some politicians in police net 23 years ago and in 2002, some other politicians were tried for alleged corrupt enrichment through the scheme.

    From the ashes of all these failed attempts emerged the National Identity Management Commission Act 2007, which was enacted towards the end of the Obasanjo administration in 2009. The Act provides for the establishment of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), National Identity Database, assignment and use of General Multipurpose Cards (GMC), the National Identity Number (NIN) and harmonisation and integration of existing identity database. It repealed the law that created the Department for National Civic Registration (DNCR), a conduit pipe through which government officials lined their pockets.

    The need for a national identity for Nigerians cannot be over-emphasised as most countries, including Pakistan have a computerised identity card system with bar coding to make details of the holder available to all the intelligence, police and civil departments. The residential details of the holder would easily be ascertained if these computerised cards are issued to the people.

    The absence of this compelled the Bankers’ Committee to take a decision last year to approach the Pensions’Board for its harmonised customer identification management. This is because the Pension Board’s biometric scheme is adjudged full-proof. The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) is also seeking to use information at its database to issue permanent voters card.

    INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said the electoral umpire is embarking on the purchase of ‘card readers’ that will be placed at each polling unit to display each voter’s finger prints and photographs.  Therefore, with a legitimate card carrying voter, the issue of card buying and stealing will be eliminated at the 2015 general elections in the country.

    Similarly, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is also doing SIM registration, an exercise that got more than N6 billion budgetary approval from the Federal Government. The exercise has been described as a waste of resources as the biometric data collection by the adhoc staff employed by both the operators and the firms commissioned by the NCC to carry out the national assignment have messed it up.

    “For instance, your name is either misspelt, your head-to-shoulder facial photograph taken haphazardly with all manners of objects as background or you are even pre-registered. So, to me, ongoing SIM registration cannot handover a reliable database to Nigeria,” said a security expert spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Founder, Nigeria4BetterRule, Levine Arizona-Ogwu, said the last attempt at bequeathing a national identity card to the nation failed woefully. “The National ID card has little or no value. Those who conceptualised it did not have any serious good intention for it, nor had the creativity and imagination as to the myriad of uses a secure and fully electronic National ID card could be put to. A proper chip-based card would enable the card to carry lots of information such as tax payment records, basic medical information, biometric identification information, credit rating,” he said.

    But the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, NIMC, Chris Onyemenam, said the agency is  prepared to hand over a dependable, fool-proof national database to the country. He said work on the NIMS started in the third quarter of 2009 after the commission had ascertained that it could not re-use most of the assets inherited from the defunct DNCR.

    Speaking after a facility tour of the NIMC facilities in Minna, Niger State and Abuja, the director-general said by the time NIMS becomes operational, it would provide a convenient and simplified process for enrolment into the National Identity Database for the issuance and use of the NIN and the National Identity (smart) Card and help protect the owner from identity theft and fraud by providing a simple, reliable, sustainable and universally acceptable means of confirming the owners identity.

    According to him, it will also make life easier by providing the owner with an easy and convenient means of providing identity in and outside the country. He added that it would also help reform the political process by facilitating the work of the managers of the electoral process.

    “It will make it harder for criminals to use false or multiple/duplicate/ghost identities. This will help the government, through he enhanced performance of the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to protect us all from crimes, especially advance fee fraud and terrorism,” the diretor-general said, adding that it would also reassure all that civil/public servants are who they say they are and banish the phenomenon of ghost workers.

    He said it would help the nation to better manage its national currency, achieve the financial inclusion drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and deepen the Consumer Credit System, which would help to grow the economy, create employment opportunities and raise the standard of living of the citizens.

    For government agencies and private sector, he explained that it would help to harmonise and integrate identity database in the government agencies and optimise use of government resources: so that service delivery is enhanced across the country. According to him, it will also assist the government to generate revenue through taxation.

    Shedding more light on the NIN, the Assistant Director, Operations, NIMC, Mrs Uche Chigbo, said NIN is a non-intelligent set of numbers assigned to an individual on successful enrolment. According to her, enrolment consists of the recording of an individual’s demogarphic data and capture of the 10 finger prints, head-to-shouder facial picture and digital signature, which are used to cross-check data in the NID to confirm that there is no previous entry of the same data. Once this (duplication) process is completed, the data is then stored with a unique NIN that was assigned to it.

    “The NIN once issued to a person cannot be used again; that is, it cannot be issued to another person even if the previous person is dead. It is the NIN that helps to tie all the records about a person in the database and is used to check the identity verified,” she said.

    According to her, every citizen from the 16 years and above and a legal resident will be able to enrol for the NIN, adding that the process will be the same if one chooses self-service option (enrolment form will be filled online through NIMC website) or assisted service (which will require physical visit of the persons to registration centres where executive assistants or support officers will be on ground to carry out the registration).

    Unlike the previous failed exercise, she said staff of NIMC will be on ground permanently in their offices nationwide so that should there be need for update to data already captured, it will be done by the officers.

    The Director, IT/Identity Database, Aliyu Aziz, says the electronic ID card that will be issued is 100 per cent polycarbonate card with 18 different security features, arguing that the card will either check or outrightly eliminate the issuance of other cards in the country.

    But this programme is beset with an avalanche of challenges. Some of these challenges are connectvity, geographical reach, insecurity in the northern part of the country, capacity and funding.

    For the project to sail through, there must be a seamless inter-connectivity with the over 5,500 permanent enrolment centres nationwide and the data centres of the NIMC. With the power challenge bedeviling the nation, so much money will be required to purchase generators and fuel to provide power to enrolment centres across the country.

    With a population of 167 million having peculiar geographical challenges, such as those in the Niger Delta region, getting people to register is not easy. Experts said it would require huge funding too, but NIMC said it has plans to deploy mobile registration officers to complement the officers at the registration centres.

    The director-general, however, said it has made provision for mobile registration of people, adding that there was no need to fret over that.

    With a total of N30.066 billion budget approved so far for the back-end components of the project, analysts said Nigerians are expected results from the NIMC.

  • Stakeholders disagree on interconnection rate

    Stakeholders in the telecommunication industry have disagreed on the reduction of interconnection rate among operators by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The Association of Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON) decired NCC’s action while the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) and Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) praised it.

    ALTON said said it was not clear why the regulator took the decision when the industry was experiencing a recession.

    Chairman of the group, Gbenga Adebayo, said the operators were losing revenue in some areas.

    “Well, the objective of the NCC in carrying out that review wasn’t particularly clear, but since it is within their legal responsibility to do so, one will not raise any objection to it. But the (secret) behind it appears to be that they are not in touch with the reality of the industry and the market as it is today. That is how it looks like and I don’t think that rate will allow for competition, which is not healthy for the industry now,” Adebayo said.

    “Considering that there are so many areas of losses for the operators, it will be very difficult for us to continue the way things are going. I cannot promise any review in end user tariff because tariff is purely a commercial issue all the time, it is better left to market forces, “ he added.

    President of NATCOMS, Deolu Ogunbanjo, praised the NCC for the review. According to him, the development will usher in an era of healthy competition in the industry.

    “The good thing about this new development (interconnection rate drop) is that the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) operators are N1.50 cheaper than the GSM (global system for mobile communication) operators. Don’t mind whatever they say. Do you know that a lot of them are coming to N3 on net SMS as against N4 off-net?

    “Initially, they were reluctant to do it but now, some of them are doing N3 on net SMS. Give them the next four weeks, by say April ending, competition will force them to drop call tariffs. For the first time in about six or seven years, you are now seeing a responsive NCC that has reduced the interconnection rate of CDMA and ultimately, CDMA will be the choice of the subscribers. It will be used in the place of landline.

    “The health of the CDMA notwithstanding, the other three that are merging will come on stream soon and you will see competition. With this interconnect rate, the stage is set for a robust competition in the industry and we thank the NCC for heeding our cry. We however, want the NCC to reduce the tariff price cap from N50 to N20,” he said.

    For ATCON, the development would give opportunity to operators to lower their tariff if they so desire to do so.

    Lanre Ajayi, president of the body, explained that lower interconnection rate actually translated to operators paying less but argued that it may not automatically translate to lower tariff because there are other cost elements embodied in arriving at tariff rates.

  • ‘Local content will aid telecoms growth’

    THE Federal Government will implement local content in the information communication telecommunication (ICT) sector to ensure development and drive the growth of indigenous original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

    To achieve this, the government is working on a framework to push the policy.

    Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Prof Sergeant Cleopas-Angaye, who made this known to The Nation in Lagos, said when the government completes the framework, local content development will form a major part of the ICT sector.

    According to him, to come out with a good framework, there is need for research to explore how best to use what is available in the country for economic development, adding that it is only by so doing that the nation could move forward technologically.

    He said: “We have a whole research going on local content. Research on how we can use our facilities to actually improve our economy. If we continuue to import, we cannot achieve anything meaningful. We need to encourage our people to use the materials we have and use it maximally.”

    “We are committed (to promoting local content). We are coming out with a framework for local content. We are coming out with the framework so that whatever we do, we will actually include local content,” he said.

    According to him, since no nation is an island, the ICT firms that have been doing business in the country have also helped to grow the economy. This, he said, is reflected in outsourcing and cloud computing business that is fast gaining grounds in the country.

    “We are collaborating with other people. We have to share. We have to partner; we have to collaborate,” he added.