The Nation Newspaper

Category: Infotech

  • Outrage over bombings of telecom masts

    •Otunba Mike Adenuga
    •CEO MTN Nigeria, Brett Goschan

    The bombing of the base stations has re-opened debate on the security of their facilities of some telecom firms in some states in the North. In this report, AKINOLA AJIBADE examines the economic implications of the disaster to operators and subscribers.

     

    BEFORE last week’s bombings of their masts in some states in the North, it was evident that telecom firms have operational problems, such as infras-tructural gap, poor power supply, huge costs, bad network and poor security system. The bombings have compounded these problems.

    Though the Ministry of Communications and Technology, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and operators in the nation’s Information and Technology Communication (ICT) have taken some proactive steps to address the problems, they still need to do more.

    Each time concerted efforts are made to proffer solutions to salient problems in the industry, fresh ones crop up.

    Amid these challenges, the unexpected happened last week. The Islamic sect, Boko Haram, bombed some base stations in some states in the North. According to reports, about 30 Transreceiver Base Stations (TBS) were destroyed in the coordinated attacks. The base stations in Bauchi, Yobe Gombe, Borno and Kano states, are owned by MTN, Airtel, Glo, Visafone, Helios Tower and HIS Nigeria.

    Expectedly, the incident, did not go down well with stakeholders in the industry.

    The President, Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria(ALTON), Lanre Ajayi, told The Nation that the bombing of the base stations has devastated many stakeholders in the information and technology(IT) value chain, stating that the development is going to have serious implications on both the subscribers and the affected telecos.

    He said the issue would impact negatively on the affected firms, as well as the communities that housed the base stations.

    “The bombing of the base stations will have untold effects on the affected telecom service providers and the communities in particular. The host communities would be denied access to telecom services. Their businesses would be affected, implying that they would lose a lot of money. The firms are not only going to lose huge revenues, but would spend a lot of money to build new base stations in those areas,” he said.

    Ajayi said it is difficult to put a figure to the 30 base stations destroyed by the Islamic sect, arguing that the cost is huge. He said base stations are of different qualities, adding that the value of a base station is determined by the type of infrastructure deployed in it. He said base stations carry different features or components, depending on what the telecom companies want to achieve.

    Also, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Teldom Group, Emmanuel Ekuwem, said the destruction of the base stations comes with attendant cost implications. Ekuwem said the communities where the base stations are sited, and the telecom companies are going to record losses.

    He said the bombers unknowingly, would share moral and economic losses because the development would deny them access to communicate to their loved ones and their sponsors in those areas.

    “The activities of the Islamic sect would be affected because they would be having impaired access to telecom services in the states where they bombed the base stations. On the flip side are traders, market women, artisans and students, among others that would be affected by the development. No, doubt, the issue is going to have multiplier effects on business activities. For telecom operators, it would be pretty difficult for them to access data on time until the new base stations are installed.

    “There are economic and physical implications to the destruction of the base stations. The economic aspect has to do with the services being rendered by the telecom companies, and the attendant benefits to business owners in the affected states. Whether the quality of the telecom services is lower or higher in those areas before the bombing took place, it is immaterial. The businesses would suffer. The physical cost has to do with the power, hardware, software and the depreciation of the naira. When the telecom companies installed the mast few years ago, the value of naira was higher than what it is today.”

    Ekuwem said telecom operators spend huge sums of money to acquire software and hardware components used for transmitting data across the airwaves, on generating alternative power, among others. This, he said, translate to billions of naira in cost to the firms.

    The former President of ATCON said only the contractors that supervised the construction of the base stations can provide the cost of building a base station.

    A stakeholder, Gbenga Adebayo, said the extent of damage on ICT infrastructures is great to the economy, adding that the attacks will affect the flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the nation’s telecommunication sector. He said such investors would see Nigeria as unsafe for their businesses. He said the development is a major setback for stakeholders, adding that investors would begin to see the country as unstable for business activities. He said subscribers in the affected areas and nearby areas would be affected by the development because they would not be able to have access to quality services henceforth.

    He said when the flow of local and foreign investment into the nation’s telecom industry is impaired, it would affect the growth of the operators, adding that some of the telecom towers destroyed were hub sites that connect to other base stations. He noted that the impact in terms of service disruption will spill over to other states in the region.

    Analysts argued that the major telecom operators affected by the development would spend huge amount of money to provide new base stations. This reasoning stemmed from the fact that a new base station on the average, costs about N40 million, translating to about N1.2billion for the 30 base stations. This is aside the cost of keeping the base stations running every month. They said N673,000 would be needed to maintain a base station monthly, while N8million would be spent yearly.

    This amount when multiplied by the 22,000 base stations across the country, translates to N175 billion annually for the operators.

    Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Airtel Nigeria Plc, Rajan Swaroop corroborated these assertions recently in Lagos. Speaking during the firm’s stakeholders’ forum, Swaroop said a lot of money is being spent on running base stations.

    He said 54 per cent of Nigerians are covered by the national grid, while 46 per cent are not. He observed that poor power supply has affected the operations of the telecom companies because they spend a lot of money in buying diesel for generators.

    Of note is the fact that telecom operators are extending services to rural areas where there is little or no access to power. This implies that the telecom service providers would spend more in those areas before they can provide good services to their subscribers.

    More worrisome is the lack of effective laws protecting telecom facilities from vandalisation. This has been a major problem as various stakeholders at different fora, have called for the enactment of laws that would guide and secure the facilities of the telecom operators in the country.

    At a recent forum in Lagos, the ex-Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe, lamented the lack of prerequisite laws for the protection of telecom facilities in Nigeria. The forum ended with the call on the Federal Government to declare telecoms facilities as critical national security infrastructure, pending the time necessary laws would be enacted for the protection of ICT facilities.

  • Funding software development Nigeria

    Mrs Mobola Johnson

    The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Mobola Johnson, has expressed the intention of her ministry to get venture capital funding for Nigeria’s budding software industry. Not a bad idea. Applied in the right dose, it should give the industry the much needed lift. But government itself must lead in funding a future and a purpose for the local software industry.

    I had discussed this over two years in ‘Funding software development Nigeria’ http://www.computerworldnigeria.com/articles/2008/08/2

    9/funding-software-development-nigeria. I hope it gets a refreshing reading in the light of the present circumstance. My attention was drawn to this same piece by one of my avid readers in the industry. He has spent over two decades of his life in what he calls the Nigerian software aspiration.Funding start-ups and ICT micro schemes are still a challenge here. Small players in Nigeria’s technology business sector will readily tell you that it is easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a struggling software company to get loans for its ‘knowledge’ enterprise.

    It does not appear that the consolidation in the banking sector has changed the perception of managers in the financial industry that software is a viable market item. Neither is there a change in the general belief among money managers that the only viable venture is in commodity trading, oil and gas, and the like.

    Investment in the knowledge industry is still considered high risk. Ironically, the banking sector virtually depends on technology to deliver its services and maintain a competitive edge. All the 24 banks in Nigeria are high consumers of computer hardware. Nearly 50 percent of software solutions by vendors are consumed by the banks. Outside the oil and gas industry, it is the banks that sustain the relevancy of software vendors.

    But the snag is that these software applications are foreign based, or almost. Only a limited list of local applications has crossed the acceptance threshold. And these success stories only help to intensify the aloofness of the banking industry to growing the indigenous software industry. If banks bet on the local practitioners, the indigenous knowledge industry is bound to grow.

    The fact that the financial industry has come to appreciate the place of technology in their operations ought to soften the path for local drivers in the software sector. But this is not the case, implying that banks need good education on how and why the indigenous software industry could also be a thriving sector like the foreign ones that feed their technology needs currently.

    Banks need to be made to understand that software entrepreneurship, though a long-distance relay, is a genre of business that could boost their financial profiles ultimately.

    Unlike commodity import or export, investment in software development is a marathon. It would entail growing an idea from incubation through series of laboratory tests before it finally becomes a product fit to enter the marketing stage where dividends may come or not.

    This long term process obligatorily requires government intervention. By their nature and given the Nigerian environment, banks inherently shy away from anything long-term. Not even the re-capitalization processes would alter that mindset, making it exigent for government to directly get involved in funding software research and development.

    The goal should be well defined as a national policy thrust. Funding private software entrepreneurship by government should come under the general framework of building a national knowledge capacity and sufficiency in technology able to move the country from an IT consuming to an IT producing nation.

    Under this framework, the role of the National IT Development Agency (NITDA) would be more defined as a rallying ground to bring government, banks, knowledge researchers and the budding IT entrepreneurs together.

    As it is, NITDA remains government’s strongest statement that it has intention to build the IT industry, notwithstanding its current state that underscores the disillusionment in the sector, the agency remains the only viable alternative through which government can intervene rightly in the sector to fund it.

    Banks alone cannot lift the indigenous industry; it would take a combination of factors, with government playing the most critical role to pave the way in taking risk to build the very green knowledge sector. Government must show commitment that it can take the risk on software research and be patient enough to wait for positive results. The financial houses and venture capitalists would not lead the way; they would only follow. It is government that has responsibility to stake public money on a venture that can alter the future of the country for good, not the banks.

  • Govt unfolds plans for local ICT manufacturers

    The Federal Government has unfolded strategies to support local manufacturers of computers among other information and communication technology (ICT) devices. Part of the strategies include revisiting the issue of waivers for local assemblers of ICT products, and ensuring that local products are well patronised.

    Speaking after her visits to some of the local manufacturers of computers in Lagos recently, the Minister of Communications, Mrs Omobola Johnson said the decision to support local manufacturers of ICT devices was borne out of the need to improve the economy. Johnson said access to computers in Nigeria is lower, adding that many people would access the products when manufacturers produce them at cheaper rates.

    She said the government has been making efforts to promote computer ownership while at the same time developing broadband infrastructure.

    She said it would be futile to develop broadband infrastructure when many Nigerians do not have access to computers, tablets among other devices. She said her visits to the local ICT manufacturers was informed by the need to intimate them of the government’s plans and the roles they are expected to play to improve the economy.

    She said: “Ïf we build broadband infrastructure and people don’t have computers, tablets, and whatever to access it, it is going to be a waste of time. The next thing we are trying to drive is that as we build the infrastructure, we need to make sure we all have the devices. And in doing this, we could create genuine demand for locally-made PCs.

    “What we are saying is that there is a huge market for PCs in Nigeria but the participation of Nigerians in meeting the demands of the market is very low. It will be good if we can open up the market for Nigerian companies. So, what we are trying to do is to create captive markets for our local computer makers and the first captive markets we are trying to create are students in tertiary institutions. The reason for this is because we believe that these are people who desperately want to have computers but they may not be able to afford them.”

    In his response, the Chairman, Zinox Group, Chief Leo Stan Ekeh, said if Nigeria could create demand for two million computers in a year, this could create a minimum of 250,000 jobs in the first year and the multiplier effect in the subsequent years shall be double the first year.

    He said: “These computers (hardware) shall create a huge market for the software and ICT solution market which will employ millions of Nigerians within five years of this intervention.“

  • Firm marks 50th edition

    Digital Jewels is marking the 50th edition of its monthly Information Value Chain (IVC) Breakfast forum in Lagos this week. The company specialises in Information Security, Information Assurance, Project Management, e-Business and Knowledge Capacity Development.

    In a statement, the firm said the event would play host to information and communication technology (ICT) professionals from various sectors of the economy.

    It said: “The company has successfully hosted 49 editions of the monthly Information Value Chain (IVC) Breakfast Forum. The 50th edition is expected to host key players in the industry, as well as showcasing the achievements that have been recorded since the inception of the breakfast forum.”

    Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Adedoyin Odunfa, said the event would be a reference point in the industry.

    “We have a major achievement to unveil as part of the 50th edition of the IVC celebration, which is planned to have some of our previous guest speakers in attendance,” she said.

    According to her, the firm is committed to the growth of the ICT industry by providing the platform through which experienced professionals are invited to share knowledge while at the same time providing opportunities for executives to network.

    She said past editions have helped the executives to keep abreast of issues in the industry, adding that each edition has featured a carefully selected mix of consultants, practitioners and industry leaders to foster growth.

    “Over the past four years, the information value chain forum has had special guests including captain of industries, senior executives and chief executive officers from key sectors of the economy including banking, manufacturing, oil and gas, government agencies and institutions, multinationals, Information and Communication Technology amongst others,“ she added.

  • Over 20 Indian firms for ITAN forum

    Over 20 Indian firms are expected to attend the annual Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) and National Association of Computer and Software Companies of India, (NASSCOM) Business Summit, tagged ‘ITAN CEO-NASSCOM, 2012.’

    The theme is Empowering and Resuscitating Local IT Entrepreneurs, via Local Content Development and Funding.

    Minister for Communication Technology Mrs Omobola Johnson is the special guest of honour, while speakers include President of NASSCOM, India, Som Mittal and the Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BoI), Ms. Evelyn Oputu. Also expected at the event are the Indian High Commissioner in Nigeria and the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Ernest Nwapa.

    “The objective includes the need to sustain the creation of a platform for local ICT organisations and seking collaborations among ikey ICT players

    “The Local ICT companies deserve a lot of private and public sector support in terms of increasing their demand for goods and services supplied, and engendering adequate partnership to promoting local content,” said ITAN’s president, Mrs. Florence Seriki.