By Bashir Ibrahim Hassan
While the COVID-19 pandemic has traumatized the world’s population and ravaged the economies of countries, it has had its silver lining in the ways it has challenged human intellect, buttressing the truism in the adage that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Well, COVID-19 wasn’t the trigger of Zoom, the video/audio conferencing technology that has enlisted about 20 billion users since it was developed by Eric Yuan, it came to blossom in 2020.
But Nigeria has been one country where digital transformation has been most progressive, thanks to the vision of Muhammad Bello Abubakar, the chief executive of Nigeria’s Galaxy Backbone (GBB). When the Nigerian system was on the verge of total collapse as a result of the lockdown compelled by the pandemic, GBB came to the nation’s recue by deploying the skills and technology to virtually get the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings back to session.
Notably, Nigeria’s Galaxy Backbone team has been working assiduously to implement the two policy frameworks guiding the mandate of the agency — the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020-2030) and Nigeria National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) launched in November 2019 and March 2020 respectively for the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy by the president.
The two policies provide the framework for digital-led growth strategy for the Nigerian economy. GBB is currently preoccupied with operating an IT-based network that provides network connectivity to MDAs of government, saving government cost of maintenance and securing and protecting its data. It is driving a more ambitious vision of taking the GBB to a higher level; the level where the GBB can be the primary enabler to all ICT providers in Nigeria and Africa, especially West Africa, in the long term.
Of course, the journey towards digitally transforming a nation goes way beyond the infrastructure and its application. What we have seen in Galaxy Backbone in the last couple of months has been a direct and intentional attempt at building the skills of people to ensure these digital infrastructure is managed properly, enhanced and consistently delivers on its promise which hinges more on people.
Training and skills development both contribute towards capacity development that is essential for digital transformation in any nation. In Nigeria’s context, it is at the heart of the strategic pillar of the National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy for A Digital Nigeria being championed by the Minister of Communications & Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami. This pillar speaks to the need to grow digital literacy and skills amongst citizens with the clear conviction that in this journey of developing a digital nation, people are the greatest asset so it’s important to develop a large pool of digitally literate and skilled citizens.
That obviously led to the creation of the first ever GBB Training Calendar. The calendar addresses issues of improved capability and capacity which is one of the six pillars of Galaxy Backbone’s five year (2021 -2025) growth plan designed under the leadership of Prof. M.B. Abubakar. This training document is meant to ensure stakeholders, customers and young Nigerians looking at growing their digital skills are well equipped with technical and digital transformation tools that will help them contribute valuably to their organizations and by extension deepen the digital implementation development of the nation.
Courses which range from, Cyber and Information Security, Mobile Applications Development, Network Connectivity and Infrastructure to Emerging Technologies, Business Process Management, Information Technology Systems & Networks, IT Architecture Management and Governance and a lot more have been put together by Galaxy Backbone and its team of local and international partners to ensure those trained by Galaxy Backbone receive the very best and are certified in their identified areas of specialty.
One of the most profound values GBB brings to these trainings is its hands-on experience in these identified courses. So, real life scenarios are shared during these trainings so that attendees are not just equipped theoretically, but get to have firsthand experience from technical experts who have implemented those services locally and internationally.
The team at GBB includes experienced network engineers, project management experts, IT consultants and technical experts who have implemented high end projects and consulted at different levels. GBB has a world class Network Operations Centre, the only Uptime Certified Tier III Data Centre, in the Federal Capital Territory and for business continuity purposes, a Disaster Recovery Data Centre situated in Enugu. This infrastructure is open to private and public corporations.
At the start of the year, Galaxy Backbone held its Annual Management Retreat in Gombe State and had the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, challenge the leadership of GBB to be innovative, adopt long-term thinking and have a clear focus on being customer-centric in its approach to business going forward.
“I would like to encourage you to ensure that the customer is placed at the core of your business. If the customer is satisfied, you will win more business”; Pantami said on the occasion.
Now, with the ongoing deployment of fibre optics across the nation and the building of more datacenters across the six geopolitical zones of the country to expand its provision of cloud services under the National Information Communications Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB) Project, GBB is deepening broadband penetration and creating more opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises to take advantage of its platform in the provision of its services to their customers. As part of the expansion of its services, Galaxy Backbone is currently providing network connectivity, colocation and hosting services in the South-south and Southeast Regions where GBB has its fibre cables. GBB currently has fibre deployment across 17 cities within 13 states in the country from Abuja all the way to Lagos. With the deployment of these services, organizations are trained on the proper use of the infrastructure to ensure maximum output. The second phase of this fibre deployment will focus on the northern and south-western part of the country.
No doubt, digitalization of the economy has brought tremendous changes in the way we work, conduct business and socialize. From all indications, these changes are bound to positively impact the nation’s economy in the long run. In this, the credit for leading the process goes to Abubakar and his team at GBB. Also worthy of mention is the Minister for Digital Economy, Pantami. Although a public sector outfit with enormous social responsibilities, GBB has since been positioned to generate revenue to the federal government. That is one vision of GBB that Abubakar makes no secret of.
- Hassan, a policy analyst, writes from Abuja.
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