The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Internet access

  • Communications Ministry to provide 774 councils with Internet access

    Communications Ministry to provide 774 councils with Internet access

    The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy has launched a project that will provide reliable internet connectivity to the 774 local government areas of the country.

    The Media and Communications aide to the minister, Mr. Isime Esene, announced this in a statement yesterday in Abuja.

    Esene said the connectivity was targeted at fostering inclusive development and access to digital public infrastructure in government offices all over the country.

    He said the hitherto underserved or un-served remote areas of the country would benefit from the project.

    According to him, the project will leverage existing infrastructure of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat) and Galaxy Backbone to provide the connectivity across the country.

    “Project 774 local government connectivity will create, at least, 300 direct jobs, as we deploy nationwide and potentially more jobs indirectly from the increase in digital access,” he said.

    Read Also: EFCC quizzes ex-Gov Ahmed over alleged diversion of N10bn

    “It also aligns with our ministry’s strategic blueprint and it is a significant step toward achieving the present administration’s mandate to deliver efficient public service to citizens at the local government level.

    “Through strategic partnerships and the deployment of cutting-edge technology, the project will provide resources and promote transparency in service delivery, stimulate economic growth and improve citizen engagement.

    “The project is expected to drive transformation and unlock opportunities that will deliver sustainable development to all through the power of connectivity,” he said.

    Esene said healthcare, education, infrastructural development, social welfare programmes and local government administration are critical to delivering government services as well as driving economic progress and development across the country.

  • Opera: High data cost barrier to internet access

    High cost of accessing data is a major barrier to pervasive internet access across Nigeria, Opera for Android Product Lead,   Andreas Bovens, has said.

    Speaking on the sideline in Lagos during a roadshow at the weekend, he said the county’s mobile penetration currently stands at 94 per cent, adding however that the cost of data continues to be a significant barrier to internet access.

    He said Opera and Google have partnered to enhance accessibility and usability of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) for mobile phone users, combining the best attributes of both apps and mobile sites, resulting in considerable data savings. This development, he said, could be addressed through PWAs, – mobile websites delivering an app-like user experience.

    He said: “PWAs start out in web browsers, just like normal websites. When a user continuously uses the site, an install banner is shown, allowing users to add the site to their home screens.

    “In Nigeria users are cost conscious and often do not download apps and are averse to updates – the trend is to ‘side-load’ apps from PCs where they are already installed on to mobile phones. PWAs provide the convenience of an app, including push notifications, along with faster speeds and offline support; without the data cost. PWAs also take up less storage space than traditional applications making them ideal for use on budget smartphones.”

  • Fed Govt should make internet access free

    Fed Govt should make internet access free

    Online transaction continues to grow in Nigeria, in spite of the challenge of broadband infrastructure. e-commerce platforms are creating jobs and boosting the GDP. The Chief Executive Officer, Hotel.ng, Mr. Mark Essien, says online businesses have potential to grow the economy, if the government democratises internet access by making it free and building infrastructure.  Lucas Ajanaku met him. 

    Commerce is an emerging business space, and online hospitality business is another variant of e-commerce. What is the future of this business considering the fact that online booking for phones, bags and other tangible goods has recorded huge success?

    E-commerce is an emerging business in Nigeria, but even at that, it is making tremendous growth, because the people are fast embracing new technology.

    But on the otter hand, online travel business, which constitutes about 3.6 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is highly underrated in the country, but the hospitality business in Nigeria is worth $3 billion every year, and if an entrepreneur could capture 10 per cent of the market, then such entrepreneur still has a $300 million business per year, and that is huge money and good business, irrespective of the location of the business.

    The Nigerian GDP is growing and what this means is that any business that contributes up to 3.6 per cent to GDP now, would in the next few years, triple the amount.

    So the online businesses and e-commerce, most especially have potential to develop fast into money spinning business, if properly harnessed.

    There are lots of risks associated with online transactions, ranging from identity theft to data hacking. How secured is your platform for customers to transact business without losing  money?

    For us at hotel.com, our platform is safe and secured for online business. In the second half of last year only, we did over a million dollar financial transactions and since then, we have been doing online transactions through our website, with no bitter experience on the part of customers. For instance we subscribe to a solution from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), called ScumL. This is designed specifically for hospitality business and few other types of businesses. The solution helps to detect and control online fraud. Aside that, we are very proactive in handling issues with online challenges and this has helped us to maintain a large number of customer base.

    Apart from the EFCC solution that you subscribe to, who are your technical partners, and how have they been able to address online fraud on your website?

    Yes we have technical partners handling our backend operations, and we still have a mixed team of developers who are busy developing solutions that will address online theft on our site. We have some of them in Nigeria while others are based outside the country, working for the common good of the pla

    For our payment platform, we are partnering Zenith Bank, and Stanbic IBTC Bank. We are also partnering Quick Teller solution, which allows for easy online payment.

    Again, all our data are encrypted, and this has also helped in protecting the customers from online fraud.

    There is panic fear on the part of Nigerians in transacting business via the cyberspace. What is your assessment of the situation now?

    Nigerians who have some sort of phobia doing business online for fear of being hacked, should not be blamed for any reason, rather, they should be encouraged to ‘toe the line’ of modern technology, because nothing comes without its own risk. Some people may also not want to do online business for fear of un-reliability. For instance, there are cases where people make online purchases of some household items and the delivery is delayed unnecessarily, and in most cases, the items are lost in transit or even got damaged on arrival. Such scenarios are enough reason for anybody  to have some reservations about online transactions, but we should not allow the disadvantage suffered in a particular transaction, rub off the legitimate gains of other online transactions. The best way to overcome these challenges is to continue to invest in the business. When you invest money to address any challenge encountered in previous transactions, the business will become very reliable and resilient both for the customer and the business owner.

    Your platform is innovative and appears relatively unknown. It has prospects for growth and more players joining the fray. How prepared are you for competition in the future?

    Competition in any business is a welcome development and I will like to experience competition in my business because it will help me to do better and offer better quality service. Monopolistic businesses do not give room for innovation and thinking out of the box. In this connection,  I sincerely welcome competition. That will put me on my toes to be innovative always. This will in the best interest of customers and the Nigerian economy.

    If the quality of my services is poor, or my service charge is too high, people will look for the alternatives. If there is competition,  that alone will make me more customer friendly in order to retain and grow my customer base. If more people are in the business, they will set a benchmark that everyone will like to surpass as business owners. This will result in a win-win situation for all as it will rapidly drive economic development.

    Access to funds  is very important to start and grow businesses. In Nigeria, when funds are got from deposit money banks, it is usually at double digit interest rate. What is your experience like?

    Generally, in raising capital for any business, the business owner must first build a business model that is economically viable and sustainable. When this is achieved, investors will like to invest in such business. Investors are not father Christmas. They are interested in investing in business that is not viable, because they want returns on investments.  No sane investor will allow his funds to be tied down somewhere.

    For the business, we have succeeded in securing a $1.2 million facility for the business.  We were able to get the facility from two foreign investors, because they believed in our business.

    You are lucky to have secure a loan of $1.2 million to expand your business. Into which areas do you intend to deploy this fund?

    Our plan is to move from being a Nigeria-based power house, to a global-based power house. The money will be used to expand the business and make it have a global look. Our one-year goal is to grow the business across the West African sub-region, and our five-year goal is to grow the business across the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

    What should the government do to boost e-commerce and other forms of online business?

    One of the roles of the government is to provide the necessary infrastructure for businesses to thrive. There are several policies that the government can explore to drive sustainable businesses in the county, but one policy, which I think is key to the growth of online business in Nigeria, is for government to make 2G and EDGE internet access free  for all Nigerians. The 3G and 4G/LTE technology could still be paid for, but 2G and EDGE internet should be made free. By the time government mandates all mobile network operators (MNOs) to make 2G and EDGE internet free, it will enable every Nigerian have internet access. Though the speed is slow when compared with 3G and 4G speed, it will promote access and deepen penetration. When this is done, service providers will uptimise their websites to adjust to the speed of 2G and EDGE and this will further deepen internet penetration in the country.

    Making 2G and EDGE internet access free, will create equal opportunities for Nigerians to seek information online without restriction, irrespective of their social and economic positions.

    You are suggesting that  2G and EDGE technology should be offered freely in the country. Where in the world has the government made 2G and EDGE internet access free?

    In Germany, EDGE technology is not free, but they do not have metered-bandwidth connections, where they pay for data usage like in Nigeria. The truth is that economies vary and environmental situations also vary. In Germany and in most developed countries, they have unlimited access to the internet and they have social security policy in place where people who are not working, are paid monthly salaries for their upkeep. Those who work are well paid, so in such jurisdictions, the governments do not need to make 2G and EDGE technology free of charge, but in Nigeria, where there is no social security policy in place and where monthly salaries are very poor for those who work, there should be ways of ameliorating the sufferings of the people. It is, therefore, my candid opinion that making 2G and EDGE technology free for every Nigerian will have multiplier effects on the economy.

    The rebasement of the nation’s GDP shot it to the highest in Africa. Is this position sustainable? What roles, if any can e-commerce play in ths are?

    Given the business situation in Nigeria, it is clear that there are lots of potentials for growth and this will also show in the growth of the country’s GDP. The population of Nigeria is an advantage for growth and I see Nigeria maintaining the leadership position, especially with the rapid growth of e-commerce in the country.

    You manage a web portal for online hospitality business, known as www.hotel.ng, which is serving the interest of travelers within the country. How did you come about this idea?

    It was during my Masters in Computer Science programme in Germany in 2012 that I conceived the idea about hotels and online booking. Then, I discovered that in Germany, only few websites have information about hotels, so I started by listing hotels in Germany on my website and what marveled me was the amount of traffic generated on my site. People were visiting my site to get information about hotels in Germany. After my Masters’programme, I searched for Nigerian hotels online and I discovered there was no website offering online booking services for hotel accommodation and I felt it was a good business to embark upon, having started with the listing of hotels in Germany. After my  programme, I decided to return to Nigeria to begin the business. The first thing I did was to buy the Nigerian domain name for the business, known as hotel.ng, which is a second level domain name and today, the business of hotel online booking has grown tremendously.

    I started by listing Nigerian hotels on my .ng website and within few months, a lot of people searching for hotels in Nigeria, were directed to my site and that was how the site started generating a lot of traffic. I had photographs of hotels and their addresses posted on my website, and the very first day I uploaded my mobile telephone number on the site, I received over 100 calls from people. Some were calling to do business with me, while others were calling to get more information on the hotels on my website.

    What segment of the e-commerce market are you targeting with your platform?

    Hotel.ng is a web portal that enables Nigerians, especially travellers, to find hotels of their choice, when they visit the site, www.hotel.ng

    Before now, travellers in Nigeria who out of necessity, want to lodge in a hotel, find it difficult to know locations and quality of hotels in a particular city. We took advantage of the situation and hired people to catalog hotels in major cities of the country and we uploaded them on our website, including their pictures. So, the online platform makes it possible for people to have idea of different hotels in Nigeria, their service charges, their facilities, to guide them in choosing which to book online.

     

  • Internet access should be free from basic to tertiary

    Internet access should be free from basic to tertiary

    A Carnegie Diaspora Fellow at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Covenant University (CU) Ota, Ogun State, Prof Tokunbo Ogunfunmi has advocate for free internet access for all learners from basic to tertiary levels.

    He said such provision “would expose students to a whole world of information so they can learn and progress very quickly”.

    Ogunfunmi, who delivered CU’s 41st public lecture at the university auditorium, noted that Nigeria has remarkably improved in the IT field, especially in the provision of mobile broadband internet for people with smart phones to browse.

    In his lecture titled: ‘Technology convergence and the promise of Internet of Thing (IoT): Prospects for developing economies,’ Ogunfunmi however, noted that such internet access to students may pose security and privacy risks, which he believed the government could address.

    “Every technology has good and bad side.  People can use internet for bad things, but that is not what I am proposing here. What I’m proposing is the use of internet for something good; positive things like education, like online courses, like connecting to other people in other parts of the world,” he said.

    Explaining the relevance of , Ogunfunmi said IoT is the foundation to linking things such as sensors, actuators, and other technologies, which enable a person- to-object or vice versa, and man-to-man communications. IoT, he explained, is the emerging phenomenon capable of leapfrogging developing economies such as Nigeria into economic prosperity.  He said it has implications of how much humans can control situations remotely.

    He said: “The computer is only a computer, but it has many devices working with it. The idea of Internet of Things is that the device you have in your hands does not only connect you to people but other things.

    “The potential impact of IoT is huge. Some are predicting a $20 trillion economic effect. Regardless of the financial picture, it is certain that many of the following areas will see tangible changes due to IoT such as changes in medicine and health care, smart cities, agriculture, education and manufacturing.”

    Ogunfunmi said CU has blazed the trail by being the first in Africa to propose a new degree programme in IoT that will be called: ‘B. Eng. Internet of Things Engineering’.

    He said the university is already in talks with the National Universities Commission (NUC) for its approval.

    “Covenant University will be the first in Africa offering the programme and we hope it will be a blue print for other universities in Nigeria and Africa. This would help prepare the next generations of engineers to be able to go into this field to build the devices and build infrastructure that would be needed to support 200 billion devices coming from the Internet of Things,” he added.

    When finally accepted by NUC, it will, among other things, equip students with thorough knowledge of telecommunications and computer science; knowledge of theory, methodology and technique for IoT network assessment and evaluation, good overall understanding of computer and telecoms network development skills, as well as knowledge of the opportunities  accruable from monetisation of the IoT in a developing economy.

  • Women to get more Internet access

    Federal Government has declared its commitment to making internet access and drive for technology adoption in the country more female gender-friendly.

    According to a copy of a document titled: Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan 2013-1018 aproved by the Presidency, there will be greater inclusion of women in information communications technology (ICT). The document frowned at the 43 per cent gender gap estimated to be existing between male and female gender parity, arguing that it was unacceptable.

    “It is acknowlegded that internationally, there is an increase in recognition and the drive for greater inclusion of women in technology. The Nigerian government recognises the need for inclusion of women in ICT.

    “With global statistics estimating the gender gap in developing countries as 43 per cent, the Nigerian government is serious about reducing the gap between the number of women versus men with access to the internet, broadband and technology. A greater inclusion for women will mean growth in GDP, better home education and reduced cultural barriers to civic engagement from women, adding further impetus to the Nigerian adage that says “you train a woman, you train the pouplation.” Clasees of women who would normally not see the need for the use of ICT shall be of particular focus,” a copy of the plan made available to The Nation read in part.

    According to the document, to pursue the adoption of broadband adoption by women, the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology would monitor the number of women with access to the internet and provide the requisite incentive to give women more inclusion.

    “To specifically address the adoption of broadband by women, the FMCT shall monitor specifically the number of women without access to the internet; provide incentives for private educational centres and civil society organisations to train more women in the use of the internet, and have dedicated centres at local government headquarters to serve as safe technology access centres for woemen. Courses on safe use of the internet for girls will also be delivered using ICT,” the six-year broadband policy document noted.