Although Nigeria’s available internet bandwidth capacity is relatively high compared to previous years and a number of high-capacity submarine cables have been brought into the country, taking this capacity into people’s homes and businesses remains a major hurdle, industry stakeholders say.
Despite the challenges however, most indicators point to continued expansion.
Wireless Trade publication reports that Nigeria has recorded a 42 per cent crash in the cost of megabit per second of bandwidth and stakeholders have said that further decline in cost would determine how effectively government can tackle the obstacles to lastmile fibre connectivity in the country.
The Federal Ministry of Communication Technology, the federal oversight body, states that the nation accounts for 29% of all internet usage on the continent and that this figure is expected to rise.
Despite the rapid growth of technology deployment in recent years, the industry still faces a host of challenges. These include low penetration in terms of usage and infrastructure access, inappropriate use of accumulated data from the Bank Verification Number (BVN) to National identity cards, SIM card registration, as well as high operating costs and a gross shortage of local content.
Nevertheless, most Nigerian ICT players are looking forward to continued growth ahead.
As the country battles with its socio-economic problems, the Federal Government has taken to the Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN) which is targeted at tapping into all aspects of the nation’s economy and bringing about developmental and economic growth in the country through the use of data collection of people and information.
However, industry watchers are of the view that these data received through the various verification schemes are not being harmonised.
Lanre Ajayi, President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) told BusinessDay that there was absolutely no need for the numerous amounts of data collection by various agencies which are not harmonised and are therefore of no use for planning and development of the country.
“It has been argued several times that the National Identity Management Commission is the most appropriate agency of government to hold the aggregated data. Every other agency of the government should just derive their own source of data from that single source. It makes it easier for management and easier to protect the privacy of the people whose data are being collected,” Ajayi said.
Anthony Uwa, managing director of Dermo Impex Limited, the solution providers to the Federal Government on the Basic Registry and Information System (BRISIN) had said in an interview that,
“All these data are gathered without foundation because they don’t have roots. You need to build a platform for all of them to operate better. You find that many of them cannot achieve their aims because they are working on just speculation and this is the issue.
Uwa added, “Until they have a foundation where all of them can lay their data at a fixed point, it is then they will start operating better and each action they take is traceable to the foundation and since it is a foundation, it will not create any difficulty in getting what they want right. So, this is the issue.”
Talking about the year ahead, analysts suggest that in addition to these major bottlenecks, industry stakeholders, in collaboration with Adebayo Shittu, the new minister of Communication should work together in ensuring that the sector continues to experience exponential growth, year on year.
Chijioke Anthony Eke, chairman of Sidmach Technologies said; “I think the ICT industry in Nigeria could have done better, but moving forward, in the coming years, something is going to clearly emerge and those that are pro-active, citizen-centric and can add value, are those that will remain.”
