ICT is Nigeria’s Saving Grace
Telecommunications is undoubtedly one of the most essential bedrocks of modern civilization and since the turn of the 20th century when information became a viable tool of power and influence, telecommunications has continued to grow in leaps and bounds.
In a bid to join the league of other progressive nations and expand the economic frontiers of the country, the government of Nigeria floated the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) in 1985. While the establishment of NITEL marked a significant milestone in Nigeria’s history, it was also an exercise that further entrenched Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule. With the establishment of NITEL, Nigeria took another step further towards erasing one of the last vestiges of colonialism; the Postal and Telecommunications (P&T) department.
Historically, the Postal and Telecommunications Department was established by the British Colonial government to provide telephone and postal services in Nigeria, pre-independence. Even after Nigeria gained independence, the P&T continued to provide Nigeria’s internal telecommunication service while the Nigerian External Telecommunications managed the country’s external telecommunication needs. Eventually, the quest to provide best-in-class, efficient local and international telecommunication services of global standard prompted the Nigerian government to merge the Postal and Telecommunications (P&T) department and the Nigerian External Telecommunications (NET) into the unified state-owned Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).
However, just like many other state-owned enterprises across Africa, the challenges of corruption, defalcation, paucity of funds, lack of innovation and irregular infrastructure maintenance which dogged NITEL made the corporation barely efficient and unable to meet the telecommunication needs of Nigerian homes and businesses.
Consequently, the discontent of Nigerians with NITEL and their clamor for better telecommunication services prompted the government to create the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) act which marked the deregulation of the telecommunication’s sector in 1992 as it became clear after numerous botched efforts that the government alone could not shoulder the responsibility of providing cost-effective telecoms services.
Following the establishment of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the total deregulation of the telecommunications sector, 38 privately-owned internet service providers (ISP) became licensed to provide internet service to Nigerians in the year 1996. Following the advent of internet service across major Nigerian cities, cyber cafes started to spring up in various nooks and crannies of the country thereby bringing internet services closer to average Nigerians and giving them more avenues to connect with friends, business partners and relatives across the globe through electronic mail and yahoo messenger while at the same time giving them unfettered access to the goldmine of knowledge and information available on the world wide web.
However, it is important to note that the establishment of ISPs did not immediately translate to widespread internet access for most Nigerians; it took the introduction of global system for mobile (GSM) communication, the expansion of mobile telecommunication service companies like Econet, Celtel, and MTN into Nigeria, together with the pervasive availability of smartphones. Compared to the meager 425,000 phone lines available in 2001, Nigeria now boasts of about 269,000,000 connected lines.
Rapid technological advances that combined telecommunications, smart gadgets and internet access led to unprecedented changes in Nigeria’s social, economic and political spheres. Moreover, information and communication technology now contributes about 13.9% of Nigeria’s gross domestic product, outstripping oil and gas (10%) which has always been Nigeria’s major cashcow.
Also, Africa’s biggest ICT market, the popular Otigba Computer Village — a cluster of more than 4000 business enterprises selling and servicing all kinds of ICT gadgets — is situated in the heart of Nigeria’s Lagos state.
Beyond providing massive jobs for Nigerians in sales and servicing, many young people continue to leverage on the vast opportunities that ICT present to do exploits that expand the frontiers of education, financial inclusion, transportation, e-commerce, agriculture, health care, banking services, and governance in a way that the Nigerian government and its administrators have not been able to; LifeBank, Flutterwave, Paystack, Andela, Interswitch, OPay, Konga, CcHub, Ventures Platform, Verdant Agri-Tech, Beni American University, and SaferMom are typical examples.
Furthermore, the Yaba axis of Lagos Nigeria, famous across Africa for novel innovations in software programming and applications is now formally referred to as Yabacon Valley given that the axis shares Silicon Valley’s ingenuity in ICT. Moreover, Nigeria’s resourcefulness in ICT has caught the attention of global tech titans like Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma, and Sundar Pichai; this comes as no surprise because Nigeria remains the biggest user of their platforms in Africa and the country also has some of the finest ICT whiz kids in Africa.
To state that Nigeria has become one of the most sought-after ICT investment hubs in the world is not an overstatement. In 2019 for instance, Nigerian ICT startups snagged a whopping $663.24 million of the total $1.34 billion investment capital fund that the entire African ICT sector raised.
While Nigeria may be lagging socially, politically and infrastructurally amongst the comity of nations, the country is not an onlooker in the global technology space. The efforts of Nigerian youths, ICT companies and universities toward advancing the ICT sector is monumental and their tenacity to the cause which has birthed great projects like Data Science Nigeria’s (DSN) artificial intelligence hub and Jelani Aliyu’s Automotive Design Challenge will ensure that Nigeria is not left behind as the world moves progressively toward groundbreaking innovations in big data and autonomous vehicles.
Sources
Adegoke Y. (2019, December 9). Africa tour is not always what it seems. Quartz Africa. https://qz.com/africa/1763757/twitters-jack-dorsey-jack-ma-visit-nigeria-ethiopia/
Akinpelu, O. (2020, January 8). African Tech Startups Raised $1.34 Billion Funding in 2019, With Nigeria Receiving the Largest Chunk — WeeTracker. Technext.ng. https://technext.ng/2020/01/08/african-tech-startups-raised-1-34-billion-funding-in-2019-with-nigeria-receiving-the-largest-chunk-weetracker/
Akwule, R. U. (1991). Telecommunications in Nigeria. Telecommunications Policy, 15(3), 241–247. doi: 10.1016/0308–5961(91)90027–9
