Nigeria canvasses for broadband investment at ITU 2014

Nigeria canvasses for broadband investment at ITU 2014 Although the Nigerian Telecommunication industry has grown in leaps and bounds, broadband penetration still remains at a meager 6 percent. This is why at the International Telecommunication Union, ITU, conference held recently in Qatar, the Nigerian delegation, led by the Minister for Communication technology, campaigned for investment in the area of broadband penetration. ITU, the global ICT regulatory arm of the United Nations, turns 150 years in 2015 but looking back, the regulator thinks that the last 20 years or so have been especially eventful and Nigeria stands out in the telecommunication revolution which began in 2001. Speaking at the conference, Johnson agreed that although much has been done in the sector, there is still a long way to go. She told participants during the four-day event that ICT has now become the next “oil and gas,” and Nigeria is a gold mine. The Minister reeled out in her presentation statistics to prove that successes have been recorded in ICT, but the sector remains work in progress. According to her: “The ICT industry has significant enabling effect on other sectors of the economy, contributing a combined 2.56% of added value.” Adding that”investment opportunities are huge as a result of accelerated roll out of robust, reliable and cost-effective ICT infrastructure to increase citizen access to ICT.” She listed market indicators to include: Four undersea fibre-optic cables with combined design capacity of approximately 10 terabit per second, 100,000 Km of terrestrial fibre-optic cables, approximately 28,000 (2G), 15,000 (3G) transceiver stations, 134 million phone subscription representing 96% teledensity and over 74 million internet users representing 52 percent of the population. However, despite these giant strides, she opined that broadband penetration remains at only six percent, hence the campaign to improve on this side of ICT through deployment of terrestrial fibre optic networks among others. The minister said government has put in place a national broadband strategy and roadmap that seeks to increase broadband penetration from six percent to 30% by 2018. This will be covered by: 3G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) for up to 80 percent of the population. Fixed broadband of about 16% of population based on fibre by 2018 to gurantee minimum download of 1.5 mbps among others. The Minister listed some success stories of non-telecommunications companies to include; IHS Towers which manages over 21,000 towers with 14500 in Nigeria. Only recently it took over 9,151 mobile towers in a deal it struck with MTN Nigeria. “In 2014, IHS successfully raised $2.6bn in debt and equity bringing the total raised by HIS since 2012 to $4.5bn.” the Minister also the audience that Techno Mobile will establish a factory to assemble phones in Nigeria by 2015. The minister said e-commerce companies with retail infrastructure contribute to a growing demand of wholesale/retail services via e-commerce. She listed these to include: Konga, Jumia, Dealdey, Kaymu among others. Principal partner of KPMG, Mr. Joseph Tegbe, who serves as consultants to the soon to be licensed Infracos gave an overview of the ICT environment in Nigeria at a session tagged “Nigeria Investment Meeting.” the Minister, Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Eugene Juwah, Chief executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Michael Ikpoki and Executive Director, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko also made presentations, told the gathering that Infracos licensing will begin with those for Lagos and the North central regions; including Abuja. According to him, Nigeria’s telecommunications sector has undergone rapid transformation on account of the liberalization in 2001. ICT is the fastest growing sector in Nigeria. “While data services have not recorded the same level of growth as voice, key trends indicate that demand for these services is on the rise,” Tegbe submitted. As part of key actions to implement the National Broadband Policy, the NCC launched the Open Access Next Generation Broadband Network model in 2013. The Next Generation Broadband Network (NGBN) will change the way businesses are done by the people in Nigeria. As Tegbe put it, Nigeria has done very well in the strides to implementing NGBN,” but the journey has just begun, because an estimated $2bn in funding/investment will be required yearly over the next five years to bridge the broadband infrastructure gap.” Despite some challenges, Nigeria remains one of the most attractive investment destinations globally.” Nigerian Ambassador to Qatar, Mr. Shuaibu Ahmed concurred, saying that since the establishment of the Nigerian Mission in Doha, Qatar, “our primary mandate has been to make Nigeria the preferred investment destination, because Qatar has an investment appetite of over $50b and it is eyeing Nigeria.” He said, Qatar wants to divest its economy and investment from oil and gas for which it has over reliance of 90%. “Having conjured investments in Europe and Asia, Africa is the next on its agenda and Nigeria is preferred. Ahmed added that “the Nigerian Embassy is laying the basic framework for fruitful business partnership and the Qataris have demonstrated good fate in investing in Nigeria.”
Source: vanguardngr