The
President, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) Engr. Adebayo Banjo has decried the
model of licensing which is ‘global’ in nature, saying it negates growth and
leads to sabotage against the populace, reports
Speaking with
DigitalSENSE Business News in Lagos, Banjo urged the government to manage the
pertinent problems affecting the acceleration of internet in Nigeria within the
contest of the cost, speed, reliability and devices.
As said by
him the government policy of awarding global license encourages
anti-competitive activities rather than discouraging it, among big and small
operators which leads to sabotage on the side of the government against the
people.
This, he told DigitalSENSE Business News has been NIG's clamour for years now, noting that
government must hands off the internet business completely and allow a level
playing field by awarding licenses without restriction but has to break Nigeria
into zones and provide options for global license acquisition too without
interference on frequencies.
Government,
he said, should focus on influencing policy that will protect innovations, and
stop monopoly as well as increase the advocacy for internet rather than a
direct investment, but should also subsidize the internet delivery cost and
bandwidth for at least a period of five years to serve as incentives that will
attract investors to come in into the business.
Citing India
as an example of a country that has similar problem of unemployment and
developmental issues like Nigeria, but has
leveraged on the huge potentials
provided by the internet to solve these problems.
This, he also
said has resulted in the growing her economy and creating jobs for her
citizens.
On the global
issue of cyber threats, Banjo who was accompanied by NIG publicity secretary,
Mr. Bayero Agabi and Executive Secretary, Mr. Fidelis Orji, described this
threat as being at “a cyber assisted crime” stage in Nigeria.
He also
promised a more detail discussion on the cyber crime and other related issues
in the NIG Cyber Security Summit 2014 slated for later in the year.
Chuks Egbuna/GEE
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