 | |
| Vice President, Namadi Sambo, CommTech Minister, Mobola Johnson and EVC, NCC, Eugene Juwah at the ITU Telecom World 2012 in Dubai |
Wooing broadband investors:
The echoes of the just concluded
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom World 2012 ended in the
city of Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE) will not go down without mentioning of
an impressive outing by Nigeria, with top on the agenda being wooing of
broadband investors.
Broadband is commonly refers to as
high-speed Internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional
dial-up access, according experts at www.broadband.gov, an outlet of the
Washington-based Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
They also canvassed the difference
between broadband from dial-up service to include broadband service provides
higher-speed of data transmission. It allows more content to be carried through
the transmission ‘pipeline.’
Broadband offers broad services
Thus broadband offers access to the
highest quality Internet services—streaming media, Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) otherwise known as Internet phone, gaming, and interactive services.
Nowadays, many of these current and
newly-developing services require the transfer of large amounts of data that
may not be technically feasible with dial-up service. So, broadband service may
be increasingly necessary to access the full range of services and
opportunities that the Internet cannot offer.
As defined earlier, Broadband is
always on and it does not block phone lines and there is no need to reconnect
to network after logging off, therefore it seems very apt for Nigeria to carry
the broadband investment crusade to the global stand like the ITU Telecom
World, with crème de le crème of Information and Communications Technologies
(ITU) in Nigeria led by the Vice President, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, who stood in
for the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, alongside three governors of
Niger State, Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, Abia State counterpart, Chief Theodore
Orji and later Godswill Akpabio of Akwa State.
ICT revolution may have started
with ballot papers
In his remarks, the Chief Servant
of Niger State noted that one aspect of Nigerian politics that cannot be
overlooked was the days of ballot box snatching. Today, the counting is done at
the venue in the open and before you can spell vote, people would have started
sending the actual results through Short Messaging Services (SMS) and other
means; that is the kind of revolution that we are looking for.
“So that we will be forced to be
honest in whatever we do. We owe this to this revolution,” he declared.
He assured to work with other
governors to stop multiple taxations, and provide security of all the
investment of the mobile telecom. Pointing out that the Minister promised the
Vice President that she would bring the issue to the National Economic Council
(NEC) for us to talk about.
Telecom industry tells a story of profitability - Akpabio
Governor of Akwa-Ibom State,
Godswill Akpabio said that the telecom industry tells a story of profitability.
It tells the story to the international communities that Nigeria still remains
a country to reckon with much Return on Investment (RoI).
Akpabio also commended Etisalat and
Airtel for their hospitality and said his state is keying into transformational
agenda of Mr. President, by established the first e-library in the whole of
Africa. He explained that the e-Library
was designed as a web interface resource center for all; it has over 30,000
different books. It also has a distance learning support and professional
examination with about 50 million internet books at your beck and call. And the
library has a state of the art anti-theft book security device, even as there
is a mobile e-Library version.
Nigeria needs to improve on quality of service - Juwah
For the Executive Vice Chairman,
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, one of the things
needed to improve speedily is the issue of quality of service and provide
commensurate infrastructure. “That is
why we have come here to tell you that the first investment in broadband would
be quickly taken up because we have huge remark by the company.”
He said there is legislative bill
on land issue. And we are supposed to have opportunities in our sister agencies
like NITDA, NigComSat and Galaxy Backbone, so as to resolve issues on right of
way and associated hiccups facing investors.
On the outcome of Nigerian day,
Juwah expressed excitement, saying it’s quite successful and everybody could
see. “I do actually attend outings of other countries; no country has been able
to attract the sort of presence that we have today; foreigners, Nigerians,
diplomats, and business people. So we are quite impressed as regards the
response we get.”
Nigeria showcases achievement in ICT industry:
The Communications Technology
Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, told participants at the global event that
Nigeria has been able to showcase her achievements in Information Technology
(IT) industry in Nigeria.
“The EVC has articulated what has
happened and the achievement that have been recorded. And I think what we have
been able to do quite importantly is to showcase opportunities for investments
in Nigeria, specifically in broadband and also in other areas of the ICT
industry.
Mrs. Johnson disclosed that her
expectations after ITU Telecom World remain very high, adding that like the EVC
said, “We don’t just have a large audience but a large quality audience. And I
think our expectations are when we get back to Nigeria, we would be following
up on a lot of communication that we started here today.” She confirmed many
companies have already expressed their interest in investing in the Nigerian
ICT industry. “What is important for us is to follow up after this event.”
It’s not only about new investments:
She disclosed that Cisco, in terms
of broadband, is one of the existing companies who are also committed to
invest. “It’s not only about new investments, it’s about existing companies
investing more and like the Vice President said. All the telecom that are here
at the event have all committed more investment in Nigeria. It is important we
talk about new investment but also existing companies that are committed to
make more additional investments.”
Part of the discussions that
Nigerian delegations have had with some multinational companies investing in
buying bandwidth from NigComSat 1R, for instance, stressing that this was
achieved simply by being here over the few days, and definitely it’s going to
give NigComSat 1R more effectiveness.
Solid foundation has been laid for revolution:
Earlier, welcoming participants to
Nigerian stand, Vice President Sambo, excitedly recognized former EVC of NCC
and current chairman of the Nigeria Broadband Committee, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, who
has laid the foundation of what we are witnessing today.
He assured all investors that the
Federal Government of Nigeria, the president Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has
put all the frameworks and an enabling environment for investment in Nigeria.
Adding that one of such major areas is to ensure adequate power supply. Lamenting
that quite a number of Base stations (BTS) uses of mobile operators’ uses
generators. And assured the investing community that very soon, it will be
history; a thing of the past.
“Today, we are generating over
4,300MGW and it will continue to increase. In Lagos only, we have reached 19
hours of constant power supply and very soon it will be 24 hours all over the
country. We want to assure you that in Nigeria, we have put the proper
framework to protect investments and ensure that you have total return on
investments (ROI),” he said.
Maintaining that Nigeria is
building an enabling environment by putting proper health facilities all over
the country even as Nigeria remains a destination for every investor,
hence, “I, therefore thank you for coming
while assuring you that you will make the widest decision to come to Nigeria
and invest.”
As the saying goes, one good tune deserves
another. Now that the Nigerian community has taken pains and resources to woo
investments at this international event, expectations are high, like reiterated
by CommTech Minister, but how soon it will materialize to add to job creation
and national gross product (GDP) is the next chapter, which must be marked very
closely.
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
No comments:
Post a Comment