The
Ministry of Communication Technology was created a year and five months ago to
facilitate the transformation of Nigeria into a digital economy has achieved a
number of milestones and has set in motion a number of initiatives that will
fast track the development of the ICT sector.
The
Priorities of the Ministry
The
Ministry has four main priorities which includes connect Nigeria- through the
facilitating the provision of a ubiquitous broadband infrastructure. Connect
Nigerians by providing access to infrastructure and device ownership to promote
inclusive development. Promote local content by promoting local value added in
the industry in the area of hardware, software etc. Promote ICT in
Government- by facilitating eGovernment to ensure transparency, efficiency,
productivity in governance and citizen engagement
Achievements
of the Ministry
In the
area of Connect Nigeria priority, the Ministry has achieved remarkable progress
in facilitating increased access to ICTs. Teledensity ratio has increased
in fixed line access from 0.51% in 2011 to 1.5% in 2012. The ratio will
increase to 10% by 2015. Ratio of mobile subscriptions increased from 68.49 in
2011 to 71.54% in 2012. Ratio will increase to 97.69% by 2015.
Access of
rural population to ICTs increased from 1.5% in 2011 to 1.65% in 2012. Mobile
phone coverage in the rural areas stands at 40% in 2012 and is expected to hit
40% by 2015 and 100% by 2017.
Speed of
broadband access has increased from 1.0 in 2011 to 1.8 in 2012. It is expected
to increase to 5.0 by 2015. While cost of broadband subscription (3GB
package/yr) has reduced from N93, 000 to N72, 000 in 2012. It is
expected to go down by 50% by 2015.
Device
ownership penetration shows that ownership rate in personal computers currently
stands at 4.5% and is expected to increase to 12% by 2015, while ownership of
mobile devices rate in the country stands at 60% and is expected to increase to
80% by 2015.
The
Ministry’s achievement in the area of Content/Applications shows that the
number of Government services delivered online increased from 10 in 2011 to 30
in 2012 and is projected to increase to 100 by 2015.
Number of
MDAs with effective websites increased from 370 in 2011 to 420 in 2012. By
2015, all the MDAs will have effective websites. Verified Mobile Money Agents
currently stand at 3000 and is expected to increase to 50,000 by 2015.
Total
value of Mobile Money ttransactions currently stands at N228m and is expected
to increase to N151bn by 2015, while total volume of non-store shopping
increased from N62bn in 2011 to N77.5bn in 2012. This figure will increase to
N658bn by 2015. Over 382 MDAs connected in Abuja and other parts of the
country.
POINTS
TO NOTE
·
The
Ministry developed and submitted the first National ICT policy to the Federal
Executive Council and got an approval in principle in August.
·
A
presidential committee has been inaugurated by President Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan and will soon submit a report that will facilitate the development of
broadband strategy and roadmap for national development.
·
In
collaboration with the Ministry of Works, the Ministry in the year under review
developed new Federal Right of Way guidelines that will ensure QoS delivery
within the industry. Minister also in December made a presentation to the
National Economic Council on the need for multiple taxations and regulations
bedevilling the industry to be tackled at the state level to enable quality
service delivery in the nation.
·
The
Ministry also collaborated with the Ministry of Environment in 2012 to reduce
approval times for erecting base stations in order to promote infrastructure
deployment and improve service quality
·
In
order to further improve quality of service delivery of telecoms operators, the
Ministry mandated the NCC to ban all promotional activities negatively
impacting quality delivery of telecoms services.
·
The
Ministry is championing the creation of a critical infrastructure bill that
will protect communications infrastructure in the country
·
The
Ministry in November launched a student PC ownership scheme that will enable
students in tertiary institutions own a PC for as little as N3, 500. The scheme
will also create captive market for local assemblers.
·
The
Ministry is working to ensure that made/assembled in Nigeria brands are more
favourably positioned to achieve the national objectives of job creation,
domestic value added and growth in the ICT industry.
·
The
Ministry also launched a Technology launch pad initiative in December geared at
developing the capacities of indigenous software developers in Nigeria. The
initiative will enhance local content growth and deepen technology skills in
the IT industry. The goal
of the techlaunchpad initiative is to nurture and develop software
entrepreneurs to build successful software companies that will support critical
sectors of the Nigerian economy. The programme will provide mentorship and
finance to incubates and will create 10 successful software businesses before
the end of 2013 that will focus on providing industry solutions for Banks and
Oil and Gas in the first instance. This will increase to 30 successful software
businesses by 2015 that will create solutions for other sectors of the Nigerian
economy.
·
The
Ministry has concluded the development of ICT incubation centres to facilitate
software development in Nigeria. Two centres will be up and running before end
of January 2013 in Lagos and Cross River state. The goal is for the incubation
centres to create 25 successful ICT businesses by 2015
·
The
Ministry has commenced the setting up of an IT innovation venture capital fund
solely focused on ICT businesses that will have the initial seed capital
provided by government with contributions from private sector to help incubates
become commercially successful. Size of fund is US$15m fund and Ministry has
secured N500m/US$3.5m Seed Capital secured from NITDEVF.
·
The
Ministry has signed a number of MoUs geared at facilitating an enabling
environment to promote software development, job creation and capacity
development.
·
In
the area of skills and capacity development, the Ministry has been working to
ensure that 24% of vacancies in IT networks build and maintain
currently unfilled are filled by building technical and job-ready ICT
skills to replace expatriate expertise with highly skilled Nigerians. It has
set in motion a number of initiatives that will increase supply of local highly
skilled talent to a fast growing sector and enhance ICT Industry employment
opportunities for Nigerians. Its achievements in this regard include
facilitating agreements between the Digital Bridge Institute and other tertiary
institutions with IBM (Skills Development and Research Institutes) to train
25,000 resources in 5 years (2013 – 2018) per institute. Also facilitated
Partnership Agreement with Cisco to build Cisco Academy for highest
certification (CCIE: Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert). Ministry also
facilitated a Partnership Agreement with Nokia on MLab Project and is currently
finalizing the implementation of Nokia Life programme for farmers.
·
The
Ministry has also championed the drive to ensure the migration of all governments
MDAs to the .ng domain and till date registered email accounts in government on
.gov.ng domain names have hit 86,089, with more than 250 websites hosted on
.gov.ng platform. Over 382 MDAs have been connected in Abuja and other parts of
the country. Over 200 Servers are hosted for more than 94 MDAs – (NAN, Nigerian
Army, PENCOM).
·
The
Ministry is also in the process of developing a national government portal that
will facilitate easy access to government information through publish and
inform websites and by December 2014, every single Federal Government MDA will
have a functioning publish and inform websites domiciled on the portal.
·
The
Ministry has developed local content guidelines that will increase the patronage
of indigenous companies and enable more Nigerians to participate in the
development of the economy and accelerate domestic value added in the country.
·
The
Ministry signed an MoU with the Ministry of FCT that will facilitate the
setting up of a 250 citizen call centre at the Abuja Technology Village. The
centre which will increase government interaction with citizens will be
launched before the end of the first quarter of 2013. It will create jobs and
stimulate call centre outsourcing in the country.
·
The
Ministry is also working on reforming NIPOST to transform it into a financial
and digital inclusion tool that will reduce the proportion of adult Nigerians
excluded from financial services from 46.3% (2010) to 20% by 2020. Its
currently developing postal outlets (numbering over 3,000) to transform outlets
to become venues for financial and economic inclusion.
·
The
Ministry in partnership with National University Commission (NUC), World Bank and the TetFund,
is in the process of deploying a 10GB fibre optic based network to connect Nigerian
Universities to the wider reseach and education universe.
Design of the network has been completed and RFP issued. The build out of Phase
1 will commence in Q1-2013 by connecting 36 Federal Universities, 28 Off-Campus
sites and 12 Medical Colleges, while Phase 2 will cover the State Universities,
Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
FOCUS OF MINISTRY BETWEEN NOW AND 2015.
·
Increase
the contribution of the ICT industry to GDP
·
Connecting
Nigeria by facilitating the provision of a ubiquitous and cost effective
national ICT infrastructure
·
Software
development, ICT entrepreneurship and innovation and the development of a
strong and vibrant ICT industry
·
Quality
of service delivery
·
Local
content and skills development to create jobs and sustain the industry
·
Cost reduction, transparency in
governance and citizen engagement to promote efficiency in governance.
For the Records by Efem Nkanga, special adviser on media and publicity to honourable minister.
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
No comments:
Post a Comment