Sunday, January 13, 2013

'What CommTech Ministry achieved in 2012'



Ministry’s Achievements in the past 12 months
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.
 

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