ICT: A Window on Nigeria

ICT development in Nigeria has rapidly developed over the years. Eventhough we had not fully harnessed our potential to the fullest, we have gradually moved from mere spectators to one of the progressive colonies in the world. Various schemes and projects have been engineered to ensure the diffusion of the information superhighway system into our ways of living. The Millennium Development Goals which includes global partnership for development aims at an open source society where distance and time is of no barrier. The digital divide occasioned by the rapid advancement of the Western countries technology and their irresistible penchant of turning Africa and the developing world as their investment green lands and consumers of technology is gradually closing up. The Asians countries championed by the Chinese, Indians, Koreans and Japanese due to their population strength and strong desire to cross the digital gulf have found a roadmap into breaking into the cycle of advanced technologies. The Asian countries no doubt now create cheaper brands rivaling the Western technologies and making a strong presence.
The digital gulf keeps widening and concerted strategies are being evolved across globe and Nigeria despite its numerical strength and intellect of its citizenry still encounter some difficulties at achieving its promising potential. Inexistent and outdated research, inefficient government policy framework, distrust in local content in IT sector by the corporate sector has in times past slowed the rise and rise of ICT. The astronomical teledensity currently in Nigeria brought by the deregulation of the telecoms sector has shown the potential of Nigeria as a colony that can make significant global impact in ICT. Voice, SMS and Internet access had been the exclusive preserve of the super rich but the liberalization of the telecoms sector which has made Nigeria the second fastest mobile market in the world after India is worth commending. Information access has been made an inevitable need and has been brought to the heels of the informal sector – artisans, traders, truck pushers and so on. Increased trade, online solutions as alternatives to traditional business methods, jobs creation and effective communication and so on have been architects of development in the modern Nigeria. Worth of mention is the current deterioration of telecoms services occasioned by inadequate infrastructure to meet the burgeoning roll out of services. The high tariff charged by the telecoms operator compared to the other places in the globe still shows that Nigerians are still held at the hanging noose of capitalist minded companies with no other aim than to declare astronomical profits.
It should also be needed that most of equipment vendors and communication gadgets in Nigeria are imported and most local expertise are trained in the ‘plug and play’ fashion to operate these equipment mostly hardware rather than the developers of the technology.
The software sector also needs to be critically examined and analyzed. Despite, increasing software experts borne out of their genuine creativity and innovativeness, the robust Nigerian software products are still yet to make the desired impression in the transactions of Nigeria’s mega corporations and on the global scale. The need for Nigerian made software to undergo international testing standards cannot be overemphasized for full blown global competitiveness, The ineffectiveness of software rights protection law which accounts for the rights of software developers and which still hampers adequate localization of the software market is still leaves much painful effect. The preponderance of fake softwares and uncontrolled piracy which are hawked around market places has helped open access even to the poor but has not equally defended the rights of software developers.
The minimal number of Internet exchange points has made Internet traffic even for most intra- traffic to be routed across Europe, Asia and America cyberspace. Also worth mentioning is thelow patronage that has attended to the .ng Nigerian domain platform. The internet scam which has widely diffused into the innards of our youths have left a indelible scar on our global image as the youths mostly of poor moral attitudes and insatiable desire for quick money has made Internet scam as a way of living. Eventhough, there are still youths who are practice their online business with highest level of integrity, it is painful that the yahoo-yahoo boys had thrown their brainpower and energy at destructive tendencies rather than being drivers of ICT professional development. The high cost of Internet Access due to high cost of bandwidth, epileptic power supply and multiple taxation has had severe effects on ICT for all. Computer assembling plants are being developed across the nation but we have inexistent Silicon Valleys which produce our own chipsets, computer boards and other hardware components. It is a revolving cycle of a consuming nation with negligible idea about localized production.
ICT education still remains the very exclusive of the rich as IT education centres still charge over $1000 for basic professionalized ICT training. Eventhough, the training centers has produced Nigerians with strong IT skills but we are yet to synergize these ideas with effective electronics and hardware understanding to build our own equipment from the scratch. The satellite launched has projected us as a nation with a strong resolve to move forward but it puzzles my thinking when the project was designed, developed, and partly funded by the Chinese does still not prove our mettle despite multitalented brains and academia we possess in Nigeria. Our hope ultimately lies that the NIGCOMMSAT will be well managed and allowed to fully operate and break subversive ‘monopoly’ gang of price fixation by fixed and mobile telecoms operators. We strongly hope that we will explore the benefits of the satellite system for broadband technology. Direct to home television, high speed Internet access,rural telephony and so on will be fully explored and that we would build our own satellite system locally in the next decade.
Various scenarios have outplayed itself at the Nigerian cyberspace even beyond the writers thought. The few points should be tackled and IT should be made for all. All available strategies should be employed to provide IT training access and a localized production initiative should be deployed. The youths should be made to imbibe the productive culture of ICT and government should ensure massive injection of funds in ICT as it has a current potential to derive revenue equal to oil. The licensed 3G technology which offers high speed broadband connection should be made accessible to all strata of the society. If all these derivations and pleas are objectively followed, we would be evolved our own potent information society and assume the dignifying label as the ICT hub of AFRICA.