Boosting broadband penetration in Nigeria

Enhancing broadband internet penetration in Nigeria          

In many parts of Nigeria, a mobile phone is the most sophisticated technology available. The introduction of this little communication device has improved lives, making it possible to communicate with people we often have to make hazardous and sometimes wasted trips to see. Mobile phones have indeed revolutionized businesses in Nigeria, while also improving social relations, making it more robust. Yet no one could have predicted its full impact before its introduction, nor deduce how deep it would penetrate the society, so much that many would put aside N50 towards buying recharge card instead of drinking an extra Coca Cola.

Peerless growth has been recorded in the Nigerians telecommunications industry since the auction of GSM licenses in 2001 by the Federal Government. Radical regulatory and policy reforms which led to the emergence of Ministry of Communications Technology and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), inflow of requisite foreign direct investment and the promotion of market competition equally increased Nigeria’s tele-density rate from 2 percent to 65 percent, making it one of the fastest growing globally. But growth in the data/ internet segment of the sector has however not been as significant as in the voice segment.

In most cases, internet services where available, are at best unreliable and characterized by very low speeds. Statistics for broadband penetration in the country as at October 2011 vary between 1% and 10 percent of the population of about 50 million, having access to broadband and basic data/ internet. This indeed is sub-optimal and detrimental to the social well being of citizenry, as well as the economic growth and development of the country, given the abundant international connectivity capacity available in Nigeria in the last 12 months, from West Africa Cable System (WACS, a submarine communications cable linking South Africa with the United Kingdom along the west coast of Africa), Main One and Glo One fibre optic cables, which are sufficient to provide highly improved service availability and penetration in the country.     

A landmark study by the World Bank in 2009, indicated that for every 10 percent increase in internet penetration, there is a resultant 1.3 growth in GDP. Equally, the 2010 United States of America National Broadband policy document, regarded broadband as the the great infrastructure challenge of early 21^st century. Like electricity a century ago, broadband has become the foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life. It is creating entirely new industries and unlocking vast new possibilities for existing ones. It is changing the way we educate children, access, organise and disseminate knowledge, deliver healthcare, manage energy, ensure public safety, engage government and big businesses, among others.  

Hence, the internet has been declared as one of the two levelers in the world (the other is education). Cities and nations worldwide are declaring access to the internet to be a fundamental human right. In leading economies of Africa such as South Africa, the internet has become the engine room of trade and commerce and by extension, economic growth and development. Most of the growth has been occasioned by systematic investment in internet or broadband capacity enhancement. South Africa has developed full-fledged broadband policies that define its goals and expectations for the broadband industry.

With its high mobile telephony penetration, one of the highest on the African continent and the cross-country investments of Globacom, MainOne and WACS in fibre optic cables, Nigeria is at the threshold of rapid development of data/ internet technologies by learning from the successes and failures of other economies. This is a veritable foundation to fast-track internet growth.

However, there is need to revise the Nigerian Telecommunications Policy of 2000 (NTP), which most industry stakeholders say is out-dated in terms of its ability to meet today’s sector demand for reform and policy initiatives. NTP needs to be re-evaluated given the rapid evolution and fast changing trends in global information and communication ecosystem, in the last decade such as the emergence of broadband and converged services in the global communications space. 

Nigeria needs to assemble a key team of stakeholder to help define a broadband policy for the country. NCC and the Ministry of Communications Technology will of course be key drivers in this field, by formulating and driving policy implementation. Also, the Central Bank (CBN) must play a key role in ensuring access to funding by operators, given the high-risk nature of fibre-optic cables investments, especially with regard to terrestrial infrastructure aspect.

Due to absence of policy support in the Nigerian Telecommunications Policy of 2000, for broadband infrastructure, telecommunications companies investing in terrestrial fibre across Nigeria are grappling with theft, insecurity of infrastructure, inadequate funding and damages from construction works as well as little guarantee on the life span of infrastructure. This, in no small measure, militates against the funding of terrestrial fibre in Nigeria by financial institutions, retarding the pace at which the arrival of cross-country optic fibre cables along our shores would have impacted the roll-out of terrestrial cable to increase data/internet penetration rate.

Government policy intervention is therefore imperative given the overall benefits of broadband services access to nation building and the socio-economic dimensions of its impact, given the fact that its benefits are beyond the immediate users and can only be measured from socio-economic values that it brings to other members of the society in the network of users. Available data from the World Bank reveals that with the right policy enunciation and implementation, affordable broadband internet access alone can directly contribute additional N290 billion (Two hundred and ninety billion Naira) to the country’s GDP by 2016, which will represent 2.65 percent increase and 3.1 percent growth of the economy.

It is therefore instructive that Nigeria urgently requires a broadband policy, whether as part of a reviewed Nigerian Telecommunications Policy, or on a stand-alone basis. Government (Ministry of Communications Technology and GCC) in collaboration with all stakeholders urgently need to articulate a broadband policy and implementation strategy that will address the demand and supply side of the technology, if the attainment of the many benefits of broadband penetration to socio-economic growth in Nigeria is to become a reality.


Useful link:

Nigeria yearns for broadband internet in 2012
http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/tech/78-computing/31485-nigeria-yearns-for-broadband-internet-in-2012

How Poor, Slow Connections Torment Nigerian Internet Users
http://www.nairaland.com/615862/how-poor-slow-connections-torment

Link between policies and broadband penetration in Nigeria
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86207:link-between-policies-and-broadband-penetration-in-nigeria&catid=55:compulife&Itemid=391

Mobile Devices, A Veritable Tool for Increased Internet Penetration
http://www.nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng/telecom/mobile-devices-a-veritable-tool-for-increased-internet-penetration

Need to tackle hindrances to broadband access
http://www.punchng.com/business/technology/need-to-tackle-hindrances-to-broadband-access/

WAFICT: Bridging Digital Divide through Broadband
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/wafict-bridging-digital-divide-through-broadband/116019/