Understandably, the commencement of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) in Nigeria was greeted with euphoria. Prior to the roll out of GSM services in 2001, there were less than 400,000 fixed telephone lines. Today, the number of active mobile lines is put at over 116 million by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). In theory, 116 million people are talking, painfully speaking!
Although there are mobile communication devices to suit every pocket nowadays, the tariffs being charged by the telecoms operators are still on the high side. And what’s more, the poor quality of service remains a thorn in our flesh. In the beginning they told us to talk the talk. And now we’re talking everywhere we go. But if we must think less and talk more we should at least get value for our money. We are tired of carrying two or three mobile phones and believing that’s the way to rule our world.
The news that subscribers now have the freedom of choice to switch networks without changing numbers is good news only if the flavours being served by the different operators are tastefully different. And the seemingly cumbersome process might well put people off. Nevertheless, the launch of the first phase of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service by the NCC is a step in the right direction.
The potential of Information Technology as a catalyst for change is substantial. Nigeria, like most developing nations around the world, has come to recognize the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a fundamental driver of productivity and growth. This recognition is well captured in the National Development Plan – Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020.
“The increasing globalization driven by ICT makes it imperative for Nigeria as an emerging market to irreversibly consider the application and promotion of ICT strategy to facilitate its rapid growth and development. This will involve the development of a vibrant ICT sector to drive and expand the national production frontiers in agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors. It would also require the application of the new knowledge to drive other soft sectors: governance, entertainments, public services, media sector, tourism, et cetera.”
This is the way to go! But, the way to most effective and efficient use of ICT resources is to move away from what the legendary Chinua Achebe described as a way of turning “useful invention by serious-minded people elsewhere into a childish and cacophonous instrument for the celebration of status”. We should understand that ICT leverage is not a “nice to have” asset but a sine qua non for transforming Nigeria into a knowledge economy.
Whenever I think about how we use ICT infrastructure in this country, particularly in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the picture of a man riding in a taxi with his luggage on his head readily comes to mind. Once upon a time folks treated computers like ornaments – believe me, most of those PCs were the outcome of some “computerization” projects. Somewhere down the line the “beautiful toys” amazingly metamorphosed into a conduit for draining public funds. So far, the storyline is the same; the episodes are endless:
Biometric Voters Registration Initially we were told it wouldn’t be possible for a person to register more than once. Hardly had the exercise started than people realized there was nothing in place to prevent multiple registrations. Later they told us they would clean up and remove all duplicates!
SIM Card Registration It wasn’t the N6 billion public spending alone that bothered me. But why would the service providers not take sole responsibility for the project just as the commercial banks solely updated their customers’ bank accounts information?
Ghost Biometric Scheme How else would you describe a biometric identification scheme that uncovered a thousand ghost pensioners here and tens of thousands ghost workers there, but failed to unmask those that love the romance of “eating” ghosts’ benefits?
Phone for Farmers On the one hand, it is a good idea to distribute 10 million mobile phones to rural farmers. On the other hand, we are not ripe for e-voting because the poor farmers are illiterates!
“Oga at the Top” I tried to not mention this but… But how many MDAs have functional websites? How many government MDAs employ online business processes as it relates to service delivery to the general public. You know, they spend money on websites that are often not updated and, in most cases, inaccessible. Little wonder they fumbled with a simple request to supply something as basic as their organization’s web address.
Almost always, the problem isn’t that of ignorance. I think the problem is they know what they are doing, and we know they know we know!
We are a people who hate change and, unfortunately, we are living in a world that is constantly changing. Ironically, Nigerians do actually like change to the extent that it suits their narrow interests: they like the facebook of the social media but hate the outlook of the e-testing platform; they can’t wait to own state-of-the-art electronic gadgets but electronic voting can wait until the 22nd century. On this side of the digital divide – whatever would promote transparency in governance, whatever would improve service delivery, whatever would make administration more efficient, whatever would serve the common good – such hardly stand a chance.
One of the critical success factors to national ICT transformation is government institutional structure. At last, there is now the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology (MCT) responsible for promoting optimal utilization of ICT towards rapid economic growth. For speed and maximum impact, however, the MCT and other MDAs have to be on the same page. As of today, only very few government establishments can boast of having a working ICT structure. ICT Units domiciled in the Chief Executives’ Offices; ICT Divisions trapped in the Departments of Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS); IT Departments headed by non-IT professionals; et cetera, are neither here nor there. As one of its strategies for success, the MCT ought to push for the creation of functional IT (or ICT) Departments in our public institutions as this would help provide an interface necessary for effective implementation of policies aimed at maximizing the levering potential of ICT for national development.
Similarly, the dearth of IT experts in our public institutions doesn’t help matters. This has created a vacuum currently being filled by non-IT personnel (analog pegs in digital holes) and exploited by private business partners alike, resulting in misplaced priorities, poor value-for-money solutions, and tasteless service delivery nationwide. Again, to address this problem, we urge the MCT to liaise with relevant organs of government to create appropriate cadres and right incentives to attract and retain IT professionals in the civil service.
Conventional wisdom has it that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Therefore, there is need to align the public service IT-wise with the private sector to allow for a smooth transition to a vibrant digital economy. Also, the youth should be encouraged to make creative use of ICT tools for personal and sustainable socio-economic development.
Nigeria needs to leverage its investment in ICT to gain a significant competitive advantage in the rapidly changing global economy. Moving forward, government should: provide security; expand national physical infrastructure such as power and broadband; encourage private sector investment in the ICT industry; deploy and ensure full utilization of ICT infrastructure on all fronts – Education, Health, Agriculture, Oil & Gas, (to mention a few).
In summary, if we are serious about becoming one of the world’s top 20 largest economies in the future, we must break free from the past and begin to do things that would help bridge the divide between us and those that are one step closer to the future. We cannot afford to sit back eating “dividends of democracy” and waving bye-bye as the rest of the world jets to the future.
John Adebisi
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