Emma Okonji
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) stakeholders under the aegis of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), have urged the federal government to invest in ICT infrastructure and boost broadband penetration in order to make the country ready for the digital transformation that is sweeping redients across the entire globe.
This is coming on the heels of the recent World Bank Summit report, which stated that Nigeria and some other African countries are not digitally ready for the next digital transformation.
President of ATCON, Mr. Olusola Teniola, while reacting to the report, told THISDAY that the statement was correct because illiteracy rate and the level of unemployment among Nigerian youths are on the increase, which he said was a pointer that technology innovation among the youths is at its lowest ebb because the country lacks the right technology infrastructure that will propel the innate ability of the youths to innovate.
“Developed countries of the world are using ICT solutions and applications to address every societal challenge but that is not the case with Nigeria because the government is yet to invest well in ICT infrastructure that will ignite innovation and creativity that could enhance development of apps that will address the challenges of unemployment in the country,” Teniola said.
World Bank President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim had said that Nigeria and other economies in Africa were not showing enough commitment to compete in a digital world.
Kim who blamed the situation on lack of will power of political leaders in the African continent, said political leaders in the continent were not prepared to compete in the world of digital technology. “We are extremely concerned that many African countries are not prepared to compete in what is increasingly becoming a digitalised economy,” Kim said.
Teniola who blamed the federal government for the poor state of broadband infrastructure in the country, said: “We need broadband infrastructure in place to address all of these challenges facing us as a nation. We need ubiquitous and fast internet access across the country. People should have internet access at affordable rate to do so many businesses online.
We need enabling environment to achieve it and ease of doing business is one of them.
“Government should not just meet the broadband target, but must ensure it surpasses it to enable every Nigerian have access to broadband internet, which is the centre of focus that technology advancement revolves round. Government must create the enabling environment that will allow the private investors to bring in the funds that will drive broadband development. If these are achieved, there will be lots of employment opportunities for our youths.”
The fact that we have large users of connected mobile devices, and making use of digital apps does not make us digitally ready as a nation. If the connected devices and the mobile apps do not create productivity and allow Nigerians to make money, it then means that we are yet to make full use of ICT to drive the Nigerian economy. A lot of GDP contribution in developing nations is digital in nature and Nigeria must toe the line, Teniola said. He insisted that government needs to encourage digital transaction that would boost financial inclusion on mobile money payments, adding that one of the ways to address it is to make the ongoing cashless economy initiative to be telcos led instead of bank led.
According to him, telcos should be empowered to drive financial inclusion and cashless initiative because Nigerians have more mobile devices than bank accounts.
