There is still palpable excitement in the digital and investment communities following the visit to Nigeria in the week of November 11-17 of two significant players in those ecosystems. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and co-founder and former Chairman of the Alibaba Group of China Jack Ma were enthusiastic guests as they pumped hands and exchanged ideas with our people. The common thread was their interest in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
Nigeria ranks 8th among the top 20 global internet users. Internet access is at 56 percent of the population translating to more than 100million users. The country gained $7 billion of the $20 billion Africa-wide investment in the digital/connectivity ecosystem as of 2015.
Nigeria hosts six submarine cables with direct connections to all major West African markets. There is over 15MW of combined standard Data Centre capacity. Equally significant, 58 new tech start-ups registered in 2018.
The ICT sector is playing a catalytic role in economic growth. The ICT sector contributed 12.4 percent to the nation’s GDP, reflecting an annual increase of 9.5 percent year-on-year. Nigeria has 172 million mobile lines and 112 million Internet subscriptions.
The preceding is the backdrop for the growing interest in the Nigerian digital and connectivity ecosystem that attracted the eminent guests. The office of the Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo claimed it facilitated Jack Ma’s visit to “promote technological innovation amongst young people”.
Jack Ma outlined the interest of the Alibaba Group, himself and the many investors that came along with him in the E-ecosystem of Nigeria. The four areas of interest are E-infrastructure, Entrepreneurship, Education and E-governance.
Demand is increasing for Nigerians with competences and skills to speak the language of the new digital world. Principally this revolves around programming and coding. Nigerian youngsters, entrepreneurs and start-ups have proven adept in this area.
Andela Limited made the case and showed the quality of Nigerian programmers. It has been eminently successful in building engineering teams and software developers that companies across Africa. Global firms snap up those that Andela trains. Andela has now turned its model upside down. Rather than train young future engineers, it is now in the market to hire 400 senior engineers.
If coding were a country, it would have the highest number of migrants. Coders are among the most sought-after professionals.
Our STEM ecosystem is rapidly developing despite Nigeria. The country needs now to support the visions and ambition of its young people in their drive to play significant roles and speak the language of today and tomorrow.
Nigeria now requires even more committed and sustained efforts to attain universal, affordable and suitable quality broadband access all over the country. We endorse the recommendation of industry player MainOne that Nigeria should “work towards ensuring that the cost of 1GB of internet data should not be more than 2 percent of average monthly income”.
Nigeria must do away with the impediments. They include policy frameworks that make infrastructure deployment difficult and expensive as well as constraining tax policies and multiple taxations. Access to funding remains a challenge as is the cost.
Funke Opeke, the engineer who leads MainOne Cables, recently provided a template of solutions. A foundational measure is the recognition of ICT and connectivity as critical national infrastructure. The government at all levels must encourage innovation hubs as well as skill development and job creation. Then reduce non-economic costs and risks of market entry and investment.
As the sector grows, we must work to ensure the availability of appropriate technical skills to operate and maintain digital infrastructure. Also, it is necessary to provide incentives or direct funding support to the providers to ensure the provision of affordable broadband access to areas of less commercial viability such as some of our states and the rural regions. The future is digital and beckons Nigeria. Let’s go there, surefootedly.
Source: businessdayng
