FG urged to harmonise policies to foster broadband infrastructure development

Stakeholders in the ICT sector have urged the federal government to harmonise framework and policies that will foster broadband infrastructure development in the country. They made the call at the end of a one-day conference themed: Africa-China Cooperation in ICT and Digital Economy organized by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in collaboration with […]

Stakeholders in the ICT sector have urged the federal government to harmonise framework and policies that will foster broadband infrastructure development in the country.

They made the call at the end of a one-day conference themed: Africa-China Cooperation in ICT and Digital Economy organized by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in collaboration with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria and Huawei Technologies Company (Nigeria) Limited.

They affirmed that the role of broadband development in stimulating growth, policy harmonization for enhancing ICT infrastructure and attracting investment, as well as human resource development are key to achieving the digital economy in Nigeria.

The conference, which was well attended by representatives of government, foreign partners, and stakeholders in power and technology sectors, was held in Abuja.

In his opening remarks, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who was represented by his Special Adviser on ICT, Mr. Lanre Osibona, said there is an urgent need to overcome challenges facing the nation to leveraging ICT to fuel the fourth industrial revolution that will bring about the digital economy.

“Africa must develop its skills. We must know how to scale workforce and move away from business base outsourcing to knowledge base outsourcing. Data is the future and new hope. For us as a country we must invest heavily in capturing data,” he said.

In his speech, the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Zhon Pingjian, stated that “China will continue to share its development opportunities with African countries and welcome them on board the train of China’s development.”

Also speaking at the event, the Minister of Communication, Barrister Adebayo Shittu said Nigeria’s revolution in the ICT sector accounts for over $32 billion in foreign direct investment over the last 15 years.

He noted that such investments in infrastructure have created an ICT backbone that powers various critical sectors of the economy such as Banking, E-commerce, Insurance, and Oil & Gas.

He advocated the need for all stakeholders to strengthen the technology and innovation ecosystem by supporting the development of innovation hubs in partnership with the private sector.

“This conference provides the opportunity to jumpstart the critical game-changing steps needed to make Nigeria’s objectives a reality in digital economy. Beyond this conference, we must work to strengthen relationships and knowledge management platforms towards building the better and more digital future that we seek,” Shittu said.

According to study by PWC presented at the event, constrained digital economies can potentially realize a 0.5 percent increase in GDP per capita for every 10 percent increase in digitization.

The study also highlights that digitization also has a significant impact on job creation in the overall economy: an increase of 10 percent in digitization reduces a nation’s unemployment rate by 0.84 percent.

In his remark, the Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Nigeria, Tank Li, said a robust ICT infrastructure is the bedrock for digital transformation in Nigeria, adding that to unleash digital economy potential in the country, issues of availability and affordability need to be addressed.

"In order to foster digital transformation of the economy, policies and programmes to increase ICT infrastructure and ensure wide-spread coverage both in urban and rural areas should be prioritized to make voice and data services available.

“At the same time, strategic measures of infrastructure sharing, investment-friendly regulatory framework and preferential taxation policies are needed to reduce sites acquisition and broadband deployment costs in order to bring down the cost for users to really encourage application of ICT across the industries and the whole society,” Li said.

The conference also featured discussions on policy issues with a view to propose a domestic approach to not only enhancing the strategic priority of ICT and penetration of fixed broadband, but also improving connectivity through cost-effective network deployment, and easing the development of local content such as e-commerce in accelerating economic growth.

Stakeholders at the event also called for more collaboration with the private sector and foreign investors that will help drive innovation for scaling ICT and and help stimulate GDP growth in Nigeria.