Key problems Buhari should tackle in ICT, telecom sectors

Though in his 70s, President Muhammadu Buhari will from now come down to the ‘ICT age-level’ to be able to fight the numerous battles in the sector.But those who are close to the gap-tooth septuagenarian said he is one leader that knows every sector of the economy very well because of exposure and his grasp […]

Though in his 70s, President Muhammadu Buhari will from now come down to the ‘ICT age-level’ to be able to fight the numerous battles in the sector.
But those who are close to the gap-tooth septuagenarian said he is one leader that knows every sector of the economy very well because of exposure and his grasp of happenings around him.
There are many things that will be calling for the new president’s urgent attention and the issues in the ICT are surely among them.
Broadband internet
The immediate past administration had inaugurated a National Broadband Plan which was aimed to make internet ubiquitous across the country.
 It set up a broadband committee which proposed a five-year National Broadband Plan (2013-2018) to cover most Nigerian cities and villages with broadband internet.
Now, 2018 is just three years away and many Nigerian villages are yet to be covered even as the Jonathan-led government said two weeks ago that the plan had not been abandoned.
The immediate former minister of Communication Technology Mrs Omobola Johnson disclosed in Abuja recently that the broadband plan is still ongoing and would be completed by the ministry (in the new administration).
 She said “The government has planned to get its cities connected and Broadband is key to this initiative. Many states are keying into the national broadband plan, which aims to make broadband ubiquitous across the country in no distant future.” 
  She revealed that there was ongoing collaboration between government and private sector for a wide and continuous expansion of optic fibre cable infrastructure across Nigeria to facilitate deployment of broadband services.
She also told journalists that there has been significant growth in the use of internet within a short period the broadband plan started as the country had recorded internet growth from 11% in 2013 to 52% in 2014 and currently has 29% share of internet usage in Africa.
The new government should probably take off from here.
Spectrum sale
This is also one area where telecoms and ICT stakeholders would like the new government to carry on from where the Jonathan-led government stopped. The telecoms industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had done some spectrum licenses, though some of the licensed firms are yet to roll out services.
The winner of the 2.3GHz, Bitflux Communications, for example,  is yet roll out services more than a year after receiving the spectrum license. Bitflux, which beat Globacom to the license, was given a one-year deadline to roll out but it has not done that up till now even after the expiration of the deadline in April.
One of the firm’s promoter, Biodun Omoniyi told journalists early in the year that the harsh economic situations in the country were preventing Bitflux from rolling out.
It is not clear as at the time  of writing this report yesterday whether the NCC will revoke the license granted to Bitlfux and award to Glo or not, but the federal government had told the company while presenting the license that it would not accept any excuse from the service provider on the roll out of the broadband service.  
Digitisation of broadcast
One major embarrassment this new government is likely to face is the Nigeria’s inability to meet the International Telecommunications Union’s Digital Switch Over deadline fixed for June 17.   
On that day, any country that fails to move its analogue broadcast to digital would have its analogue TV and radio route blocked by the ITU, especially if Niger, Cameroon, Benin and Chad are able to switch.
Nigeria was given more than eight years to prepare for the digital switch over by the ITU but it emerged last month that the country is just not ready for the DSO. The Jonathan-led administration had failed to make money available for the DSO, according to the Director General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr Emeka Mba.
Mba said the commission needed about N60 billion to execute the DSO project but got nothing. He said the set top boxes’ manufacturers needed incentive from government before they could start production but they have got nothing as NBC was not buoyant enough to give any incentive.
Set top box is a device which enables an analogue TV to transmit digitally.
He said the NBC was able to achieve only 20 % digitization of the country’s broadcasting sector,  and this was made possible from the proceeds got from licenses it put up for sale. According to Mba, non-release of funds with which to execute the DSO project was responsible for the failure of the country to meet the ITU deadline. He said the stakeholders in the industry would meet to decide on a new date the country would be switching over.
But the NBC DG may not be telling the whole truth. Another thing responsible for the failure is the legal tussle between the commission and a licensed Signal Distributor, Pinnacle Communications Limited. The company had accused the commission of not following the government white paper on digital migration process. It also said the broadcast industry regulator is giving undue advantage to foreign owned media companies, allowing them to be content providers as well as signal distributors.  Pinnacle said by allowing the foreign owned media companies to distribute signals, NBC has automatically shut the two locally owned signal distributors out of business. The case is still pending in court.
GSM and data problems
If there is an area where most Nigerians would want President Buhari to look at sternly, it is the direction of NCC and telecoms operators. Just close to 15 years after the country entered the GSM world, it has yet to enjoy a near perfect quality of service from the four major operators. From drop calls to overbilling to ‘credit/data disappearance’ and unsolicited SMS, the Nigerian consumer is tired and he urgently wants the new government to help him out. Will the President and yet to named minister of communication technology be of help?