Talks on smart cities die amid plans for economic diversification

The SmartCity proposition by government for integration of multiple information and communication technology solution that would make effective management of the country’s assets seems to be fading away from the minds of government, Business Day investigations have revealed.

The innovation, which has been on the drawing board since the past five years and in line with government’s economic diversification with ICT being a favourable option, was to start with Abuja and Lagos, and was to create about 50,000 direct jobs.

A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communication technology (ICT) solutions in a secure fashion to manage the city’s assets such as schools, libraries, local department information systems, power plants, hospitals, transportation systems, law enforcement and other community services.

But the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says Nigeria currently does not have the necessary technology required to achieve smart cities.

The technology hub, which was framed to be like America’s Silicon Valley, would have served as a home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations and tech start-up companies.

Indeed, Silicon Valley is the world’s leading hub for high-tech innovation and development, and has been pivotal to the global information technology revolution.

“The smart city is the vision for the communications ministry. The translation of this vision into reality will require the deployment of necessary technology, maybe even on a pilot scheme so that Nigerians will be able to see the benefit of doing things in a smart way,” Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman, NCC, said

According to Danbatta, however, some aspects of the country’s system are starting to be technology driven, adding, “We have now started to hear about the smart electricity grid, smart electricity meters, smart antennas and so on.

“The benefits of going the smart way outweigh its disadvantages. So, I subscribe for Nigeria to go the smart way so that we can see and appreciate efficiencies in services delivered.”

The last that has been heard about the progress of the Smart Nigeria proposed hub was in January last year, when Demola Aladekomo, chairman, SmartCity Resorts plc, said: “the A-grade technology development infrastructure will prime the local technology industry for global competitiveness, galvanising it from crass consumerism towards innovation and world class manufacturing standards.

“Upon completion, it has the potential to create about 50,000 direct employments in its first five years.”

Although a few months ago, Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications, held a retreat with the stakeholders where he identified major steps to be taken to get Nigeria to becoming a smart digital country, experts say that visible signs are yet to be seen with government taking the necessary steps for a smart country.

Dare Ogunlade, general manager, English West Africa Cisco, said the reason why there was hindrances in the deployment of smart cities around the country was because of centralisation in Lagos State alone, the only state that seems to be developing as far as ICT is concerned.

“It is virtually only Lagos State that has interacted with the minister for communications Technology as regards deploying smart cities. How do you encourage the other 35 states?

“There is a particular state where the government did not draw up the budget. The government came in and the budget cycle had been done but they realised that they could not go far without ICT and were running very quickly with this Smart City initiative. For them, they have examined their budget to see how they can actually reallocate money to invest in ICT.

“Different states were at different levels of preparedness, which also comes down to who is driving the home affairs of the state and what their uttermost priority is,” he said.

Lanre Ajayi, president, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) which was one of the promoters of the SmartCity initiative told BusinessDay in a telephone interview that the SmartCity project is a fantastic idea as ICT is a growth driver in any society and so it is essential for the development of Nigeria as a whole.

However, some stakeholders still wonder why deployment of the project has still not been actualised even when government knows the steps necessary for the possibility of a digital smart Nigeria.

JUMOKE AKIYODE