Stakeholders in the telecom sector have outlined key steps necessary to boost Nigeria’s digital economy and grow the country’s GDP through contributions from the sector.
These steps were disclosed during a breakfast section themed ‘Betting in the digital economy for the economic transformation of Nigeria’ at the ongoing 28th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES).
Michael Popoola, information communication technology director, Pencom said Nigeria’s economy cannot grow without having adequate digital infrastructure, stating the need for government intervention in the areas of funding, Right of Way (ROW), and regulatory agencies, among others.
“As a nation, we have to ensure we are not just putting the paperwork but need to turn them into actual reality. Today, the private sector is trying but has setbacks in terms of getting ROW and their experience from state to state is not palatable. Some states pay so much more to lay cables. Most times the government charges based on individual strength. The federal government should actually buy the ROW from the state and resale it to the private directly so the rate will be the same. since we are clear that the state owns the land,” Popoola said.
The director also pointed out that many agencies in the digital space are serving the same purpose which remains an issue affecting private organisations.
According to him, “In the digital space, the government seems to have a lot of agencies doing so many different things and gets confused sometimes. We are thinking that the government needs to just regulate. Because in some agencies government is both regulator and practitioner which defeats the purpose. Government should reduce the number of agencies doing the same thing in the same space and creating problems for private organisations.”
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In the area of funding, Popoola said that the government needs to do more in terms of creating a platform that will encourage funding for developing digital infrastructure in the telecom sector.
“We don’t think what the government is doing in InfraCo actually covers digital infrastructure. We are thinking if something can be added. InfraCo already provided a platform for a public-private partnership and we believe the platform is so big. If something can be done, I think it will contribute a lot to solving the problem of funding in that aspect,” Popoola added.
Collins Onuegbu, CEO, of Signal Alliance Technology Holdings, which partnered with NESG to host the session noted that the above steps will be communicated to the incoming government to prioritize the telecom sector in order to contribute more to the country’s GDP.
“Until about three years ago when you look at the Nigerian GDP, I don’t think that technology was part of the GDP component but today it is 18.22 and it is no longer small. Looking at the theme of this year’s conversation, it’s about looking beyond 2023. A new government will be coming into Nigeria and we need to reset the economy. Where else to start than to look at the sector that contributes almost 20 percent of the economy?
We have to look at what our tech economy is, understand it, and advise the new government that we cannot ignore 18 percent. We want it to be 25 percent and we have to know where to go from here to achieve it,” Onuegbu said.
The CEO also emphasised the need to ensure that the growth of the sector yield a positive impact on both the economy and the people, unlike the oil sector.
He said,” If we are going to make it 25 percent, how does it affect all of us? We don’t want to be like the oil industry that seems to control the economy so much but employs very few people and most times, the effect is not felt across the board in the economy.
Onuegbu explained that technology offers hope for a country like Nigeria which is still thriving, adding the need to leverage the youthful population in taking advantage of technology for economic transformation.
