‘Why govt created new communications technology ministry’

[TGD]

 THE need to bridge the digital divide between Nigeria and the rest of the world and thereby check the poor Global Development Index (GDI) ranking of the country informed the decision of the Federal Government  to establish the new Communications Technology Ministry.

Sources told The Guardian that no fewer than four executive meetings were held before the decision on the establishment of the new ministry was taken.

The Presidential Committee headed by Vice President, Namadi Sambo, also involved stakeholders from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); National Broadcasting Commission (NBC); National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat); Galaxy Backbone; Nigerian E-government Strategy (NeGSt); and Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN). The panel agreed collectively that the new industry should derive its funding from multilateral organisations, including the Petroleum Technology Development Fund  (PTDF).

The committee affirmed that the ministry would be primarily established to cushion the developmental effect of the country's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, which is still at the bottom of the ladder in GDI.

The statistics presented, according to the committee, were very uncomfortable. For instance, in the 70-page report of the Presidential Committee on Master plan and Roadmap for the implementation of communications technology for national development, it was revealed that though there was appreciable improvement in the ICT climate in the country, "Nigeria still ranks abysmally low on the basis of various global indices used to access the country's readiness to transit to a knowledge-based economy compared with other countries such as Brazil, China, India and Malaysia. Analysis of the indicators shows that Nigeria is at the lower rung of the ladder in all respects except in the cases of mobile phone subscribers and Internet users where the country fared better than India. Particularly instructive are the facts that Nigeria ranked 127 in Infrastructure Environment and 128 in Education Investment."

The nation is currently one of the least Competitive Government Readiness out of 133 countries in the world in both composite and individual sector competitiveness. It is currently ranked 99 out of 133 countries in the Global Competitive Index (GCI 2009/2010). This indicates steady deterioration when compared to the ranking of 88 in 2006 and 94 out of 134 in 2008/2009.    Within the African continent, the 2009 African Competitiveness Report (ACR) ranked Nigeria below countries like Tunisia, South Africa, Namibia, Egypt, and The Gambia.

"In respect of knowledge and digital divide, the situation is even more disturbing. This is in terms of knowledge creation, penetration of ICT, access to and usage of Internet as well as telephone penetration (fixed and mobile) and physical infrastructure. The knowledge and digital divide cuts across geographical, gender and cultural dimensions. It exists among the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory; the 774 local governments, rural and urban areas, men and women, rich and poor, young and old, able-bodied and disabled, illiterate and educated," the report said.

It stressed that in view of the dynamic and fast-developing nature of the ICT sector with its high rate of obsolescence, the committee recommended a single five-year implementation period (2010-2014) within which the content of the master plan would have been fully accomplished.

In terms of financing, the report estimated that the new ministry would require N500 billion to commence operation.

The funding, according to the report would be derived from the following sources: Government (35 per cent), development partners and grants (15 per cent) and private sector including PPP and Foreign Direct Investments (50 per cent).

According to the committee's report, to strengthen the new ministry, the government would work out a virile Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework for the active participation of the private sector to drive ICT penetration and thereby promote economic growth of the country.

The major challenges militating against the growth and widespread use and applications of ICT in Nigeria, according to the presidential committee, include uncoordinated and inadequate policies coupled with the absence of legal and regulatory frameworks; non-enforcement of, and in some cases non-compliance with existing ICT policies; inadequate and weak institutional framework precluding seamless synergy between existing ICT implementing institutions and lack of requisite ICT infrastructure; and lack of a deliberate effort to mobilise the citizenry and fast-track ICT penetration, access and affordability.

Others are weak PPP framework, which is militating against active participation of the private sector; poor state of the nation's economic infrastructure, particularly power; and inappropriate costing and poor funding of projects and programmes.

According to the committee, the contemporary situation whereby various agencies of government conceive and implement national ICT programmes and projects without relating to one another, has resulted in duplication of efforts, lack of harmonisation and, in a number of cases, abandoned projects and projects with little or no impact on national development and resulted in waste of both time and scarce financial resources.

Accordingly, the committee proceeded to articulate a comprehensive, in the form of a well-balanced, mutually supportive and fully harmonised set of initiatives critically needed to provide a virile ICT infrastructural platform capable of actively driving national development, in all its ramifications.    The committee also proposed the institutional, legal and policy frameworks required to drive the implementation of the solution to full realisation within the shortest time frame possible.

The development and enforcement of industry standards in all project implementation, according to the committee will ensure interoperability of various systems and avoid the incidence of technology dumping.



The Guardian