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On October 1, 2022, Nigeria celebrated its 62 years of independence.
The Federal Government and the states mapped out different events and made the celebration worthwhile.
Stakeholders in various sectors appraised developments and activities in their sectors in the past 62 years.
For information and communications technology (ICT) experts, they opined that there have been some milestones in the sector, which impacted positively on the Nigerian economy, but there are still areas that need improvement.
Jide Awe, the CEO of Jidaw Systems Limited, said the ICT sector has done well in terms of advances and efficiency introduced in the economy and society. “Developments in the sector have created jobs and opportunities and new ways of improving productivity. Payments, mobile activities, fintech impact, online commerce and Telecom are some apparent influences and changes in society and the economy.
“The startup ecosystem and youth innovation activities have also been impressive,” he said.
Awe stated that establishing the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau to recognize the importance of data protection and privacy in building Nigeria’s digital economy was a positive development.
The 5G licensing was also mentioned as a step in the right direction, in line with providing an environment for growth and future development in the digital era.
However, the ICT guru pointed out that there was still a lot to be done.
He said, “Youth innovation needs more attention, while the growing tech talent shortage should be a cause for concern.
While the sector is making a significant contribution to GDP, we still need to build domestic capabilities in ICT to build a sustainable digital economy that works for everyone and is globally competitive.”
In addition, he said, it is essential to do more to prioritize, encourage and support indigenous innovation to solve Nigeria’s problems.
“The reality is that we still consume more than we produce. Therefore, to protect our interests now and for future generations, we must develop domestic capabilities to solve our problems.
Strategic focus and investment in youth innovation, the building of domestic capabilities and indigenous innovation have many social and economic benefits, including helping to address the growing youth unemployment problem.
Continuing, the Jidaw Systems CEO stated that another concern was the digital inclusion gap. The digital disparities noticed during the covid lockdown period remain. Age, gender, location, socioeconomic status or disability is often the basis for digital disadvantage. “We forget that inclusion helps to accelerate innovation and development.
Nigeria also needs to improve digital education. The country must do more to prepare students and citizens for future work. The innovation culture should begin at a young age and continue throughout life. The educator sector (formal and informal) should focus on STEAM, STI, emerging technologies and 21st century (digital and soft) skills with a focus on the Fourth Individual Revolution (4IR)”, Awe advised.
On his own part, ICT expert, Mr. Ajibola Olude, said, in the past 62 years, the Nigerian ICT sector has recorded commendable feats.
Hear him: “The Nigerian telecom and ICT sector has done very well in the area of its contributions to the Nigerian economy. It has as created a lot of revenue for the Nigeria’s government and it has provided employment for the teeming Nigeria’s population, the capital importation to the county has been impressive.”
Another expert who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Nigeria has been witnessing phenomenal growth in its ICT industry, thus enabling socio-economic development in Nigeria and across the African continent.
He noted that, for 42 years, from the time Nigeria gained independence in 1960 to the time of GSM rollout in 2001, the country was able to connect only 400,000 lines, which he attributed to an era where it was declared by government that telecommunications was for the affluent.
But, from 2001 when GSM services were commercially rolled out, up till date, Nigeria has recorded over 200 million connected telephone lines, thereby giving telecoms access to majority of Nigerians, despite the increased population of the country.”
According to him, the growth and development that have been enabled by the telecoms sector since independence has been tremendous.
However, he said there are areas still needed to be improved upon.
For instance, in telecoms industry, he said for Nigeria to have unhindered service quality, all critical factors must be looked into, which he said, include electricity supply, roads, government policies on Right of Ways (RoWs) and multiple taxation.” He therefore advised government not to tax telecoms operations to death, as currently been seen in some states of the federation.
