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Tag: Okoh Aihe

  • How would Dokpesi have responded to AI? – By Okoh Aihe

    How would Dokpesi have responded to AI? – By Okoh Aihe

    On a day that Dr Raymond Dokpesi should have been 73 penultimate week, he wasn’t around because he has gone on a long trip. But his friends still came in his absence to speak some kind words as befitting reminiscences for the life of a good man whose memory should be kept alive in perpetuity.

    In a most ingenious coincidence, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), in collaboration with Daar Communications Plc, inaugurated a lecture in honour of a man who was not only a Fellow but actually did enormous work and made generous provisions to promote the Public Relations profession. At a time, the profession needed channels of trade to ventilate their wares and help create a welcoming environment for trade and country. The coming of Raypower and AIT on the platform of Daar Communications was a veritable opportunity and it created a legacy that can hardly be diminished by time and season.

    Aptly titled the Annual Raymond Dokpesi Diamond Lecture,  the inaugural theme focused on Media in Stewardship of Democracy: Conversations on Communications and Development. Mr Dapo Olorunyomi, publisher of Premium Times, enjoyed the privilege of speaking to a specially selected live studio audience at the company’s broadcast headquarters in Kpaduma Hills, Abuja, while thousands, if not millions, watched across the world. It was a first grade lecture and the content was caustic but healing if accepted in good faith.

    President Goodluck Jonathan narrated for the umpteenth time how only Dokpesi, amongst a few, opened his arms to receive him after he lost elections in 2015 and he felt lonely, orphaned and abandoned. He thought it was the end of the world because African leaders hardly lose elections as incumbents, and willingly relinquish power. Ever the show stopper, Dokpesi put together a big Reception to welcome him back home.

    President Jonathan wrote the Foreword, to Dokpesi’s authorised Biography, The Handkerchief, and therefore may be in a vantage position to know a few things about his friend. Dokpesi suffered bouts of loneliness all his life. When he had health challenges as a child, his father’s friend advised that he be allowed to die quietly since  nobody expected him to live anyway. He heard the man he sometimes called Daddy, and, early in his life, felt that the world wasn’t a good place but, nevertheless, vowed to live and become the handkerchief that would wipe his parents’ tears.

    When the banks fought a war against him in early 2000, to take over his broadcast organisation because of a default on loan repayment, Dokpesi knew the depth of loneliness as he felt betrayed and abandoned by close friends who wanted to see him go down with all his investments. He felt betrayed by friends who were in a position to do something but completely refused. He was always a Lagos boy but that depth of loneliness and trauma drove him to think more about his part of the country, and that marked the beginning of the South South Peoples Assembly (SSPA).

    When the Nigerian Government, in 2015,  moved against Dokpesi and Daar Communications, saying they profited from a business that was not properly procured and collected morning from the National Security Adviser (NSA), Dokpesi was again abandoned by his friends who didn’t want  the government to see them as enemies by association. It was a most trying time for him but he won that case, thankfully.

    Dokpesi knew the awful taste of loneliness and only offered President Jonathan a hand to redeem him from a world that is not the best place to be. Jonathan was surprised people ran away from him and simply shifted allegiance to the next man on the throne. Dokpesi was used to that type of treatment, yet never really carried any grievance against anybody. He forgave all.

    After the lecture, I got across to Dapo to thank him for his kind words for a man that will remain a friend and a brother. His response was stirring and I quote him here with apologies. “It was such an honour to reward a trail blazer and imaginative outlier. The High Chief was such an institutional builder and our prayers must remain that the soul of the departed continue to earn eternal glory,” he wrote.

    Dapo was not shy in his paper nor afraid to throw some little but friendly punches. What he said about the media in helping to promote democracy, good governance and its function in galvanising the people into holding leaders accountable and responsible in the democratic process, would have enjoyed immediate imprimatur from Dokpesi.  No matter how close he was to the leaders and was indeed close to so many of them, Dokpesi stood on the side of the ordinary people because he wanted a good life for them. Dokpesi fought from their corner.

    I particularly like Dapo’s cautionary position on Artificial Intelligence (AI). He raised questions on AI capacity to cause job displacement and influence key decisions, among others.

    Dokpesi was a tech geek and would long have declared his position on AI. In the era of Cyber Sets for studio presentations, he was one of the first media promoters to introduce Cyber Set to Nigeria at AIT studios. His efforts were hailed by former ITU Secretary General, Hamadoun Toure. Before his apotheosis, he had nearly completed a new studio that could as well be planted in any developed country of the world. The studio, which is now more of a parting gift, is simply breathtaking.

    “I am not one for conspiracy theories or alarmist predictions, but I ask: how many of us here today, in this age of Artificial Intelligence, truly believe that 2027 elections will be easy to manage, or even possible? With AI at its current level of development and deployment – where it can convincingly imitate voices and create deepfake videos – why should it be inconceivable that we might soon see fake electoral officials,falsified results, and rapid dissemination of these falsehoods across the country through powerful digital devices,” he asked.

    AI is the gilt-edge of technology at the moment, an apogee candidate of human invention that even creators are unable to manifestly explain AI capacity and safety beyond its relevance. Some countries are setting strict guidelines for the development and deployment of AI because they dread the rogue attributes.

    I can only hazard a guess that Dokpesi would have responded in a very pragmatic way that would be clear to all eyes, a response that would have laid so many myths to rest and challenge the younger generation to embrace AI challenges and opportunities.

    Dapo warns that “while we rightfully embrace the transformative potential of AI, we must also prepare ourselves for the reality that technological innovation often benefits elites, corporations, or those in power. The concentration of benefits can exacerbate inequality and limit the broader gains to society unless deliberate efforts are made to align technological change with inclusive growth.”

    He delivers a clincher to the effect that “t is imperative that we approach AI’s advancement with commitment to ensuring that its benefits are shared equally”

    I totally agree with Dapo. Whether in government or in whatever profession, there is the need to admit that AI is making a most stubborn intrusion into our lives, all we need do is to act speedingly and responsibly to manage and mitigate the harsh consequences of AI while harvesting the opportunities to benefit the society at large. Let the nation leave nobody behind in the age of AI.

  • A rebasing brings telecoms industry to reality – By Okoh Aihe

    A rebasing brings telecoms industry to reality – By Okoh Aihe

    Some folks who read this syndicated column every Wednesday have asked me at one point or the other, what beef do you have with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)? Not any, I would always say, although beef is not the best source of protein for a senior citizen. So, beefing can be an invitation to trouble.

    I shouldn’t anyway. But having experienced the system from without and within and now without again, as a journalist and regulator and now a columnist, there is still so much fire burning within, like sulphur, to rouse the regulator from what I consider the stupor of underwhelming performance, to once again attain that dizzying height of achievement where it once belonged. It is a history experiencing the rituals of vicissitudes where the privileged helmsman must strike the iron when it is hottest. There is always a commitment to alert him to that privileged opportunity.

    Last week, the regulator proved it can take some criticism, no matter how acerbic, even more than a knife to the guts, when a source within the Commission demonstrated considerable equanimity to explain some considered actions and decisions by the regulator that may percolate in achievements, and initiate a renaissance for an industry struggling at the tethers.

    That takes some boldness, which my source explained, is stoked by a commitment to transparency. Oh, some hard decisions!

    After a rebasing of the telecommunications subscriber base in Nigeria, the figures plunged from 219,304,281 in March 2024, to 153,323,316 in September 2024. This is a clear case of irony. When our dear nation rebased her economy in 2014, the GDP fortunes suddenly increased by about 89 percent, propelling Nigeria to overtake South Africa as the largest economy in the continent. Yes. 2014 was when that word, rebase, gained currency in our dear nation with far-reaching effects still remembered wishfully today.

    Ironically, some would wish for a complete lobotomy of the regulator’s recent action from our reasoning system. So, what happened? Two things – one hard decision and the completion of the NIN-SIM Linkage Policy of the Federal Government.

    The hard decision, which has been trapped in the vortex of politics, was the calculation of telecom subscriber statistics in Nigeria with population figures from NPC. “In January this year, the NCC revised its telecommunications statistics to reflect Nigeria’s updated population estimate of 216,783,381 as projected by the Nigerian Population Commission (NPC) in 2022. The adjustment replaced the previously used 2017 population estimate of 190m. With this adjustment, Nigeria’s teledensity dropped from 115.63 percent to 102.30 percent for the month of September 2023, and broadband penetration declined from 45.47 percent to 40.85 percent in the same period, even as active voice and internet subscriptions showed modest growth,” my source confided.

    This is a significant development. For long, that decision was waiting to be taken but nobody dared. It was once rumoured that a couple of regulators were too afraid to take such figures to the Villa – the hype name for Nigeria’s seat of government, saying they couldn’t predict the reaction of politicians in government. The source said the NCC management, under the leadership of Dr Aminu Maida, has put the figures in the open not only to demonstrate transparency but also to supply realistic statistics that can foster economic planning to attain expected growth. Someone had to take a hard decision, and Maina has done so.

    The other supervening factor which brought a reality check on telecommunications industry statistics, is the successful completion of the NIN-SIM Linkage Policy of the government. The exercise which began in December 2020 in a welter of controversies, came to a confusticating end on September 14, 2024, by which time the regulator said “all SIMs operating in Nigeria are linked to a valid and verified NIN. Over 154m lines have been linked.”

    The NIN-SIM Linkage Policy was blighted from the scratch mostly by noticeable incapacity from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) which seemed swamped by a plethora of data coming from the operators and other sources. With the process completed, the regulator seems to have seized the opportunity to introduce new metrics for Accountability and Transparency in Industry Regulation – a seeming amalgam that provides solutions to so many industry challenges, including: service reliability, consumer satisfaction, regulatory compliance, network rollout, resilience and reliability and even seeming minuscule issues like data bundling and marketing, which must now be explained in plain terms to the subscribers.

    The conclusion of the NIN-SIM Linkage Policy and the activation of the newly introduced Accountability and Transparency in Industry Regulation may have thrown up something overwhelmingly befuddling that may not have been properly captured yet or even understood. Placed on the dashboard of the new industry template, a particular operator lost as much as 40m lines, which may be more than the market value of some African countries.

    “One Mobile Nework Operator was found to have incorrectly reported around 40m subscribers as active, despite the absence of any revenue-generating activity over a 90-day period. This was an indirect violation of the Commission’s guidelines for determining active subscribers and led to an inflated report of the operator’s subscriber base, thereby skewing industry statistics,” my source revealed.

    Skewing industry statistics is a pretty troubling phrase but my source is so excited that he doesn’t seem to mind, as there seems to be some interesting initiatives taking root at the Commission. Oh, just like the regulator waking up to the reality of expectations!

    But this I observed. There is a lot of talk about the expectations from the operators by the government, regulator and the consumers but less emphasis on the challenges faced by the same operators who have not been permitted any tariff increase for well over a decade. Yet they remain a critical stakeholder in the entire value chain, so how is the regulator pursuing the operators’ interests as well?

    My source was ready. “It’s top of the mind for the EVC. His own view is that it’s about the survival of the industry but only ensuring that processes are followed to arrive at cost reflective charges during the determination process.”

    So many expectations are crammed within a little burst of enthusiasm. This writer reminded his source of a little story from venerated playwright and dramatist, Ola Rotimi, who once said, the meat of the antelope is very sweet but what happens while the meat is being cooked? What do you eat?

    I tried to rephrase the question for my source. How do you ensure the survival of the operators who are already running losses while a cost reflective determination for the industry is being awaited? I hope there can be a spontaneous response from the smouldering fresh enthusiasm within the Commission. And my prayer is that the response brings immediate relief to the operators who are severely troubled and challenged at the moment by factors beyond their control.

  • Mr President, a Board for NCC – By Okoh Aihe

    Mr President, a Board for NCC – By Okoh Aihe

    On this very day, I want to acknowledge with utmost respect that there could be so many items on President Tinubu’s plate, so I do not, by any means, want to add anything to that mix which could give even an elephant a headache. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, they say. Looking around the nation daily, the President will have enough worries to last a lifetime, any addition could fall below acceptable standards of patriotism, albeit outright wickedness.

    My self-appointed mission this Wednesday is to help alleviate the President’s headache by pointing to a task that needs to be sorted urgently in order to help realise his administration’s growth projections, just like actually adding to the items on the plate, with a caveat: the newest item needs accelerated treatment.

    If words haven’t reached the President yet, I have taken it upon myself to notify him that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) needs his accelerated attention in order to save the entire telecommunications industry, not only the regulator this time, from looming disaster. The regulator is in dire straits and needs urgent constitution of its Board so as to steer it back to the path of reason and performance.

    The Nigerian Communications Act 2003 credits the President with the responsibility to appoint a Board for the NCC. This is stated in Section 5 of the Act which says that all the 9 Commissioners shall be appointed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Board shall consist of a Chairman, a chief executive who shall also be the Executive Vice Chairman, 2 Executive Commissioners, and 5 non-executive Commissioners.

    The Act further states that Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the President shall ensure at all times that there is a duly constituted Board of Commissioners and that there are a minimum of 6 serving Commissioners on the Board at any and all times, made up of – the Chief Executive; 2 Executive Commissioners; and 3 non-executive Commissioners.

    In addition, the Commissioners shall be persons of recognised standing, qualification and experience in one or more of the following fields – finance or accounting; law;  consumer affairs, telecommunications engineering; information technology, engineering generally; economics; and public administration. They shall be drawn from the 6 geo-political zones subject to the confirmation by the Senate.

    Flowing from the foregoing, it is safe to observe that the NCC has not had a Board for over a year even though the Act says that “the Board shall have capacity to make standing orders for the regulator of its proceedings and meetings however, and acts of the Board shall be deemed to be acts of the Commission.”

    The Board gives the general direction for the Commission and provides it with a buffer or safety net from the predatory capacity of higher authorities. Unfortunately and quite ironically, the absence of the Board denies the Commission of the variegated experiences of industry elders, scuppers its capacity for high-wired relationships and even the capacity to perform its basic functions. This has not placed the NCC in a good position, leading to aggravated hopelessness and tension within the system. For a regulator, this is almost a death call and gives reason for serious worry.

    So, for the NCC, the Board is everything. Under Engr Ernest Ndukwe who initiated the rhythm for telecommunications growth in Nigeria, the Board was headed by former civil servant and compact genie, Alhaji Ahmed Joda. He could walk in any time to see President Olusegun Obasanjo in the Villa and make his demands. In the days of Dr Eugene Juwah, who answered the final call in October 2021, the Board was headed by Mr Peter Egbe Igho, a former Permanent Secretary, demure but also had his ways. During the time of Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, the Board was headed by Chief Olabiyi Durojaiye, venerated lawyer and former Central Bank Director, a pro-democracy activist and a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. At his age, he was enthusiastic about the Commission but was harassed out of office in contravention with the provisions of the Act by former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, and his collaborators, who immediately activated his gameplan to appoint his lackey, Prof Adeolu Akande, who was NITDA Chairman at the time Pantami was Director General.

    Immediately, the NCC suffered jeopardy. The Board adorned the costumes of a puppet and couldn’t even take simple decisions without the imprimatur of the Minister. Even staff promotions that was the prerogative of the Board was remotely superintended. All the gains made in over two decades were ruined by the ignorance and presumptions of a Board that failed to reconcile its activities with the provisions of the Act and the aspirations of the workforce. It was an apocalypse for the NCC which has not been able to fight its way out of such misbegotten fate.

    A Director, who didn’t want to be named, summarised the situation as follows: “The last Board was more of procurement officers, no experience. Their meetings were about contracts. The only good Board under the last administration ended with the sacking of Senator Durojaiye.”

    Mr President, the NCC needs a Board. Urgently. Somebody around you could say, you appointed two Executive Commissioners in February this year, in the persons of Engr Abraham Oshadami, Technical Services and Rimini Makama for Stakeholder Management. Without revisiting the incongruity of the appointment of the latter, let me point out that the appointment of two Executive Commissioners with the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Dr Aminu Maida, only provides an Executive Management and not a Board.

    The Board always reserved a place for experience and institutional knowledge or memory, which are in deficit at the moment. Only Oshadami offers that capacity and the other two were appointed from ancillary industries sans core experience in telecoms operations.

    In this column this writer wrote on February 28, “Maska, who yielded grounds for Oshadami to step in, was homegrown, just like his successor. They epitomise the lore of the regulatory institution which often provides the compass for the regulator to steer the industry. After a troubling period of regulatory capture under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the regulator needs a genuine reload for the challenges and excitement ahead.”

    At the moment, there is no reload at NCC. Instead, the stories we hear from that place are intemperate languages,  scheduling of appointments to see a coworker in the form of an executive commissioner, or even a general disdain for the tradition of the institution which thrived on love and great interpersonal relationships. All the good memories at the institution have nearly been wiped by some level of cockiness and uncouth behaviours that make the office environment toxic.

    The President must act fast to stem the drift at the NCC which at the moment is not in a good place. Apart from the internal rancour and apprehension, this writer gathered that the regulator has lost so much steam and respect that some operators are resorting to higher authorities to meet their regulatory needs. This never happened at NCC and doesn’t portend good for the Commission. It doesn’t also portend good for a nation that once produced one of the best regulatory agencies in the world.

    Apart from the most recent Board which nearly damaged the Commission, previous Boards were resolute in tackling the challenges of the regulator. The times demand that the President constitutes a Board peopled with men and women of sterner stuffs, people cast in the similitude of Joda and Duroaiye (both of them have returned to their Maker with good reports) who could look at the President in the face and make demands that can reposition the telecommunications industry or argue about funds that must be retained by the regulator. Joda did that always.

    And there are so many things the Board should be talking about. For instance, this writer is aware that there is a lot of disgruntlement about the 50 percent which the Government  collects from the Annual Operating Levy (AOL) which operators pay to the Commission. From the balance, the Commission, a source informed, will still have to fund the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) and even some of its own activities. This development has left the NCC in rags and in tatters and has rendered the agency incapable of carrying out even some key functions like monitoring – to ensure operators are not carving out little empires for themselves outside the law.

    Mr President, the NCC needs a strong Board to tackle its internal crisis and manage other stakeholder expectations, and also be able to confront you with challenges of the industry where exigent interventions are required of your esteemed office.

    The importance of the industry rests on the evaluation of one Director who reasoned that “Telecom is the platform on which other organisations run. Nobody wants to watch that industry die.”

  • 5G facing slow growth in Nigeria – By Okoh Aihe

    5G facing slow growth in Nigeria – By Okoh Aihe

    I was going through some of my old writings last week and I chanced on a few of them focused on 5G technology. I was still nearly overwhelmed by the great expectations, the amount of euphoria and excitement that heralded the coming of the technology to our nation. It was almost attributed as a silver bullet that could resolve nearly all the problems facing the country.

    It will resolve security challenges. It will unleash new businesses and show up very strongly in the development of smart cities and smart ecosystems. Even machines will be able to whisper to each other in conspiratorial relationships and technological advancements. It will provide big pipes for data and pictures, and subscribers can literally do anything with a 5G phones, mind you only 5G devices, including some people that may be encouraged by Elon Musk to take a vacation at the International Space Station and be watched on earth by proud members of their families. Oh, remember Elon Musk and his Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)?

    Even our taciturn President at the time, Muhammadu Buhari, not known for exhibiting any emotions, waxed lyrical for 5G. “5G technology is significantly faster than earlier digital technologies and it provides near real-time communication. This can play a key role in boosting our efforts towards enhancing security across the nation. It will enable our security institutions to effectively deploy robotics, autonomous vehicles, augmented and virtual reality to address any security challenges that we face. To this end, I hereby direct all the security institutions to immediately leverage 5G when deployed in order to beef up security in the country,” the President said.

    This was early 2022. Since then three operators, MTN, Mafab and Airtel have rolled out 5G services and the impact of their efforts on life and businesses cannot be said to be noticeable. Or so it seemed to me last week when I did a little evaluation of the process and couldn’t really nail down anything positively significant.

    In March 2024, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) released the industry Percentage Share by the Generations of mobile technology as follows: 2G – 56.97 percent, 3G – 9.04 percent, 4G – 32.74 percent and 5G stands at 1.24 percent. Active mobile subscriptions within the period stood at 219m of which 5G contributed 2.7m.

    The mobile technology is categorised in Generations (G). 1G was for voice services only, analogue and wasn’t interoperable across platforms. It couldn’t even be used in a different state without roaming, not to talk of being used in another country. 2G which came with GSM in 2001, introduced digital features and, since then, there has been significant improvement from one Generation to another, with 3G introducing video capabilities and fast data transmission while 4G has taken the process a notch higher. 5G is seen as the esoteric high end with super features to enhance smart life, smart homes and machine to machine communications, among others.

    This is how the ITU captures 5G technology. “The fifth generation of mobile technologies – 5G – connects people, things, data, applications, transport systems and cities in smart networked communication environments. The networks transport a huge amount of data much faster, reliably connect an extremely large number of devices and process very high volumes of data with minimal delay.”

    ITU further submits that 5G technologies support applications such as smart homes and buildings, 3D video, work and play in the cloud, remote medical services, virtual and augmented reality, and massive machine-to-machine communications for industry automation, far above and beyond the capacity of 3G and 4G.

    While ITU informs that global 5G coverage has nearly hit 40 percent by September 2023, it says that distribution is uneven. In high income countries, 89 percent of people are covered by 5G networks, but in low-income countries, the service is nearly absent.

    The telecommunications dashboard in Nigeria is pretty clear. From the NCC presentation, it is clearly obvious that 2G enjoys market dominance, meaning that for operators to continue to make money, 2G will remain their coveted honeypot into the foreseeable future at a time the technology is being scrapped in some parts of the world.

    The ITU observation resonates loudly in Nigeria. While 5G has slowly been introduced to a few major cities, it is very unlikely that some other big cities will see the technology soon, much more,  some less developed  environments whose turn doesn’t appear on the horizon. The joy and great expectations that greeted the coming of the technology are fast fading away. Even the operators are beginning to see 5G as a business for the long haul instead of something that can yield immediate profits.

    This is quite opposite of the global trends. Informa, quoting a research from InterDigital and ABI Research, says that 5G is outstripping its predecessors in growth, adding that by 2030, the technology could contribute a hefty sum of $7trillion to the global economy because of overwhelming connections of machines to machines, devices, smart cities, industries, healthcare and hospitality businesses,  and in nearly all aspects of life.

    GSMA Intelligence informs that by September 2023, 27 operators had launched 5G services in 16 markets in Africa while some operators were revving up to launch in another 10 markets. North Africa enjoys superior coverage with Morocco projected to do 70 percent (45m connections), Algeria – 45 percent (31m), and Egypt 33 percent (47m) by 2030. South Africa is projected to have 43 percent coverage (58m connections) while coverage in Nigeria will hover at 26 percent which translates to 72m connections.

    How much share Nigeria can have of the global 5G pie remains seriously in doubt as the market doesn’t seem to be doing well at all. Prevailing economic realities also don’t even give any reasons for high expectations. Since 2022, as stated earlier, the country has had about 2.7m uptakes with the future not looking much brighter.

    An industry source told this writer that even with the above development, most subscribers in Nigeria are on the 2G network which remains a primary source of revenue for the operators. While the source estimated that about 30 cities may have been reached by 5G, it confirmed that rollout remains slow because of cost, while uptakes are limited by the challenging ecosystem which includes high cost of handsets and devices.

    The source reviewed the state of the telecommunications industry and the economy, and confirmed that at the moment, operators are losing money. For example, MTN reported a whopping N740bn loss last year, and this writer gathered that the story may not be any different in the current year. The volatility in the Forex market is dealing the operators a heavy blow with some of them scaling down their capital expenditure (CAPEX).

    The operating environment is very challenging. The service quality is deteriorating, the source informed, as Tower Operators, who provide strategic services to the operators, are shutting down some sites because of inability to fuel them with diesel as a result of crippling cost. Some of the operators are introducing green energy to power their operations but the process is slow because capital outlay is huge.

    Understandably, 5G rollout plans and service uptake are severely challenged. Costs are high on either end and the economy continues to hit with a humbly hammer, making it difficult for people to make purchase decisions. Another industry source lamented that there seems to be general confusion at the moment in the telecommunications industry. “What do they want us to do,” the source queried.

    Under the circumstances, 5G is struggling. The source noted that after paying hefty licence fees ($273.6m per operator), no Nigerian 5G operator can make good returns on investment in the next five to six years, and “that depends if we are able to find appropriate pricing for devices and services because current ones are  not reflective of cost at all.”

    5G is like the meat of the antelope that needs proper cooking in order to achieve tasty results. While so many possibilities and revenue yields have been attributed to the technology, an expert suggests that the Nigerian Government needs to provide a good policy and regulatory environment in order to reap from such overwhelming advantages and be part of the global community.

  • Will there be garlands for NTA? – By Okoh Aihe

    Will there be garlands for NTA? – By Okoh Aihe

    The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) got its fair share of the wave of federal appointments as Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, last Friday, announced the appointment of seven Executive Directors. The announcement led me down the path of nostalgia, a wishful past when NTA was the king of broadcasting and could do only the right things.

    The appointees according to Onanuga’s statement include: Ayo Adewuyi, Executive Director, News (actually reappointed), Ibrahim Aliyu, Special Duties, Malam Muhamed Fatuhu Mustapha, Administration and Training, and Mrs Apinke Effiong (Finance).

    Others are Mrs Tari Taylaur, Programme, Mr Sadique Musa Omeiza Engineering, and Mrs Oluwakemi Fashina, Marketing. Quite a couple of them came with interesting annotations. Effiong is described as an expert in financial marketing with treasury, management accounting and reporting skills; Taylaur as an audio/visual creator, producer and showrunner; and Fashina was hailed as an integrated marketing communications professional and chartered marketer.

    My first observation here is that there seems to be some level of diversity or democratisation of the appointments as against the practice of the past where certain positions and offices at NTA were seemingly reserved for some people. The Executive Directors are expected to contribute their value proposition and support the Director General in the person of Mr Salihu Dembos in order to give NTA a new direction and some level of creative vitality. NTA needs some fillip at the moment and the writer is only praying that the new appointees are able to offer just that.

    Established in April 1976 by Decree 24, which has since become an Act of Parliament, and charged with the responsibility for the provision of television broadcasting in Nigeria and other related matters thereto, NTA has seen some glorious days as the sole government station building facilities across the states of the federation.

    Taking maximum advantage of its network strength and putting the abundant talents to great use, NTA promoted flagship programmes from different parts of the country – Masquerade from NTA, Enugu, Hotel de Jordan from NTA, Benin, Cockcrow at Dawn from NTA, Jos, Village Headmaster from Lagos, and much later Mirror in the Sun, Checkmate and Ripples, among others. It was a great time on television. You have to wait religiously for the network news for you to get the major news of the day or, if you work in a newspaper, you must monitor the network news for news break by 9pm.

    Something happened in 1992 which NTA was too arrogant to spot. The broadcast sector was deregulated by Decree 38, now an Act of Parliament, National Broadcasting Act CAP N11, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004, to give opportunity for private business promoters to test the perilous waters of broadcasting.

    NTA held the development in scorn, even more the regulator, NBC, and those jostling to come into the sector. That marked the birth of Raypower and AiT, Channels Television, Silverbird Television and Rhythm FM, MITV, TVC and much later, Arise TV, in no particular. The rest, they say, is history, a cliche I don’t particularly because it gives a proof of a people not ready to learn the lessons of history.

    The burgeoning content creating sector, now Nollywood, discriminated against by the NTA quickly shifted camps to the new broadcast operators and a new industry was born, very robust and rambunctious. The new broadcasters invested in new technologies and more modern broadcast practices. NTA was receding into the past and becoming a dodo. It failed to recognise competition when it came and now the government broadcast behemoth has been fighting ever since to cope with such competition.. Allegiance has since shifted and so are the viewing eyes!

    This material is not an elegy for NTA but a call to the new Executive Directors to take a dispassionate look at history and see how they can dig the station out of a self-created hole and begin  to reposition it. It’s like waking the Titanic, but can they? It is the responsibility of the President to appoint but the onus rests upon the appointees to perform.

    But for the NTA to witness a rebirth, it has to identify its place in history and strip itself of a debilitating arrogance. Is NTA a Public Broadcaster or a Government Broadcaster?

    The Nigeria Broadcasting Code recognises three tiers of broadcasting, categorised as follows: Public Service Broadcasting (PSB), Private/Commercial Broadcasting and Community Broadcasting.

    Those who are versed in this matter told this writer that the NTA is more of a government broadcaster because it is funded by the government which also makes strategic appointments as was done last week. From inception, the appointments have little to do with professionalism but more with political patronage subsidised by intolerable degree of subservience.

    After all, appointments are made by the President through the recommendations of the Minister, who is also empowered by the NTA Act to give directives of general order to the NTA and officials must obey. It can be any order depending upon the mood of the Minister or even his wife!

    Under this kind of practice, good journalism suffers, creativity and poetic licence are jeopardised, and accountability enjoys no relevance. No system suffers the aforementioned consequential defects and enjoys rectitude or experience needed growth. NTA enjoys no good standing between the two.

    This writer is of the opinion that what the regulator would have recommended for NTA is to operate as a Public Service Broadcaster (PSB). The PSB, the Code states, is broadcasting that is funded and controlled by the public, free from political and commercial interference. The regulator would have wished for NTA to follow best global practices, like the BBC and VOA.

    There are examples, which is why I don’t think we have to reinvent the wheel in this part of the world. For instance, the BBC is primarily funded by licence fee and supplemented by incomes from its commercial subsidiaries. The station does not allow advertising because it is not a commercial operator. A standard TV licence currently stands at £169.50, and gives access to a number of TV channels, radio, blogs and other devices.

    The monthly fee for 2021/22 was  £13.25, and this is how it was spent:  Television – £7.29, Radio – £2.09, Online – £1.27, BBC World Service – £1.30, Other Services and Production Costs – £.72, and Licence fee collection and Pension deficit cost – £0.58. It’s all about transparency and for every stakeholder to know that not a single pound sterling is accidented in the process.

    The Voice of America (VOA), on the other hand, is funded by the US Agency of Global Media after approval by the Congress. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages and broadcasting is targeted primarily at non-American outside of the United States. By November 2022, VOA reached 326m weekly across all last platforms. That is their policy. But the source of funds is sure and guaranteed and is used for the purpose budgeted for.

    An academic told this writer that until the communications policy of the Nigerian government is made clear, the job of NTA will be hazy and made increasingly difficult. Who is NTA broadcasting for? He explained that the station only reflects the government’s point of view, with absolute disregard for opposing views, a development that has driven many faithful viewers away. This situation must be corrected, otherwise it’s fortunes cannot increase.

    He suggested that the status of NTA must be made clear. It cannot be a government broadcaster and be canvassing for commercials with commercial operators at the same time. Such practice makes the playing field uneven. The station must be refocused and has to be in full compliance with the regulatory provisions of the NBC.

    What are the new Executive Directors bringing to the table? Is it just the same hackneyed story of “we are the biggest network in Africa?” Talk is cheap, my dear, and such belief cannot be evacuated from the platform of pipe-dreams.

    I don’t know what feeds my belief that the new appointees can do well. But first they must redefine the status of NTA and try to professionalise its operations. The station must have to embrace robust journalism practices and be able to present balanced news in its news segments. I do not know whether NTA tracks it’s viewership but I am pressed to suggest here that the station is watched only by their sponsors and people without alternatives. The new Executive Directors must do something. I am sure they will earn some garlands at some point.

  • Can WiFi 6 ignite a new industry story? – By Okoh Aihe

    Can WiFi 6 ignite a new industry story? – By Okoh Aihe

    The Stakeholders Consultative Forum on Emerging Technologies which held in Lagos on September 19, 2024, as a precursor to the coming of WIFI 6, has animated industry discussions on the beautiful shape of things to come. It is a new world out there and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) with necessary approvals from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), has planned to formally introduce the technology to the nation but not before following its long laid down procedure of public consultation.

    The forum was themed, “The Use of GHz (5925-7125)MHz for WiFi 6 and IMT applications in Nigeria”.

    Engr Abraham Oshadami, Executive Commissioner, Technical Services (ECTS), who stood in for Dr Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, called the gathering a tradition which provides a platform for the regulator to consult with operators, investors, customers and other relevant stakeholders to examine, share and constructively exchange ideas to ensure optimal utilisation of the benefits of the Spectrum to achieve regulatory excellence and operational efficiency.

    There was so much to talk about, especially the significance of deploying WiFi 6 in the lower band 6GHz Spectrum Band, specifically between the range 5925 and 6425 MHz. WiFi 6 represents a quantum leap in wireless technology as it offers the opportunity to support more devices with faster speed and greater reliability.

    The regulator told its audience that the development is “particularly very strategic in a world increasingly dominated by the Internet of Things (IoT), where everything, from smart homes to advanced industrial systems, depends on robust wireless connectivity. The deployment in the lower 6GHz is not just about faster Internet, it’s about enabling the next generation of technological innovation and economic growth.”

    What the regulator was putting on offer was like a trophy torch from WRC-23. The continent, in taking a long view at future technologies, prepared hard for the one-month long conference and was rewarded even beyond measures. There was literally a battle between WiFi and IMT with the earlier enjoying a clear victory which also meant victory for the continent to introduce WiFi 6 for extensive use.

    “Prior to the 2023 World Radiocommunications Conference, African Telecommunications Union (ATU) had already concluded its decision on the 6GHz Spectrum Band and recommended that administrations in Africa adopt the lower 6GHz for WIFi-6 applications . This decision was taken to WRC-23 and at the end of the day, Africa came out victorious,” Oshadami said.

    This writer was told that the 6GHz band is for unlicensed use, meaning that users don’t have to obtain licences from, or pay any licence fee to the regulator, except to follow the laid down regulations just to ensure discipline in operations and avoid chaos and arbitrariness. It’s  introduction is expected to excite the industry and activate greater connectivity.

    Nigeria is not alone in this journey or let me say the Africa Region has only tried to secure something that has facilitated wider connectivity in other parts of the world. For instance, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the opening of the 6-GHz band for unlicensed use in the United States in April 2020.

    The move demands that the FCC frees1200 MHz bandwidth for use by WiFi 6E devices, which feature an extra radio that lets them communicate in the 6-GHz band. The 6-GHz offers more than twice as much WiFi bandwidth as the 5-GHz band. It was the FCC’s plan to encourage wireless innovation and support smart homes and offices and expand the Internet of Things (IoT).

    Other countries and regulatory bodies already delivering 6GHz unlicensed spectrum to their residents, according to a CISCO report, include: Chile, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

    Without doubt, this is a good company to keep. And I am sure the stakeholders who gathered in Lagos will already be looking forward to how they can deploy WiFi 6 spectrum to change the story of their world and play in the WiFi elite group. I will not try to compare the rate and level of connectivity in any of the countries listed above. However, NCC seems pumped up to want to change the level of connectivity, and even quality of networks with its latest move.

    An industry source explained that there will be more Internet connectivity which may even profit the mobile operators. When there is congestion on the network, the source explained, the operators will simply off load on the WiFi. Besides, there will be wider availability of Internet for the ordinary folks, even as it will be much easier for people to deploy WiFi in parks and other public places.

    Making a compelling case for WiFi in an article, Connecting to the Future with 6GHz WiFi, published in September, 2023, Alex Roytblat, Vice President, Worldwide Regulatory Affairs, WiFi Alliance wrote: “The significance of Wi‑Fi will only increase with the next generation of wireless connectivity, as future use cases will require computational resources and connectivity that are hundreds, if not thousands, times faster than current International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) applications.

    “Next-generation connectivity will command immersive experiences such as virtual, augmented, and extended-reality (VR/AR/XR), wearable tech, artificial intelligence (AI), telehealth, industrial automation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and 3D‑video,” he said.

    While Roytblat submitted that the 6GHz WiFi was already delivering real socio-economic benefits in many countries, he also observed that the diverse and growing product ecosystem for 6GHz Wi‑Fi fits perfectly with broadband objectives in developed and developing countries — and without disrupting incumbent operations. The NCC obviously will enjoy this point of view.

    WiFi connectivity has more to do with speed, reliability and cost; the regulator has said that this will come at no cost but just regulations to enable responsible behaviour from users.

    For the industry people who are used to paying for nearly everything they get from the regulator, including services, this may sound like strange music. Engr Gbenga Adebayo, the ALTON President, told this writer within the week, that WiFi 6 is a positive development for the industry. It presents a win-win situation where everybody benefits as it will impact easy deployment, availability and cost, even as more and more devices get connected. It is obviously a good turn for the industry, he observed.

    The taste of the pudding, they say, is in the eating. So, NCC, when is WiFi 6 coming on stream? Our much maligned younger generation will be interested in the answer. Or will this be another story of Waiting for Godot?

  • A DSO fight most unnecessary – By Okoh Aihe

    A DSO fight most unnecessary – By Okoh Aihe

    Writing on the new Government’s initiative on the Digital Switchover (DSO) on August 28, 2024, we made the following observations on this column: “This has not said much about the place of the signal distributors and Set Top Box manufacturers who were encouraged to invest heavily in the DSO process and have hardly recouped some of their costs………

    “Obviously on this, the Tinubu administration has scored a good goal; but I dare say, the template they have just released needs more dispassionate interrogation to make implementation feasible. This is the only way the nation can harvest the much delayed digital dividend.”

    The iPad had hardly found a resting place in the iPad case when the Set Top Box Manufacturers of Nigeria  (STBMAN) went to the courts seeking protection for their businesses. This wasn’t unexpected. They had quickly looked at the new configuration and realised, frighteningly,  that they were not diagrammed into it.

    The story looks simple. The DSO presaged an era of new business opportunities which the government, through the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), could not handle alone; in fact, could not handle at all, since there has been this  cry of government getting out of business for professional business people to handle. The NBC invited broadcast industry and technology experts, and equipment vendors to be part of the template it was putting in place.

    Seeing what happened in the telecommunications sector when reforms were introduced in the year 2000, it was not difficult to have enthusiastic participants who were prepared to be poster personalities of the new dawn in the sector, embrace the business. Pinnacle and Integrated Television Services (ITS) were licensed as signal carriers, meaning that they will provide the facilities to carry all the TV signals in the country. It was tantalising to have only two operators become super signal carriers while mainstream broadcasters will have to concentrate on content creation which was expected to attract a lot of talents to the newfound honeypot. Some other companies were licensed as Set Top Box Manufacturers. The game has started. Most of these new operators went to the banks to access loans for their operations and manufacturing concerns. At least one million set top boxes would be needed immediately, to be provided by the manufacturers who were promised two years of exclusive rights to enable them recoup their investments.

    The only problem however is that Nigeria never really got the DSO process right. Look at this other case and then judge for yourself. As far back as 2007, the US government, through the Department of Commerce,  provided two coupons of $40 each for each household to acquire set top box converters. The function of the box is to convert analogue signals to digital ones. Proper documentation was done in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Plan which didn’t want any of the estimated 73m TV sets in  America to be excluded. The process was nearly seamless.

    This is 2024. In our dear nation Nigeria, the process went into hibernation for years and was only reactivated in August when the government allocated a princely sum of N10bn to drive it. The excitement that greeted the development has been blanketed quickly by the response of those who felt excluded, mistreated and caused to lose money after being persuaded to invest in the sector.

    A group of applicants under the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Licensed Set Top Boxes Manufacturers of Nigeria, Gospell Digital Ltd, Digitune Media Technologies, I-Box Engineering, Trefonics Electronics and Tve-RLG Limited had filed an ex-parte motion for the court to make an intervention that could secure their businesses. After hearing the submission of their lawyer, Dr Ruben Atabo, Justice Mustapha Adamu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, barred all parties from interfering with the nation’s transition from analogue to digital transmission.

    Apart from other issues raised, one major sore point is the Set Top Box to be used. The one previously stated in the Government’s White Paper to be deployed with contracts awarded to manufacturers, will be replaced by the new hybrid Android/DTH model with data connectivity features as announced in August. This decision that looks innocuous will have telling effects on businesses.

    The court, they say, is the last hope of the common man. But these are no common people. This is a government agency, a regulator for that matter, and business operators having a dig at each other. And this is what ails me. This legal battle is a long drawn out one that might spin well into the future. NBC will face frustration in the implementation of the DSO process. The DSO process will suffer in Nigeria. And operators and service providers will have to seek ways to service their bank loans or they will face some consequences that may be too hard for them to bear. From whichever angle the story is told, all the stakeholders are losers. Those who may be hidden beneficiaries at the moment will sooner find themselves in the hall of shame.

    If you ask me, I will say this is a fight that is not necessary at all. It’s going to be a messy one and so many things will be washed up. The service providers have their backs to the wall and may be prepared to fight to finish, and this may not be what the nation wants at this time. The new template was too presumptuous and assumptive of too many things as stakeholders engagement seemed to have been negligible.

    It is not too late to backtrack. The authorities should call a dispute resolution meeting of all the stakeholders and deal with the matter once and for all. You can’t deal with businesses without engagement with stakeholders. You can’t engage in a nasty fight without giving reasons to other investors to avoid your domain. The DSO is a process with too many implications, one of which could be the shame of international proportions that could come from our inability to execute a simple process the ITU sanctioned since 2006.

  • Edo State on a digital radar – By Okoh Aihe

    Edo State on a digital radar – By Okoh Aihe

    There is so much happening in Edo State at the moment. Elections are coming up on September 21, 2024, so the governorship candidates in the various parties are running from one end of the state to the other in frenetic campaigns to secure the votes of the people.

    At this particular time, the people matter most, and politics is the only game in town. Quite exciting as this season would seem in the state, the downside of the convoluting scenario is that the helpless people are being subjected to a barrage of lies, fiction being woven and spilled out as truths but, which on the long run, would make the people more helpless, hopeless and much poorer.

    Ha, my brother, democracy is good for the pockets of a few who lack vision beyond the precincts of their noses, experts in the effusion of baloney with gifted wizardry in manipulating the colours of reality, while turning white to black very effortlessly. Follow the campaigns, you will see that the politicians have exceeded the entertainment value of Nollywood while even adding a pigment of nastiness to their own efforts.

    However, Edo State recently appeared on a major digital radar, a rare opportunity I opine, should not be mired in the colours of politics. A research by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in conjunction with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), titled, Collaborative regulation: Accelerating Nigeria’s digital transformation, credits the state with a digital readiness to easily work with the Nigerian government in its march towards fifth generation collaborative digital regulation (G5) which can promote an enabling environment for digital transformation. The state possesses all necessary tech paraphernalia to build a modern state and develop an inclusive digital ecosystem.

    The G5 framework goes beyond the narrow consideration of only telecommunications/ICT to a far broader one of each country’s readiness to exploit a fully enabled digital economy and society.

    “The country reviews are an important tool for regulators and policy makers as they work to create an environment that promotes investment, competition, digital innovation, protects consumers, and ensures that the benefits of digital transformation are widely shared,” Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director, Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT of ITU said.

    In considering the place of Edo State in the nation’s digital ecosystem,  the ITU research stated: “Edo State provides a good case study of how states in Nigeria can promote digital transition to complement federal activities. The Edo State ICT Agency coordinates all state-wide implementation, while the State Ministry of ICT is the main policy-making body.

    “Edo State has a bold ICT-enabled vision to create a globally competitive state, to provide efficient and effective public services, and to become Nigeria’s technology hub,” the research observed.

    Some listed initiatives of the state, according to the research, include: Structured ICT training programme for staff; All 72 ministries, department and agencies are already on the edo.gov e-government platform; Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a fibre optic  company to cover 18 local governments, including facilities along the route (hospitals, schools, etc.); Currently 1782 km rolled out, with zero rated rights of way for fibre operators; Three data centres, with co-hosting provided for SMEs; Establishment of Edo State Park, targeting 15, 000 software engineers within fives years; and Digitised records, including all land registration records.

    These are some of the cardinal activities that have happened during the time of Governor Obaseki and they have been appreciated even globally because of their positive impact on the state and beyond, and even how such cerebral reasoning has positioned the state for growth. The country review was between November 2022 and July 2023.

    Ordinarily, it is difficult for simple minds to understand why a government would not collect right of way (RoW) charges – seen as easy sources of generating revenue – from telecommunications companies, especially from a company charged with laying cables across the 18 local government areas of the state. It is difficult for simple minds to understand why a state would build a computer superstructure in order to have a complete command and control of all its activities and remove greedy mouths from the various channels which are now streamlined and can be viewed on a video wall. You actually need a certain level of cerebral elevation to feature in the new ecosystem and must thus be amenable to some level of training.

    So, as the state struggles in the mire of politics, this writer is not expecting anybody to give Obaseki credit, especially if you don’t belong to his camp. Our genre of politics demands that even good deeds/achievements should be degraded to the level of little acceptance, if there is any acceptance at all. They must be bad-mouthed into nothingness. They can accuse the governor of being confused and leading the state on a journey of no return. They have done so, the politicians who see inclusive growth as rocket science. I feel sorry for their ignorance and I sympathise with Obaseki, the misunderstood.

    Within the week, I reached out to a fellow who once worked with the governor but they have since parted ways in no pleasant circumstances. Without dredging up the root of your quarrel,  would you be sincere enough to affirm some of the issues stated in the ITU report. With a ready answer, the fellow told this writer that Obaseki is structured and detailed and reasons on his feet. Some of the decisions he has taken, like building a computer network for the Civil Service, have denied the politicians their undeserved reward system, so they fight him daily. With just the input of a number, the Edo State employee would have all his/her details on the dashboard, the fellow said.

    As a tech writer, I am happy that Edo State has a fibre optic ring that has connected most of the prime facilities, which makes WiFi available in some of these facilities. I have had the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, make a little boast of that. Such profiting is allowed.

    Unfortunately, our politics is about patronage and allegiance to political godfathers,  about phantom developments and big cars to navigate roads that are in a very poor state, our politics is all about lies and demonstrated capacity to intimidate people into silence. Shock and awe is the name of the game. Often our politics is a war zone, and those without the bestiality to partake in it, must clap for the bold, the brave and the very cunning and vile ones among us.

    Before Obaseki becomes a lame duck in the next few weeks, I want to observe that the ITU Research is an indelible pointer to a fact, that he has done well to position Edo State for inclusive growth, digital transformation and sustainable development that could manifest even in a much bigger way in the years to come. My only prayer is that whoever succeeds him, will have the capacity to read and interpret his efforts for the benefit of the people, without bias.

  • Another NIN-SIM deadline that may not be cast in stone – By Okoh Aihe

    Another NIN-SIM deadline that may not be cast in stone – By Okoh Aihe

    From the onset, people were not so much against the SIM-NIN Linkage policy of the Nigerian government, especially for the reasons it was introduced, for the fidelity of our electronic business transactions, now digital economy, and for the security of lives in our nation.

    But people railed at the timing, which was during the COVID-19 period, a time people couldn’t mass together in an environment, when humanity failed the test of being their neighbour’s keeper, as visitations, meetings and office operations were migrated online – the policy achieved the direct opposite; and the very brash way the policy was introduced with obvious betrayal of inadequate preparations and a lack of readiness that could hardly be understood in a serious government setting.

    The policy was introduced with boldness and bravura by mid December 2020, and was designed to last for two weeks. Just two weeks! The end of the project, I can faithfully inform you now, stretches into the future without dates.

    Just what is he talking about? Just the same way you are thinking. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), last week, with some gloat, announced September 14, 2024, as the new date for the process to be fully completed, directing the mobile operators to deactivate all SIMs not properly harmonised with their NINs by September 15, 2024.

    “To ensure full compliance with the NIN-SIM linkage policy, the NCC has directed all Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to complete the mandatory verification and linkage of SIMs to NINs by September 14, 2024.

    “Effective September 15, 2024, the Commission expects that no SIM operating in Nigeria will be without a valid NIN,” the statement said.

    For the umpteenth time, the NCC has given a deadline for a project which a former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy started with hubris, but will it be cast in stone this time? The answer doesn’t readily appeal to me but one thing that is sure is that, overtime the regulator has made itself laughable, not because it is unable to complete a project that looked simple and over which so much money has been expended, but also because it has nearly lost its regulatory capacity to say something and enforce compliance.

    Feeling very upbeat about its latest communication on the subject, the NCC in the statement signed by Public Affairs Director, Reuben Muoka, said “the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is pleased to announce significant progress in the Federal Government’s 2020 policy to link all Subscribers Identification Modules (SIMs) to National Identity Numbers (NINs). To date over 153m SIMs have been successfully linked to a NIN, reflecting an impressive rate of 96 per cent, a substantial increase from 69. 7 per cent in January 2024.”

    After all the missteps from the beginning of the project, this really is a whiff of good news but it also has substantial variance with reality. Everyday new SIMs are being sold which status remains undetermined while already there is still a huge difference between 153m already processed, and the 219m SIMs held by subscribers as at March this year, prompting one newspaper to report that by the time the project comes to a close in September, there will still be over 50m SIMs out there unable to satisfy the integrity of the process.

    But there are more reasons to worry. The NCC statement gives me the jitters. “Through collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the NCC has uncovered alarming cases where individuals processed an unusually high number of SIM cards – some exceeding 100, 000,” the statement said.

    Security concerns in the country are hitting frenetic levels. Bandits have taken over roads and forests, killing and maiming and kidnapping for ransom. A major reason for the introduction of the policy was to help curb insecurity. It was once seen as a silver bullet to cure nearly every security challenge but such expectations have since been dashed.

    The policy allows an individual to register a maximum of four SIMs, thereby raising serious concerns how a few individuals could possess the number of SIMs stated in the NCC statement . This writer has no information on anybody arrested for such a seeming brazen contravention and going through prosecution at the moment. What would anybody be doing with 10 SIMs, 20 SIMs or even 100 or 1000 SIMs? What is going on here that nobody is ready to talk about?

    The NCC has also declared in the statement that “the sale and purchase of pre-registered SIMs are criminal offences punishable by imprisonment and fines.” I expect the NCC to mount a full media campaign around this so that some low-level players embedded in the value chain can be educated and avoid the full wrath of the law.

    Will this deadline be cast in stone? I don’t think so. Reasons. There are a number of stakeholders in the ecosystem whose response may determine what happens next. One, the subscribers, members of the public, who are dragged and defocused by the daily concerns of life, to the extent that they may not give so much thought to the NCC’s position until the very last minute.

    The other stakeholders in the ecosystem are the operators who own the platforms on which the entire conversation is taking place. They maintain a database of all their subscribers and are able to quickly look up anything they want to know or see on the dashboard. This writer has been reliably informed by an industry source that the NCC deadline is quite fair to the operators and that implementation and compliance with directives may not be difficult. The process of implementing the directive may also determine whether it will stoke a bedlam as we saw previously. The industry source has assured that this time,  the operators are on top of the game. The substance to this small boast will be seen in the days ahead.

    There is yet another party in the ecosystem. NIMC, which maintains the National Identity Database, has a finishing responsibility in the NIN-SIM linkage policy process as it has to conduct the final harmonisation process. However, even with resource support from the industry, plus government budgeting, its capacity to really support the process and play its complementary role, has remained in doubt. There is a concourse of opinion that NIMC lacks the capacity to play this game. Nobody knows however, whether the coming of Engr Bisoye Coker-Odusote as chief executive. has provided the magic wand to switch its fortunes for good. Again, NIMC’s readiness will unfold in the days to come.

    Here is my humble conclusion. There will always be errant SIMs out there. There will always be people who will not want to register their SIMs for whatever reasons. But it is the responsibility of the NCC to take a decision that sticks, a decision that binds all the players in the telecommunications ecosystem, especially in the face of festering security challenges. The NCC should play its role and, in the process, stimulate the nation’s security system to apply some of the provisions of modern technology to resolve daunting security challenges confronting us as a nation.

  • A DSO call that may change the broadcast terrain – By Okoh Aihe

    A DSO call that may change the broadcast terrain – By Okoh Aihe

    Our propensity to build mountains out of very small problems has not allowed us to achieve our aspirational height. Every little problem with a simple answer is complicated, like rocket science or achieving the feat of sending somebody to the moon or the international space station where some other humans – astronauts and cosmonauts – do have some good time as they take some unimaginable views of the earth.

    A simple process is convoluted and the solution recedes into the dark, and the world moves on as they begin to ask what is happening to such a great country? Why is it not flying?

    This is a daily question. Why is the country not flying? Why is it always doing catch up and sometimes finding the catch up too difficult to achieve?

    Questions arise in many areas where unfinished business litres the space. Thursday last week, the Tinubu administration took a definitive step to resolve one of them and redeem it from the graveyard of unfinished businesses. That very day the government announced a plan to tackle the Digital Switchover (DSO) and bring it to a successful conclusion for the nation to enjoy the multifarious advantages arising there from.

    At a joint press conference by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Charles Ebuebu, Director General of NBC, announced government approval of a grant to jumpstart the DSO programme which had stalled for an indeterminate period of time. The grant is coming from spectrum sales which is executed on behalf of the government by the NCC. The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC was by his side, acquiescing to every of his submissions.

    “The grant is not just a financial allocation; it is a testament to Mr President’s collective commitment to driving technological advancement, economic growth, and cultural enrichment through the DSO project.

    “The intervention is a testament to the visionary leadership of the President. It is a commitment to achieving a future where every Nigerian, regardless of their location, has access to superior broadband services and is included in the digital economy,” Ebuebu informed.

    In explaining the new relationship between the NBC and NCC, he said that “to accelerate this process, the Commission is in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission. This collaboration signifies a strategic alliance and a unified effort to bring about a seamless transition to digital broadcasting and underscores NCC’s determination to support this monumental project and ensure its success.”

    In this column, we have been waiting for this call to happen. We have written copiously on the need for a traction between the two government agencies so that the DSO programme, which some smaller countries in Africa have since completed, can also happen in Nigeria. The benefits are legion and we have been anxious for the nation to begin to reap some of these benefits.

    Just for a simple recall, the Digital Switchover (DSO) is the process of moving from analogue television to digital terrestrial television. The agreement reached at the Regional Radio Communication Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2006 – the GE06 Regional Agreement, was to the effect that countries in the region – Europe, Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and the Islamic Republic of Iran would migrate from analog transmission to digital terrestrial transmission on the set date of June 17, 2015, for the UHF band (470-862 MHz), and a 5-year extension for the VHF band (174-230 MHz).

    It wasn’t a decision cast in stone but countries were expected to work towards achieving results and be able to earn their share of digital dividend. The broadcast frequencies released in the process would be sold at premium to telcos for mobile operations. Although Nigeria started the process in 2016, a year after it should have ended, the country very much wanted to have a share of the new wealth the switchover would unleash.

    An industry source reminded this writer that pioneer Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, and Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, wrote a joint memo to President Goodluck Jonathan at the time suggesting ways to fund the  DSO to achieve immediate results. Their efforts did not save the process from being plunged into the mire where it was much easier to achieve scandal than needed results. Efforts of the DigiTeam set up by the President were sabotaged while the ministerial team which succeeded it under the Buhari administration was more into politics of implementation than actual work to achieve set objectives.

    Until last week, the DSO was completely in limbo, which is why the present administration should earn some plaudits for taking a more concerted look at the process. EVC Maida agreed that media patterns and consumption are changing daily, making the role of the NCC more prominent and relevant.

    “A majority of the content will be consumed on demand. We will be working closely with NBC. Where we need to work together, we will make ourselves available to ensure that the quality of content and signals are available,” he promised.

    The other area of support, which is more overriding, is funding as was demonstrated on the day. Most of the frequencies that have been sold or will be sold for telecom operations by the NCC, were recovered from broadcasters, which means that the NBC should have a cut from the proceeds,  but previous administrations at the NCC, especially the most recent one, was not very excited about allowing the NBC have a little sniff, not to talk of a sizeable amount to help facilitate the DSO process. It is commendable that this administration has been able to persuade the parastatals to work together without letting money come in between them.

    Something else must be observed here however. While previous efforts ascribed importance to Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) to bring signals to the mass of the people, the presence of signal carriers – Pinnacle and ITS – and Set Top Box manufacturers, the programme released last week is looking for a quick fix by turning to Satellite technology – Direct to Home (DTH).

    “Leasing transporters and establishing a robust satellite backbone to ensure 100% signal coverage across Nigeria. This will expedite the Analog Switch Off (ASO) and enhance accessibility to FreeTV service nationwide,” Ebuebu explained.

    This has not said much about the place of the signal distributors and Set Top Box manufacturers who were encouraged to invest heavily in the DSO process and have hardly recouped some of their costs.

    One of the beauties of the DSO is its capacity to appropriate the built up energies and talents in the creative sector, whose promoters would have to work nonstop to feed the multiplicity of channels that will be enabled by the digital process. Ebuebu sketched at this when he said:

    “Adopting the digital broadcasting standards will align Nigeria with global norms, enhancing our competitiveness and attracting foreign investments. Digital broadcasting will bridge the digital divide, ensuring access to vital information, education, and entertainment for remote and underserved communities.”

    Obviously on this, the Tinubu administration has scored a good goal; but I dare say, the template they have just released needs more dispassionate interrogation to make implementation feasible. This is the only way the nation can harvest the much delayed digital dividend.