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Tag: Okoh Aihe

  • Multichoice, Nigeria not a rogue State – By Okoh Aihe

    Multichoice, Nigeria not a rogue State – By Okoh Aihe

    I love the deregulated sector where the operators are free to apply their business ingenuity to gain market advantage knowing that there are rules of engagement to promote robust competition. Rules of engagement abhor the shifting of goal posts which is our forte in this part of the world. We like cutting corners to demonstrate our smartness and that hasn’t helped anybody, not even the individual and his country.

    I love the deregulated sector and this I have demonstrated by following the broadcast and the telecommunications industries unrepentantly for decades; I am not about to swap my love for them with anything.

    So, I can smell trouble in the sector miles away and often wish that it doesn’t happen. but sometimes wishes hardly become reality and, quite ironically, some of these troubles are needed to test the laws that bind the industry together. This may serve as a little tapestry for the tangle between Multichoice NIgeria Limited and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council over a subscription increase which runs foul of the position of the latter.

    I have written loads of materials in support of the operators, arguing that the government should allow them run their businesses without encumbrances, even when it comes to raising prices or tariffs because of the challenges of the country’s business environment which has also not been helped by a currency that is hardly stable. But I also know that, at some point, the operator could raise tariffs beyond the customers and then something will give.

    Are we there yet? Oh, remember the saying of my people about the blind man’s garri being laced with too much sand; even without sight, he will find out there is something wrong with his meal which is very tempting with cold water.

    Here are the strands of the unfolding scenario before us. PayTV behemoth, Multichoice , announced tariff increase on all its platforms beginning May 1, 2024. This wasn’t an April Fool’s prank. It was the third time in just over a year. It means, therefore, that each time there was an unpredictable shift in the value of the Naira, Multichoice would bump rates. Remember in quarter three of 2023, Multichoice reported a loss of $72m in its financial statement. The organisation seems to be searching for buffers all over the place.

    But that is the nature of business, so not everybody seems to have sympathy for the organisation as they were no partakers of its good times.

    Towards the end of April, Festus Onifade through his counsel Ejiro Awaritoma, ran to a Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) sitting in Abuja, with an ex-parte motion to restrain Multichoice from executing the planned increase on May 1. An interim injunction was granted by the three-member panel presided over by Saratu Shaffi. Both parties are to maintain the status quo and return to the Tribunal on May 7, 2024, by 10am.

    Normal thing to do in a civilised society. I am sure Onifade is a subscriber and just needed the protection of the law instead of seeking self-help to mobilise in an uncivil way. The tribunal saw his plight.

    However on May 1, Multichoice executed the rate hike in defiance of the Tribunal’s position. What kind of disdain and corporate insouciance is that to our judicial system? I love the deregulated sector and have written in support of Multichoice, even advocating that the organisation be allowed to run its business and fix whatever rate it likes as there is nothing in the National Broadcasting Act Cap N11 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 or even the Nigeria Broadcasting Code stopping it from doing so. But if there is a legal challenge, the process must be obeyed and followed through.

    Nigeria is not a rogue state. There is a government in charge of this nation and whether you like it or not, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the President and the head of the Executive, the  buck stops on his table. The other arms are the Legislature and the Judiciary. You may not have voted for the President or you may not even like him at all, but he heads a government that is in charge at the moment and  gives people the opportunity to run to the courts for protection.

    Onifade has acted within his rights. The Tribunal listened and took a decision pending further appearances. Multichoice has also taken an action apropos its interpretation of the law. Everything has returned to the Tribunal which waited for Multichoice to show up.

    March 7, after listening to arguments, the three-man panel of the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal, headed by Justice Thomas Okosu, sent a strong message to Multichoice with its decision and in the process sent a strict warning to businesses whose operations and actions diminish the rights of customers.

    Affirming that “the jurisdiction of this tribunal extends to all business activities within Nigeria,” which was in response to the objection of Multichoice, filed by Moyosore J. Onibanjo (SAN), the Tribunal placed a fine of N150m on Multichoice and directed the broadcaster to give its Nigerian subscribers one month free subscription.

    Multichoice has vowed to challenge the ruling, meaning we are just at the beginning of a legal battle whose ultimate decision could shape a lot of things for businesses and the rights of customers in this nation.

    Let me observe here that Onifade’s legal team is doing a smart job. They never questioned the rights of Multichoice to increase rates but challenged the short notice of eight days given to subscribers who pay subscription on a monthly basis. I am sure from there other issues will begin to percolate. Is that not a wise thing to do?

    I am for a deregulated business environment which must be subjected to the rule of law, an environment where the parties – regulator, operator and customers – must believe in the justice system to make pronouncements on their complex relationships, including social and trade. It is encouraging that the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal is holding itself out for worthy emulation irrespective of how the case under discourse ends.

    Everyday, the customer holds the sharp end of the knife which is very dangerous. He goes to the airport, the flight is cancelled and he hides his hopelessness in his shame as he scrounges for transport to return home or to spend another night in a hotel. He wakes up in the morning and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has increased electricity tariff to such an insane height that demonstrates the absence of an effective social justice system in our nation.

    He goes to the filling station to buy some petrol, the pump price has been adjusted overnight and his complaints don’t travel beyond his lips. The customer is king, he keeps repeating to himself, but the market woman has no respect for a customer with very low purchasing power. This is no spoofery but harsh reality as governors hem and haw over how much their workers get paid which could determine what relevance they hold as customers.

    The customer needs more protection from judicial systems like the Consumer and Competition Protection Tribunal. Nigeria is not a rogue State. I hold strongly to the belief that the law still works here although the wheels of justice may grind slowly.

  • Like the lizard, broadcasting lies prostrate – By Okoh Aihe

    Like the lizard, broadcasting lies prostrate – By Okoh Aihe

    I am looking at two pictures of the Information and National Orientation Minister, Muhammad Idris. One is ebullient with smiles breaking all over his face as he assured the Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (IBAN) members who visited him that the Tinubu administration would avail a single digit loan to help stabilise and grow the broadcast industry. 

    In the other picture which was Monday this week, the minister cuts a sombre mood as he appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to please call off their strike and give life back to the nation which was so seriously abridged by a blistering national strike over minimum wage. The minister needs help to convey his message to the people to demonstrate that the government is not doodling over a serious matter that calls for exigent response. Idris needs help urgently.

    The first picture was from TV Continental. Great pictures. On Monday, I was flipping through stations to get the updates on the strike, I must commend their efforts, how well they did, to keep the nation  informed  about the strike which was comprehensive, proving with pictures that there was no violence anywhere. Now my generator is running out of diesel and, I too, need help urgently. Don’t mind me ooh, I only power the generator and charge my inverter – is that what they call it? 

    Dear friends, the nation is in stilts and it is our responsibility to make it walk the right way by our actions, demands and responses. The times are too dire for frivolities and everyone of us must shirk idle talks and rodomontade proclamations about achievements which are hardly visible on the dashboard. We need to confront the truth, no matter its bitterness, to place the nation on a concrete footing.

    The minister was confronting the truth when he made that promise on behalf of the government. Coming from the media himself, from the print genre, Idris knows how badly things have turned. The economy has hit the media very badly, just like the rest of us all, sans the politicians, who still drive mint SUVs on behalf of the people to avoid bad roads? 

    I am sure as the moon and the stars that this strike would come and go with little results and that skirmishes would continue concerning the next line of action. But here is my concern this day;  the minister was right to have made that promise to the broadcasters and must pursue it to the very end in spite of intervening factors that may come his way. There will always be so many things in the government’s basket but it takes political dexterity and administrative wizardry to sort them one after the other without sleeping on anyone in particular. 

    You listen to the radio and your life is  transported to the world of dreams with digital sound effusions. When you watch television, you want to behave like a movie star, speak grammar like Rueben Abati on Arise TV or make good documentaries like Adebayo Bodunrin for AIT  or develop the confidence of Nkoli and Adaora on Kakaaki or Chamberlain on Channels Television. Oh, the life of glamour can have a soft underbelly that is difficult to manage. 

    Only very few people will know what it takes for these on-air personalities to come on television and make us happy everyday or to visualise our lives in dreams. I have stuck around broadcasting for a long time and all that comes to my mind always is the metaphor of all lizards lying prostrate, making it difficult to know which particular one has a stomach problem. Was that Prof Ola Rotimi speaking and great actor and dancer, Columbus Irosanga, delivering the line? Oh, Lord may this memory remain fertile and not fade!

    Despite the glitz and glamour, despite its capacity to bring remote events to our living rooms, like the Oscars, Champions League finals and the seamy side, the wars in Ukraine  and Gaza, and the burial of the Wigwes, broadcasting is in desperate need of help and the Minister of Information and National Orientation was right to make a promise.

    In fairness, the challenges facing the broadcast industry didn’t start under the Tinubu  administration. They have always been there but this government has taken some drastic economic decisions that have aggravated an already festering situation. In the early life of the administration, a broadcast executive complained that he was using over N38m to run his generators monthly, with the electricity bills close to that . This was long before the electricity tariff increase, which has taken things through the roof. I am not so gifted in mathematics to multiply that amount with 200 per cent. In summary, let me say that energy is now the biggest headache facing the industry which may be the reason the minister advocated for the adoption of renewable energy. 

    The fickleness of the Naira before other international currencies like the Dollar is another challenge that has gotten more complicated. Broadcast equipment and service parts are not manufactured in the country, meaning that every imported item is denominated in Dollar. Like every other business, broadcasting has been hit very badly. Some broadcast operators will tell you now that they don’t even earn enough money to pay salaries, not to talk of ceding any money for equipment purchases. 

    Some international organisations bailing out of Nigeria say they have found it very difficult to continue to do business in the country. The economy is weak in spite of our claims. The cost of the Dollar has rubbished all expert projections. Quite a number of big corporates have left and others are warming up but where do the broadcasters and many others go? Those who know a thing about business have said that the lending rate of over 26 percent interest is too steep for business operations. The minister is right in saying the administration will provide some cushion. 

    While the minister’s promise is appreciated and expected, I wish to humbly suggest that the minister should source for money to complete the Digital Switchover (DSO) process which the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is pursuing on behalf of the government. Voices within the Commission told this writer that nothing is happening in that respect. That is not good enough. The DSO is an international decision of which Nigeria is a part. Besides, there are too many economic benefits to be harvested – the digital dividends, spectrums that will be released that will become handy for the government to sell at huge amounts, the creator economy that will be activated – big content making opportunities for Nollywood, the music industry and other related industries. There is just too much that the DSO has tied down and I reiterate that the government works through the NBC to achieve desired results.

    What more do I have to say? Life is about give and take. That is what Ola Rotimi said in Kurunmi, when he interpreted the cries of the frog – buumi buoo, buumi buoo – you give me, I give you. I give you, you give me. I still see the glint in RMD’s eyes as he took those lines. Moments of exhilaration you want to say. 

    We need those moments now to help each other. It doesn’t matter if the minister is the one who starts it for the broadcast industry. In the long run, he and the government he represents, will be major beneficiaries as they will get more opportunities and enhanced broadcast channels to reach the people. After all, good communication has been in short supply in this government.

  • For a broadcast czar, it’s 365 days into eternity – By Okoh Aihe

    For a broadcast czar, it’s 365 days into eternity – By Okoh Aihe

    In the evening of May 29, 2023, I found myself paying tributes to Dr Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi. “They didn’t know you and they never will,” I wrote.

    The broadcast czar and unrepentant exponent had just undergone a most unexpected apotheosis and emotion was very thick in the air. He had completed his final episode of life which awaits every human and had departed in a most heroic way.

    Progressively, the tribute has come to mean even more to me as the nation didn’t really understand the man who seemed to have come our way before his time. Now more in retrospect apropos reality, there is overwhelming evidence strewn our way.

    On the night the nation gathered to celebrate you at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, I was invited to the studio to run some commentary. As a mark of befitting honour to your legacy, AIT News 24 was called into action for the first time. It was my first time in that studio. I knew you had something cooking on the fire but I never asked for details.

    I stood in that studio completely lost. I could have been in one of those studios owned by any of the international broadcasters in Abu Dhabi or Doha or even at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference (NAB) in Las Vegas where new broadcast technologies are introduced to industry professionals and regulators. But this is Nigeria; you transformed the world with your final act so much beyond our human imagination. I was looking at the video wall round the expansive studio and your huge image literally leaping at me perhaps with a taunting message that they knew very little of what you carried. For the first time, I got openly overwhelmed and really just cried bitterly. At that time, I realised this is the only way you would be speaking to us henceforth, with pictures and  actions, and more with your manifest enterprises spread across the nation, and with your good that is interred in the hearts of men.

    AIT News 24 is the final act of a man who saw well into the future; oh, is that what they call futuristic? It is the product of a large heart who wouldn’t spare any cost to achieve a dream. Those who maligned you had no idea how complicated your mind was, the rate of work and how you could throw a last dice for the ultimate result. I am sure you were building AIT News 24 as a game changer. Even now I can say your dream is not misplaced.

    Oh, you came ahead of your time? I will recall the story of the  solar farm very close to the Daar gate at Kpaduma Hills. Long ago, perhaps when you were putting finishing touches to your house at Kpaduma Hills, you went to China, and one of the things you returned with was a container load of solar panels. The container was out there untouched until one day, after you reviewed the Electricity bills being sent to your  residence in millions of Naira, you asked Madam Tosin, are you happy paying all these bills? When are you going to install the solar panels, after my death?

    The solar farm was born. Long before the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) would increase electricity tariff by as much as over 231 percent and introduce discriminatory tariffs they call ‘bands’ which Nigerians are still unable to understand. Even more difficult to understand is increasing the price of a product they hardly have. But you saw the future and built a solar farm!

    You spoke of death so lightly, like it had no power over you. In your apotheosis, a lot of Nigerians saw the kind of passing they would love to enjoy but which they can’t because of the wickedness of their hearts. It was a moment of exceeding glory, of tributes across tribes, nationalities and even party lines.

    They were united in speaking of your goodness, your kindness and your readiness to help the rich and the poor, and above all, the bridge builder whose patriotism underlined every of your actions. You were a rare germ who hardly had enemies even in politics. I was there looking at their faces on television, those who would come to you in the cool of the evening or dead of night to seek advice or direct media interventions. In the Bible, they call that Nicodemus relationship; you had so many of them. Thankfully, some top politicians, including some former and present state governors, confessed the help you rendered them at no cost. In your apotheosis, your  image got much bigger and achieved that national status which politics couldn’t offer you. Please, let me add that you were much appreciated by the ordinary folks for whom you fought a life-long battle.

    You always told me that Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now President,  was your friend in spite of some brushes deriving from political differences; the social life you enjoyed together and the political battles jointly fought even subterraneously to make Nigeria a better place. Your friend wanted to start his tenure with the speed of a Formula 1 car by announcing the removal of fuel subsidy in his inaugural speech. This was soon followed by the floating of the Naira. I am told life and politics don’t go with such speed. The country went into a tailspin, the effects of which may not have been properly communicated to him by those whose perennial ambition is to be ensconced in political offices.

    But your friend may have found out and is fighting to stabilise the nation with both hands. It has to be a long fight, however. My youth corper friend once told me an Ibo proverb in those days when we served in Port Harcourt, that as you try to patch life, life continues to leak everywhere. Headline inflation is 33.2 percent while food inflation which strikes at the heart of families stands perilously at 40.5 percent.

    There are some positives without doubt. For instance, the coastal road from Lagos to Calabar. Although its introduction was badly mismanaged, the road comes with many positives that cannot be drowned in politics. Your friend needs more fire in him and the capacity to listen to the complete story – from his party and others, including the cries of the people – to enable him give this nation a befitting leadership.

    Your contributions to broadcasting have been duly acknowledged, but much more is your political activism which a significant number hardly knew until your apotheosis. Have you seen your former boss, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former governor of Anambra State? Both of you acknowledged each other’s brilliance in your biography, The Handkerchief. He departed on December 14, 2023.

    There is so much to say in 365 days but let’s put a break here. Your presence at our corner is sadly missed but the araba still continues to provide a great shelter, and Raymond Dokpesi Jr is lacing the shoes quite boldly. For me, it’s always an apotheosis and your good will never be interred.

    You Are Always There for Me

    After over three decades in the pen profession, I still find myself asking the same questions: what does it take to write a good line, a good verse or beautiful lyrics? Does it look like the good blend of the apothecary, the perfumer at his best, producing a perfect blend with its beautiful odoriferous details to distinguish its wearer?

    As I listen to Dr Paul Enenche’s acoustic version of You Are Always There For Me, the questions return. Except that this time, it’s not just about good lyrics but good lyrics with perfect rendition, some little chant, escorted by restrained acoustic guitar infusion, to release a soothing, mellifluous music that serves more significantly as spiritual elixir to the soul.

    Unlike the product of the apothecary that vanishes mysteriously with a swipe of coffee bowl across the nose, the music by the Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Church, remains, melting into the body to lift the spirit above every momentary worries.

    A former boss once told me, when you prepare for an international trip, the first thing you put in your bag is the Bible. Permit me the latitude to modify this. When you prepare for a trip or even your day, the first download you should have on your phone or iPAD is You Are Always There For Me. You need it as a perfect escort to regulate your mood, sweeten your spirit and attract audacity to confront challenges, knowing that God is always there for you.

    This is what I do now. I put on my Beat headsets, connected to my iPAD with continuous play of You Are Always There For Me, and go to sleep. It’s pure bliss, pure heaven. Really.

  • A writer in search of NTEL – By Okoh Aihe

    A writer in search of NTEL – By Okoh Aihe

    My friend wasn’t happy with me last week. How can you be writing technology and you allow these operators to run away with my money? But how would I be clairvoyant to know your little fights with the operators?

    My friend  loves gizmos and is hooked on any organisation that promises good data bundles. So he found a good romance with NTEL which went on a swing until one day, there was no data bundle and NTEL couldn’t be found. His data subscription is hooked somewhere and so is his money and my friend is picking quarrels with the wrong people who were no party to the data odyssey.

    He is not alone in his misery following his data loss. My other friend is an engineer who is a collector of routers perhaps because of his profession. He is one of the first I know to acquire an MTN 5G Router, a proud addition to his rich gizmo hold. He too is frustrated that NTEL did not even send any communications concerning his data contract that has ended abruptly.

    Where is NTEL now? I was obviously blindsided by the history of NTEL which was unfair to most people my age. NTEL is the final makeup from the incessant name change of formal monopoly operator, NITEL, which failed to develop the telecommunications sector to the extent that I would not even touch a telephone until I got into the university. That was in the 80s. When I share the experience with my children now, they see me as a caveman.

    NITEL is one of the failed enterprises of the Nigerian governments, mind you, not a particular administration, but since independence, a nasty justification that government has no place in business. Just like the power and energy sectors, the ghosts of failure have refused to be interred, they haunt us wherever we go in the nation.

    But some governments did try to save NITEL, like raising the titanic, it was an impossible task. Nobody could conclude a purchase and pay, nobody could manage the organisation and make profit, NITEL remained a bad story without end but nobody wanted it dead. So, at the mobile auctions in 2001, NITEL had a reserved licence and this writer has no knowledge that it paid the $285m licence fee.

    NITEL had a head start. It was a former monopoly and retained ownership of its assets across the country which infrastructure it was expected to make available to the  coming operators. NITEL remained peacocked and refused to interconnect them or just actually used that refusal as an alibi to masquerade its inadequacies. It’s journey to a final place of rest was cemented.

    Where is NTEL now? December 2014, NITEL was sold to NATCOM Consortium for $252.5m. It was a complete bundle which include but not limited to: licences and spectrum, national fixed wire network, the fibre optic transmission backbone, the national right of way duct system, international gateway earth stations, microwave transmission network, CDMA network system, MTEL GSM network, the SAT-3 international submarine cable system, and the many buildings and other assets across the country.

    It was a total sale. Remember, the GSM licence cost $285m in 2001! And now NATCOM has the whole of NITEL in its pockets, an adjusted version of the world in your pocket. Great deal for smart business people.

    Basking in a deserved euphoria, NITEL metamorphosed into NTEL (Nigeria Telecommunications) early 2015, its last known metamorphosis or perhaps a final stage of reincarnation and would later launch 4G/LTE services on the 900/1800 MHz spectrum. It was promoted as the first service of its kind to zap data at a speed never before experienced in a nation where phone users consume data like pure when it was cheap. My two friends swallowed the bait because it was more than attractive.

    Where is NTEL now? I went to a place I thought I could have all the relevant information, the NCC website, www.ncc.gov.ng. Under Industry Statistics, the regulator says:

    “Consistent with Section 89 Subsection 3(d) of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 (NCA 2003), the Commission is mandated to monitor and report on the state of the Nigerian telecommunications industry, provide statistical analyses and identify industry trends with regard to services, tariffs, operators, technology, subscribers, issues of competition and dominance, etc. with a view to identifying areas where regulatory intervention would be needed;

    “In view of this, the Commission regularly conducts studies and surveys and produces reports on the telecommunications industry, and telecommunications operators are obligated, under the terms of the licences, to provide the NCC with such data on a regular basis for analytical review and publishing.”

    Presenting a dashboard of operator’s performance, the Commission informs that MTN has a market share of 37.35 percent with 81, 799,666 subscribers; Airtel is second with 28.93 percent and 63,357,061 subscribers; Globacom is third with 28.40 percent and 62,191,448 subscribers; while 9MOBILE occupies a distant fourth with 5.32 percent share of the market translating to 11,657,703 subscribers.  This is the industry picture as at March 2024. There is nothing said about NTEL, yet it has a GSM licence.

    NTEL is not on the dashboard of the NCC or is the Commission too blindsided to completely miss the performance of an operator with the world in its pocket?

    But where is NTEL now? Two industry sources told this writer that when NTEL launched its 4G services in April 2016 with a promise to provide the best and most affordable data, leaving its 2G and 3G bands out, it was the wrong thing to do. Not many subscribers had handsets for 4G and NTEL was left in a lonely world where it had little connections with other operators.

    “Not so many handsets could do 4G. The customers they have are data customers,” one of them said.

    Although NTEL hardly shows up on the NCC radar, the operator ironically enjoys some level of regulatory comfort. A source told me that due to some deft negotiations, NTEL has not been paying Annual Operating Levy (AOL), Numbering Plan and Spectrum fees, which are the three primary sources the government and the regulator make money from the industry. Like NITEL, NTEL has its way with the government.

    NCC says Section 89 Subsection 3(d) mandates it to monitor and report on the industry. Has it done that with NTEL?

    Where really is NTEL and is it ever going to get back to its customers still holding on to their data bundles?

    I don’t know about NTEL getting back to its customers but this much I know. NTEL is with the  Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). Two industry sources told this writer that NTEL has ceased to exist as a corporate concern. They informed that when the organisation couldn’t pay its bills including interconnect and co-location charges to its business partners, they were simply unplugged and that put a final nail to their operations.

    However, one was informed that AMCON kept an eye on the operations of NTEL in order to protect the government’s interest as a shareholder. And this turned out to be a rewarding watch as multiple industry sources confirmed that some top NTEL officials were more interested in stripping the assets of the organisation that are strewed all over the country. In the hands of AMCON, I am told, NTEL is safe, so are the assets but its services are as good as dead.

    This is not the story my friends want to hear. They are looking  forward to receiving their data subscription from NTEL. Unfortunately, that wait has to be forever.

    But why would nobody ever report the travails of NTEL, not even the regulator? NTEL has failed the industry, indebted to so many business partners who are licking their fate right now. NTEL has left its subscribers stranded. There has to be a way the industry stakeholders are protected by the regulator. Otherwise, people are going to be asking, how many operators will have to suffer the fate of NTEL before the regulator takes action?

  • From Rehoboam syndrome to cybersecurity tax – By Okoh Aihe

    From Rehoboam syndrome to cybersecurity tax – By Okoh Aihe

    There is always something new to talk about in this part of the world. If it is not fuel queues which remain stubborn irrespective of the removal of subsidy about eleven months ago, it’s about the increase of tariff on electricity, a product that is hardly available in the market or even the soaring cost of a bag of rice or the Naira that has defied all good intended interventions by the Central Bank.

    Some trifles and mundane issues which ordinarily shouldn’t be any problem have graduated to national challenges because of our inability to deal with small issues at embryo.

    There is always something new to talk about in this part of the world. Except that at this time, developments have hit a bedlam because there is always something new that irritates the people to the point of incomprehension, making it difficult for them to  react rationally. Always something new happening to the same people, week after week, and I pray not in perpetuity.

    The new one last week was the 0.5 percent Cybersecurity Tax which the Central Bank directed all the banks to collect on every electronic transaction effective last Monday. The money collected will be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund (NCF) which is domiciled in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). The levy derives from the provisions of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (amendment) Act 2024, Section 44 (2) (a) which speak of the establishment of the Cybersecurity Fund, the monies to be collected and the office to administer the Fund. The amendment is a recent achievement of the National Assembly which has gone to sleep on nearly all troubling national issues sans the purchase of SUVs for themselves to ply the bad roads across the land.

    There are so many woollen sub heads under which a lot of things can happen or even be hidden. Cybersecurity is one and the fact that it is domiciled in the office of the NSA adds some halo of mystique and exigent importance. Nobody meddles with Cybersecurity. It is important to curb threats in cyberspace and ensure they get immediate response.

    Cybersecurity is not a word that attracts frivolous attention. That can only be at the peril of the individual, institution or nation. Nobody jokes with that word. It can devastate a nation, endanger public safety, ruin the financial sector, transportation system, power supply, traffic light, water supply and just anything that enjoys modern technology and  some relationship with the internet. Oh, if you add the Internet of things (IoT), the relationship between you and even your refrigerators and air conditioners, the list becomes even more comprehensive. Cybersecurity provides a covering. Cyber warfare is not anything that anybody wants to think about. So the eyes are always open and the cyberspace under constant surveillance to protect the citizenry from all kinds of cyber harm. Even then the nation has not been able to protect the financial sector, Nigerians and other nationals from the blight and shame of yahoo yahoo boys! – internet thieves and scammers.

    Elections in the most advanced countries have come under cyber attack by rogue nations and even respectable ones who want to influence decisions in other jurisdictions. Cybersecurity has a commanding hold of the present and well into the future. It has become an important field of study and it continues to expand. At the moment, Cybersecurity provides a generic protective shield for all kinds of human endeavour and will remain very relevant well into the foreseeable future.

    It is my humble observation that no sane person here or in any other part of the world, will frown at channelling more money to Cybersecurity, except that in Nigeria, we often start a good dance on the wrong foot. Instead of being creative in allocating resources, they turned towards the poor, the very helpless and emasculated in the society, to further squeeze their blood.

    There is a cry across the land as it was in the days of Rehoboam. You remember the Rehoboam syndrome? Taxation has always been a problem, my friend, as it was in Israel in the days of Solomon and his son, Rehoboam. People will always cry when the tax load is too heavy. Remember the biblical story? Solomon put too much tax on the people which his son, Rehoboam, refused to alleviate for the people. The people’s reaction split the kingdom of Israel into two.

    I have often heard people say, let’s do it and nothing will happen. The assumption here is not foolproof. They said so in the days of Rehoboam, and something happened – anarchy. Nobody prays for anarchy in our dear nation. But, this know that too much oppression and tax load can lead to spontaneous and unpleasant consequences. Again, nobody prays for that.  But caution becomes the operating word here.

    The ordinary folks are not alone in their misery and cries against tax asphyxiation. The lower house of the National Assembly, the House of Representatives, has asked the CBN to withdraw its directive to the banks, although the Senate is pursuing a justification, saying the CBN went beyond the provisions of the law in the planned implementation.

    But nobody is buying any uploaded stories by moonlight. Different bodies, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have risen to condemn the Tax describing it as insensitive to the plight of the people. The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has said the tax could  slow down financial inclusion which this government seems to have pursued with considerable determination. The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) described the tax as arbitrary, illegal and out of touch with the realities confronting Nigerians.

    KPMG has said this is not the right time to implement the levy while pointing out that no country has taxed itself to prosperity.

    Legal luminary and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has faulted the wrong interpretation of the amended Act by the CBN, explaining that the levy was not met for individuals.

    In the cacophony of voices across the nation and the smouldering arbitrariness of actions in high places, somebody must take charge. The 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman once said: “The Buck Stops Here.” Right on his desk to take bold decisions when everybody seems to be losing a head or be afraid to fly where only eagles dare.

    Thankfully, by the weekend, President Bola Tinubu had taken the bold decision to suspend the levy. That is smart and bold leadership, taking lithe decisions which underpin a leaning to the people. After all, The Buck Stops on His Table.

    The truth is that the Cybersecurity levy has become the latest addition to the nation’s growing dictionary of misery. There seems to be an orchestrated comeuppance for the drudgery of the ordinary folk in the society to whom life has little meaning at the moment.

    All kinds of challenges against him. Monthly salary cannot fund electricity tariff for one week. If he once had a car, he can’t fuel it any more. He doesn’t even have the boldness to aspire towards buying a bag of rice. Food security for him is a utopian phrase from the United Nations. The daily reality is empty stomach for him and his family. Yet there are levies, more levies and more taxes.

    Oh, the Acts shields the ordinary folks and provides for only telecom operators, financial institutions and other businesses to make payments to the Cybersecurity Fund? That doesn’t fly so high. At the end everything will return to the ordinary folk who will have to fund it indirectly. From all indications, he is beleaguered and conquered. He needs the protection of the President for a more needed release from the ever gathering yoke.

    Rehoboam turned his back on the people and blocked his ears. Thank God our President listens. After all, The Buck Stops on His Table!

  • In plain irony, government remains a disruptor of digital economy – By Okoh Aihe

    In plain irony, government remains a disruptor of digital economy – By Okoh Aihe

    Cliches often find expression in some happenings in this nation. The more things change the more they remain the same. That was the position of French writer, John Baptiste Alphonse Karr in 1849. His words are very much alive in Nigeria today with uncanny accuracy.

    The big news last week from Kaduna State, which was nasty all the same, is the disruption of telecommunication services by an agency of the government, Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS), which accused three mobile operators, MTN, Glo and Airtel, of owing the state the sum of N5.8bn in taxes. Huge amount that could do so much for a state traumatised by incessant bandit attack.

    The state must have to recoup what they felt is legitimately theirs after setting a revenue target of N200bn. So state officials, especially those that have to do with revenue generation, must work towards meeting that target willy-nilly.

    Always,  the telecoms industry provides low hanging fruits for tax hunters and the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Serivice wasn’t going to let that attraction pass.

    “Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service, in the exercise of its powers vested in it by Section 104 of the Personal Income Tax Act, has sealed up the following masts due to the huge tax liabilities as established by Kaduna State and Urban Planning and Development Agency (KASUPDA),” said Zakari Mohammed, Head, Corporate Communications, KADIRS.

    All the masts involved and their locations belonging  to the operators aforementioned were sealed pronto.

    Just when you think that such matters have become a thing of the past, they boil over again. The more things change the more they remain the same.

    Engr Gbenga Adebayo, president of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators in Nigeria (ALTON), was shocked at the crash opportunism of KADIRS and kept wondering why an agency of government should behave in a manner that could inflict pain on the subscribers who would be unable to make calls.

    “Assuming there is any substance in the claim that an operator is owing the state or its agencies, the most honourable thing to do after duly writing them is to go to court. This uncivilised way of revenue drive which necessitates the disrupting of critical services like the one telcos render, should stop,” Adebayo said.

    Just the way the avalanche broke, eliciting bewildering reactions, the state immediately unsealed the base stations after a plea from ALTON, it was reported. Reasons prevailed over desperation by a state to meet revenue targets.

    The simpletons in KADIRS had no idea that some of those base stations could be super base stations, serving a number of states in their capacity, and they would not know too, that their little action could impact services negatively across several states. But all’s well that ends well, is that not what Shakespeare says?

    Taxes are commitments by the individuals and corporations to the state, a compulsory contribution they must make from their earnings and businesses to the government, to enable it provide some social services and other infrastructural needs  to its people.

    Unfortunately, taxation has remained a source of worry to the telcos who are besieged with a lot of tax demands, more because of the instantaneous success of the sector which hit a tipping point from 2001. To complicate issues a little more, the demands come from the Federal, State and Local Councils.

    So from one simple word, taxation, has been added multiple taxation, arbitrary taxation, double taxation and many more, which all just coalesce into the amount of pressure that is brought on the telecommunications industry.

    The more things change the more they remain the same. Taxation has remained major headache to the industry and even the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which, in 2020, initiated a research on the subject, titled: A Compendium of Taxes, Levies and Fees by State Governments on Telecoms Operators in Nigeria and its Effects on the National Digital Economy Agenda.

    The research confirmed some kind of arbitrary tax abuses by the various governments as the telecommunications industry is subject to a cocktail of taxes.

    “The Telecommunications Operators in Nigeria reportedly pay more than 40 different taxes and levies to different Agencies of the Government at Federal, State and Local Government levels in Nigeria,” the document stated.

    For a country that plans its future on a digital economy, just like most forward looking countries of the world, such tax encumbrances and sundry levies like right of way (RoW), base station permits and environmental charges pose major impediments to growth and rollout of services.

    Here are the observations of the document. “As a result, the Sector has over the years, experienced excessive and sometimes unpleasant regulatory intervention and actions from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) of Government who subsequently generate revenue from the operations of telecoms operators through the imposition of High and Multiple and sometimes (though not common) illegitimate levies and taxes. The unwillingness of the Operating Companies to submit to these multiple regimes and demands often results in disruptive enforcement actions by these MDAs.

    No sector bears this amount of weight without a little remonstration and there has been some resistance from a sector which doesn’t want to be taxed to death.

    “Network Operators continue to experience harassment, forcibly sealing of telecoms sites or removal of key components needed for site installations by MDA in a bid to compel tax compliance. These continued interference in the activities of the Telecoms Operators have resulted in disruption of services, degradation of service quality, along with a huge rise in operating expenses and the overall cost of carrying out telecommunications business in Nigeria,” stated the document.

    The document was written in 2020 and it captured happenings in the telecommunications industry since 2001 without a prognostication of what would happen in Kaduna State recently. The truth is that the Kaduna episode has played out in almost all the states of the federation. When a state needs funds after frittering allocations from federal sources, the low hanging fruit is the telecoms sector, which must be coerced into submission with scant thoughts of how such payments abort the capacity of the sector.

    I agree with Adebayo that “uncivilised actions such as the one taken by the Kaduna government should not be known with such a respected country like ours.”

    As a country, we virtually have all the answers to the problems plaguing us but without requisite capacity, boldness and sincerity to confront them. The NCC document spells out the implications of incessant tax burden on the dream of a digital economy.

    This writer is aware of the sundry efforts and movements by Dr Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, and Dr Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, who are trying to work with the states and different agencies in order to align them with President Tinubu’s vision for a digital economy.

    The more things change the more they remain the same. But looking at the ephemeral development in Kaduna and the general state of the country’s telecoms sector, here is my observed conclusion, and I don’t expect it to be popular. In plain irony, the government, by its actions and tax greed, remains a significant disruptor of the digital economy it seeks to promote.

  • For Multichoice, a call for restraints and reason – By Okoh Aihe

    For Multichoice, a call for restraints and reason – By Okoh Aihe

    There has been a swirl of news around Multichoice lately. On one hand, Canal+, the Vivendi owned French pay TV giant, has made a hefty $2.9bn offer to buy the South African headquartered Multichoice, which has operations across Africa. Big money at play, you may want to say. On the other hand, Multichoice Nigeria, which is part of the package that may soon go to Canal+, has been in the news for reasons not too pleasurable but has nothing to do with nasty business.

    Fighting to remain in business in NigerIa, Multichoice has recently raised subscription costs across its various bouquets, a development that many of its subscribers have found difficult to accept. In fact, as I write this Monday evening, there was a news break that the increase has been put in abeyance by a Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) sitting in Abuja.

    The tribunal, headed by Saratu Shafii, gave the ruling following an ex-parte motion moved by Ejiro Awaritoma on behalf of his client, Festus Onifade. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC) is joined in the case as a defendant, interestingly.

    The move by Canal+ (my friend, Ikuforoji, the broadcaster in the Republic of Benin, calls it Canal Pluuh) doesn’t come as a surprise. Since 2020, Canal+ has maintained a steady presence and interest in Multichoice, increasing its stakes from 20.1 percent to 35.1 percent in February 2023, taking it to the threshold required by South African Law for it to make a mandatory offer to Multichoice shareholders.

    In broadcasting money talks always, with operators and competitors pursuing each other in mega mergers that can give them a good advantage in the local and international market. Oh, just look at the deal between CNN and media behemoth, Warner Bros, Discovery, Inc. Multichoice shareholders may not be able to resist the cash being dangled before them. But there is no doubt that when the deal is consummated, a new level of competition will hit subscription TV business on the continent. Vivendi, the holding company for Canal+, is huge and has abundant capacity to unleash competition at whatever level.

    Multichoice Nigeria may be a beneficiary of that competition, but  at the moment, there is that urgent matter of surviving the rough business terrain of the country which happens to be one of its biggest markets in Africa.

    So, within five months, Multichoice has raised subscription twice. For instance, the Premium package which used to hover around N23, 000, was raised to N29, 500 before hitting the zenith of N37, 000, well above the nation’s minimum wage of N30, 000  which came into effect in April 2018. All the packages on the DSTV and GOTV have thus been affected, with even the small packages of Jolli and Smallie (direct equivalent of I better pass my neighbour generator) rising from N3,950 to N4,850 and from N1,300 to N1,575, respectively.

    This is crunch time in Nigeria. Multichoice says this development is occasioned by the rise in the cost of business operations in Nigeria.

    Also speaking on television, Dr Adamu Abdullahi, acting Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC confirmed that his organisation was in receipt of a four-page document from Multichoice, where the organisation stated reasons responsible for subscription hike.

    “At a glance, we saw things like the cost of electricity, running generators, the cost of dollars for spare parts and so on. We’ll go through these items individually and find out how they have affected their operations,” Abdullahi promised.

    He also pledged to involve relevant regulatory bodies like the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

    Let me try and set things straight here. The NBC is regulating the broadcast industry and not the NCC which handles the telecoms industry. The price increase is a business decision and not regulatory. In addition while the NCC can make price determination for the telecoms industry and, a process is on currently, the NBC cannot do that for the broadcast industry which is not insulated from the uncertainties that have befallen the media sector in recent years.

    It is encouraging that the FCCPC has promised to look into the matter, perhaps in response to sundry calls for the agency to take a determined position that can support the wishes of subscribers. But how far can it go? In the current situation in Nigeria, the organisation which should be on top of competition in the country, is the one getting beleaguered, ironically.

    This is crunch time in Nigeria. Food inflation is flying and food prices have also developed wings rendering it impossible for many families to rustle a standard meal a day. The cost of medication is crippling, only grimly illustrated by the number of simple deaths happening around the nation, preventable deaths becoming a final call, unfortunately. Fuel queues have returned with a vengeance and nobody is actually sure how much a litre costs. I was at one filling station on Tuesday morning. A guy in front filled his tank and made a transfer with the POS machine. Or so he did pretentiously. While the manager was still trying to confirm payment, the fellow zoomed off with so much speed that only God prevented a tragedy. A pursuit ended in failure. That’s where we are right now, a dangerous impasse which calls for understanding. So, how much can the FCCPC do, without being choked by problems that have accumulated over the years?

    As I was trying to put this material to bed, Yemisi Bamgbose, BON Executive Secretary, responded to the television interview by FCCPC’s Abdulahi.

    “I would have given FCCPC a thumbs up if they had been intervening on price matters, most especially those that have direct bearing on the livelihood of the masses.

    “If the mandate of FCCPC includes price control of goods and services in a free and deregulated economy, where was the organisation when Bakers Association in the country increased the cost of a loaf of bread more than 200% in the last one year.

    “I doubt if FCCPC was aware that a sachet of pure water has been increased from Five Naira to Twenty Naira in the last one year. Is the organisation on vacation,” Bamgbose queried.

    But this is talking about Nigerians on the street. As I say always, Multichoice, through DSTV and GOTV, offers bespoke products, designed for the big boys in the society or even pretenders to some reasonable level of good life. Multichoice doesn’t offer life sustaining products like bread and water.

    But this is still crunch time in Nigeria. We all need to be clear-headed and reasonable in dealing with the situation. Even with all the powers available to FCCPC, I will want to point out that Multichoice is running a private business and it’s submissions should be considered dispassionately.

    Granted that two price increases in five months is near ludicrous, I will want to suggest that the authorities should be careful and deliberate when they deal with businesses. Instead of embarking on unnecessary stone-throwing and name-calling, it will be a mark of sincerity for the government to confess the true situation in Nigeria in their discussions with the corporates and present genuine action plans and timelines within which to mitigate the headache confronting everyone, including businesses.

    Look at it this way. President Bola Tinubu is flying round the world pleading with investors to take another look at Nigeria as an investment destination with notable capacity to make good returns on investment. Yet multinationals that have operated here for decades are leaving in droves. They gave the same reasons like Multichoice which is handling the situation differently instead of taking a scram.

    Reality and propaganda can hardly coexist without one doing damage to the other. Propaganda is a cheap commodity but I will appeal to those in authority at various levels to deal more with reality so that we can develop the right responses to the problems confronting us as a nation. Dealing with reality will compel us to listen to businesses when they speak.

  • With signals in 54 countries, Arise escalates competition across Africa – By Okoh Aihe

    With signals in 54 countries, Arise escalates competition across Africa – By Okoh Aihe

    The story, last week, that Arise News Channel is live in 54 countries in Africa, including South Africa and nine other Southern African countries on the platform of Multichoice, sent a ball of excitement down my system and, at once, elicited the kind of euphoria and patriotic fervency I feel when a Nigerian is doing something quite outstanding.

    And there are so many Nigerians making history and bringing glory to the nation. In nearly every endeavour under the sun, Nigeria boasts of luminaries who brighten the world and bring memorable moments to a people in search of anything comforting, some good news in a welter of bad moments.

    In education, sports, entertainment, medicine, business, just to list a few, Nigerians give performances that make something run down your spine and bring wetness to the face. Whether it is Tosin Amusan speeding on the tracks or Victor Osimhen jumping to score an impossible goal or the sheer bravery of Allen Onyema daring competition on international routes by crashing flight ticket costs to London, Nigerians attempt the impossible always and achieve results that shock the world.

    Oh, was I elated years ago when I found out that the film, Concussion, I was watching in one international flight was based on the research work by Dr Bennet Omalu on the plight of NFL players who get exposed to what he coined as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). It was only the Nigerian can-do spirit that sustained him in the fight with powerful members of the NFL who wanted to destroy him and kill the research by a Nigerian who started his early medical school at the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka.

    Nigerians fly high when they want to fly, putting behind them the worries of a nation that has refused to hit full gear. With the announcement, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Thisday Media Group and Arise News, has taken competition to some level beyond immediate imagination. Though a businessman, I have always looked at him as a stuntman in a movie who can risk everything to get desired results. His pocket of surprises is so deep that it is useless guessing what mysteries are laden in there. He has just pulled out one and it is such a whiff of good news for people who have followed the history of broadcasting in Nigeria, especially since the deregulation of the sector in 1992.

    Arise News will be received on Multichoice/DSTV Channel 416 in South Africa and contiguous states. Arise is a 24-hours news channel.

    Hear this. “We shall continually showcase the emerging African century where Nigeria and other African countries will be some of the leading economies around the world. This is a marathon and not a dash;  we will do for Nigeria and Africa what the CNNs, the BBCs and the Al Jazeeras have done for their nations and regions,” Fauziya Al Mohammed, Obaigbena’s Chief of Staff said in the statement.

    This is profoundly true; a statement of hope but also very emblematic of the complexities of TV programming. Launched on June 1, 1980, the Cable News Network (CNN) which enjoys the glistening reference as the first 24-hour news station in the world, didn’t enjoy the respect or cooperation of the broadcast industry which thought that its founder, Ted Turner, was insane. CNN wasn’t invited to major press conferences nor was it allowed to hang its microphones anywhere close. The station was pooh-poohed as the Chicken Noodle Network – CNN.

    But one man’s vision persevered and prevailed, challenging the rest of the world to rise beyond the mundane and the daily fixations of life. So, when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded a few minutes after launch on January 28, 1986, CNN was there to bring it to American homes and the global community. April 15,1989, CNN was at the Tiananmen Square in China to report the protest and massacre of young students. The Gulf War of August 2, 1990 to February 28, 1991 was literally fought in the living rooms of the global community courtesy of CNN.

    And wait for this.  When Mikhail S. Gorbachev wanted to dissolve what was left of the USSR and sign himself out of office on December 26, 1991, his pen refused to function and had to borrow the Mont Blanc pen of CNN President, Tom Johnson, to cement a history of no return. It was the end of the Soviet Union and peace has become a stranger to that part of the world with Russia fighting notoriously to reclaim the glory that is long gone.

    TV is much about self bravura and recondite intelligence to support actions and proclamations made in the public space. CNN plays this to the hilt.

    Speaking days later to the Chicago Tribune, Johnson enthused: ”I wasn`t ever thinking about my pen. We did it! We did it!`-those were the words that came to mind.”

    Was it mere coincidence that CNN’s Johnson wasn’t far away from Gorbachev? It’s  a lot of planning, plotting and intentionality. There is so much power in the media which America understands very well and has therefore been very willing to build CNN into a very powerful channel of diplomacy for the country, spreading its tentacles all over the world.

    Does Prince Obaigbena have the capacity, creativity and indeed the chutzpah to confront the uncertainties of international TV programming and can he really replicate the epoch breaking achievements of CNN in our part of the world?

    As I watch The Morning Show, The Global Business Report, the entertainment segment and live reports from the Oscars in Hollywood, sending a strong team to report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, live coverage of grade A events within the country, and indeed cast my mind back to the packaging of Thisday and the glossy Thisday Style, I have no shred of doubt that the Arise News promoter can run his race with peak success. But that is the straight answer that does not accommodate the complexities, jealousy, betrayal, manipulation and, above all, the strict regulations that exist in different jurisdictions.

    The constellation of a stellar cast of on-air personalities, including: Dr Reuben Abati, Rufai Oseni, Ayo Mairo-Ese,Ojy Okpe,Steve Ayorinde, Emman Efeni, Rotus Oddiri and many more, perhaps marked the first phase of the station’s  readiness for a new broadcast world, which crystallised in some good news last week.

    But it is good that Arise observed that the race is a marathon and not a dash. That is a reality check. Broadcast business is not cheap. Ted Turner suffered to establish the fortunes of CNN. Rupert Murdoch, sometime in December 1990, almost lost the entire fortunes of News Corp which today runs one of the biggest digital real estates in the world, because of some debt that proved difficult to reschedule. Back home, in March 2000, media front runner, Dr Raymond Dokpesi, nearly lost Daar Communications’ Raypower and AIT because of a N350m loan owed to a consortium of banks. Broadcasting is not cheap and it is risky business.

    Obaigbena is a very smart fellow and must have more of this type of information than this writer. Otherwise, Arise wouldn’t be enjoying such a stratospheric rise in just over 10 years!

    But the station will need more investment, some of the presenters will need more training, at least, to trim their excesses, there may be the need for more programming mix, including live events to attract more TV eyes, because that is what pay TV is all about. The organisation must develop a clear policy on what content to put on the international feed. Prince Obaigbena may need to play the local politics in different jurisdictions. Such is the unenviable fate of the international businessman.

    But this is not a journey that Arise has to make alone or any other broadcaster or business person in Nigeria venturing into operations abroad. Multichoice and MTN may have come into Nigeria as private organisations but when there are serious regulatory issues, and there have been several, it becomes a government to government discussion. This writer has been reliably informed that South African businesses are given some incentives by their government to invest in other African countries.

    CNN couldn’t become a global brand without the imprimatur of the American government. Nothing stops Arise or any other serious media organisation, for that matter, from enjoying such a discreet stamp of the Nigerian Government.

    An industry expert lamented last night, “We do not even have an aggregated information policy in this country.”

    Painful observation that it is, but it should not stop the Nigerian Government from recognising Nigerian corporates like Arise that are doing well, and seeking creative ways of encouraging or working with these organisations to help spruce up the nation’s image. Nigeria needs a lot of sprucing up right now.

  • For Ben and Jerry, Simply Tech will go on – By Okoh Aihe

    For Ben and Jerry, Simply Tech will go on – By Okoh Aihe

    Where does one begin to write about losses that cannot be captured by any adjective? How will one ever be able to create the right picture that within a week Simply Tech lost two big followers, two souls of great intellection whose engaging arguments have enriched this column over the years?

    Ben Nkonye Irabor and Jerry Ugwu died within seven days of each other, two great sons of this nation embarking on the final journey without the opportunity of a decent goodbye to loved ones, let down by the system they invested their lives in. There is a point at which every mortal must sign off, a final chapter for the living to cherish as a lasting memory. But don’t we have to assist the traveller to delay the trip, at least, to show that we care, even if pretentiously? 

    March 15, 2024, I had good news for Pastor Ben; yes, Pastor because over 15 years ago, he had returned from the United States to work in the Lord’s vineyard in Nigeria, and was doing pretty well. March 16, Ben’s phone rang early in the morning. His wife handed him the phone. As he answered, he went to the bathroom to perform the natural morning rites. There was some unusual sound and the nightmare began for Dolly, his amiable wife. He had collapsed. 

    First hospital, the young doctor, the only one in such a big hospital, was too scared to attend to Ben. But he still had life. Dolly drove furiously and nearly blindly to another hospital, few kilometres away and she said, the time it took for the doctors to wear their hand gloves was enough for somebody to die. And Ben died.

    He would never again hear that good news from me. When I looked at that casket over the weekend somewhere in Lagos, my mind ran through the several conversations we should have been having within this period that death did us bad. 

    Ben would have been anxious to find out why the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) would allow a 231 per cent tariff increase for a product that is not available in the market. I don’t know how his friend, Dr Sam Amadi, who was once the boss of that agency, would have reacted. Since the pronouncement on April 4, the part of Abuja where we both live that should be computed under Band A,  has not had electricity supply for 20 hours cumulatively. Fortunately for Ben, he has left the worries for us to fix. 

    Pastor Ben Nkonye Irabor
    Pastor Ben Nkonye Irabor

    Ben was an intense conversationalist. He would ask, why don’t we have good mobile coverage in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)? In fact, why can’t the operators provide us with triple play service just the way it is in the part of the world where he had lived?  

    Then the long conversation would start, usually over green tea. He particularly liked the Jasmine flavour; in truth we experimented with as many as possible just making it pleasurable to our fancy. 

    Ah, Abuja, the authorities said the city was designed without provisions for mobile base stations, so it has been a tussle between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the mobile operators on one hand, and the FCT authorities on the other, who had proven too anachronistic to yield to the good times of mobile technology by refusing to give the necessary permits. So approval for base stations was nearly as difficult as drilling for oil in the FCT while right of way (RoW) cost for fibre optics rollout could scare even the most obdurate investor. 

    To compound the puzzle a little more, the city like most other parts of the country, has a preponderance of 2G and 3G base stations and less of 4G while 5G is making a slow entry. For most subscribers on the move, it is a nightmare when there is a handover process from 2G to 3G or even 4G. A drop emerges and the subscribers are left wondering why we can’t get it right after two decades. The cause of bad telecoms experience in Abuja is more with the authorities than the operators. And the lawmakers at the National Assembly would never understand that it is their responsibility to supervene and resolve such industry deadlocks for the sake of the people they have sworn to represent.

    As for triple play, more Jasmine tea, please. With one subscription, a subscriber to AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and T-Mobile is able to do voice, data and video in the U.S. When will that be possible in Nigeria? No straight answer to the question but here is what happened in Nigeria. The backbone of every telecommunications network is fibre optics. When NITEL, a former monopoly, had the opportunity to lay fibre all over the nation, the Nigerian government was using it as a contract agency to do favour to friends of the government and even family members. So, NITEL stagnated at about 500,000 lines at its prime and couldn’t even do voice properly. Some mobile operators are trying to offer something I can call an adulterated triple play variant now  but it comes at a price beyond our economy. 

    March 23, 2024, Jerry Ugwu, a respectable lawyer and former strategist at the NCC was feeling unwell and was taken to a hospital in Lagos. He was treated and discharged to return home the same day. But as he was climbing up the stairs, he collapsed, and that was the final call. The wife in Abuja would never know what happened until the following day.  Let me not irritate you with what happened to him in one hospital in Abuja recently when he was seemingly fine.

    Jerry was a perfect gentleman, cerebral, very detailed and was never really scared to ventilate his mind. Responding May 4, 2023, to a May 3 publication on this column, titled, Reprieve for NCC as NITDA Bill flounders, he wrote: “This piece and the revelation therein is mind numbing and epitomises the utter rot that characterises the administrative style of this PMB regime bereft of accountability and oversight. The rot is so deep that no tier of the leadership conundrum is left untouched, not even the Legislature which has direct oversight responsibility, otherwise a simple reading of the principal Act to be amended ought to have shown that the proposed amendments ought not to fly as the intervention by Ayoola Okeh clearly demonstrated, but alas other less altruistic considerations drive policy and law making in this clime.

    Barrister Jerry Ugwu
    Barrister Jerry Ugwu

    “We pray and hope that the timely intervention characterised in your piece will stave off the coup de grace programmed for the NCC. Truth be told, the NCC in its present leadership, is incapable of helping itself in the manner suggested in the piece. Your interventions in your chosen sector are insightful and invaluable inputs which have stood as a counterforce against tyranny by public servants, so called,” Jerry wrote. 

    In yet another response to a material published on June 14, 2023, titled: Before a former Minister returns to the Ministry, Jerry sounded, “We hear you loud and clear. Keep the gong sounding, the intended recipient may yet hear and respond appropriately, these retrogressive abuses cannot go unpunished. Do not weary or be discouraged by seeming aloofness of the authority. Our collective well-being rests on intervention like yours.”

    The writer can be very lonely sometimes, not even sure any more whether people are reading his column  because of the very challenging times which encourage inverse reasoning. I will not hear interventions any more from Jerry nor will I be able to discuss technology over tea with Ben. The curtain is drawn, and I thank them for doing their best for our nation. 

    But I have one appeal to make. One of Pastor Ben’s children had said she would never forgive Nigeria for killing her father. Your indignation is understood, young lady, but that may not be what your father would want to hear at this moment. He had sent all of you abroad to acquire the best of education, so that at some point, you can all return home for us to collectively build this nation. From all indications, rebuilding Nigeria will be challenging task and we need all hands on deck to make this nation rule the world. 

    That is doing justice to the memory of those who departed at the peak of their best efforts. 

    Here is my promise to Ben and Jerry. This column, Simply Tech, will go on because I hear your encouragement loud and clear in my head like a burst of oxygen pumped into the gambling hall in the middle of the night to energise the senses.

  • A case for telecoms industry using NERC’s metrics – By Okoh Aihe

    A case for telecoms industry using NERC’s metrics – By Okoh Aihe

    The weather has been very hot in my part of the world. Those who know the signs and times of the season attribute it to global warming, warning ominously that the weather will get hotter. Really frightening, eh?

    But last week the entire country got even hotter. It wasn’t because of the weather. No. The nation woke up to the very perplexing news that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission ( NERC) had bumped the cost of electricity consumption from N70 to N225 for every kilowatt per hour (KWh) for the hapless band A consumers. The band A consumers in their satanic mathematics enjoy light for as much as 20 hours a day.

    Perplexing because in parts of Abuja which unfortunately falls under band A, there has hardly been electricity in this blazing weather. People wake up twice or thrice in the night to have a bath to save themselves from heatstroke.

    The national grid has failed so regularly that such failure and abnormality don’t shock any more. The bizarre has become the new normal and people are beginning to feel that the lowest depth of existence is already here. With their recent increase, NERC has only plunged the nation to a new low.

    Look at the metrics from the electricity regulatory agency. For a sector in private hands for over a decade, it has only 13.2 million customers out of which only about 5.8million are metred. The remaining numbers bear the uncertainties of estimated billing. It is relevant to add here that the product available for sale has hit a shameful low of less than 3000 megawatts for a population of about 230 million people. The market has constantly grown smaller and it seems the only way for the operators to make money after dubious subsidy withdrawal is to charge more for the little product in the market.

    Between NERC and its industry stakeholders, including Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the power distribution companies (DisCos), there is a hackneyed narrative of the industry having an installed capacity of 13000 megawatts of which 5000 megawatts are generated, with less than 3000 actually getting into the market at the moment. There is no shame whatsoever that the industry is serving less than 14 million of our huge population. What happens to the rest?

    A number of questions flood the mind here. What is the contract between NERC and the private operators in the power sector? What is the performance threshold given them? What really is the addressable market of the population of Nigeria and why has the market grown smaller over the years and yet such noticeable failure is rewarded with a stratospheric price increase? Will NERC be kind enough to give the nation  an industry roadmap instead of this macabre dance on a spot?

    Looking at happenings in the power sector last week, my mind went to the telecommunications sector which is regulated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).  The sector remained in the ascendancy until the Buhari administration almost ruined it with shortsightedness and greed. Fortunately, the sector is getting its bounce back although problems remain.

    However, the relationship between the telecoms regulator and the operators is well documented and communications can be put in the public domain, almost always. One of such communications is a November 24, 2023, letter to the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC by the operators titled, State of the Nigerian Telecommunications – Repositioning the Industry for Sustainable Growth and Development. The letter detailed some of the challenges in the industry and proffered solutions to leading the industry back to sustainable growth.

    Reading that letter shows the state of things in this nation and the need for the government to address some urgent concerns. When the letter was written, inflation was 27.33 per cent, it has jumped to 31.70 per cent. The Naira was trading for N777 to a Dollar,  which value now stands at N1, 300, climbing from an all time high of N1, 850 to the Dollar, while Diesel which sold at N250 a litre now sells for N1500. These metrics equally affect telecom operators.

    The industry also observed in the letter that the power sector had, since December 2022,  been allowed an 18.5 percent increase in tariff plus other increases that were granted. Based on the foregoing and other reasons listed in the letter, the CEOs of the mobile companies appealed to the regulator to adopt a new regulatory approach that could enable them to increase tariffs without unnecessary hurdles.

    I am sure the industry never contemplated a steep 231 percent increase in electricity tariff just like the rest of the nation was taken unaware and thrown into shock. It may not be outlandish to state that the happening in the power sector has ruined plans and projections in every sphere of life making response difficult.

    So, how is the power sector regulated? We again draw some lessons from the telecoms sector where the relationship between the regulator and the industry is in the open and so are the industry metrics. No underhand dealings except where you have a naive regulator and an overbearing minister as was the case recently. But at the moment, both industry and regulator can speak to themselves and nobody is offended.

    The mobile operators came into the industry when the sector had stagnated at 500,000 connected lines for decades. The operators were given a yearly obligation rollout of 100, 000 lines matched with infrastructure to support the lines because of the humble history of the industry. The operators surpassed the target almost immediately and built their infrastructure in the absence of support from former monopoly, NITEL. They have added so much value to the market that it is easy to point out how telecoms affect life in Nigeria and how it has provided a superstructure for other industries. From day one it was regulation in a winning way using global best practices.

    Unlike NERC, the NCC cannot fix tariffs for operators, because like most other regulators in the world,  it must operate within its own rules and regulations. The telecom regulator carries out a price determination, which sets a Price cap and a Price Floor. For over a decade, the Price Cap has remained at N50 – call tariffs must remain below N50 – while the Price Floor is N4 and above – this is the rate at which operators interconnect each other.

    Two things however. One. There is so much suspicion within the industry and attrition amongst operators that nobody has been anxious to raise tariff. Competition dictates behaviour. For instance, a minute call on the platform of a major network is N14. Two. For an increase to happen, an operator will have to seek the regulatory approval of the NCC.

    But this writer was reminded that in the final days of the previous administration, the NCC gave an approval which was flatly cancelled by former minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami. An NCC source explained that the minister didn’t have the right to do so, wondering why the industry did not go to court to test the provision of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.

    Here is a story that some people within the NCC may not know. Under the last administration, the chief regulator was so inept and pliant that some of the operators preferred to deal with the minister directly instead of a regulator that couldn’t give them needed results. It wasn’t always the best decision, unfortunately.

    Here is my final take. There is no need stating here that the telecommunications industry, like every other sector of the economy, is in trouble. This  was profusely stated in that letter to the chief regulator. N200Bn owed operators by Financial Institutions (FIs) for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), decline in industry investment (CAPEX),  increase in operating cost (OPEX); and fibre cuts in different parts of the country and even international waters which directly affect quality of service; they obviously need help to survive the perilous times.

    I am strongly of the opinion that the regulator should position itself to support the industry to enable the operators to continue to deliver quality services to their subscribers. But the operators must have to work together, speak with one voice as they did in that letter, to place their demands before the Commission.

    This government must have to accept, at some point, that NERC and  the entire  power sector remain a blight in its concerted effort to address deep-seated dislocations within the nation’s economy. If they, at the level of underwhelming performance, could exercise the effrontery of tariff hike, the telecoms sector which has developed a capacity for growth, expanded investment ecosystem and ever expanding service provision, needs loads of support to connect us to ourselves and to the rest of the world. And above all, provide the needed services that sustain our economy.