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Tag: Okoh Aihe

  • At NAB, what happens in Vegas can’t remain in Vegas – By Okoh Aihe

    At NAB, what happens in Vegas can’t remain in Vegas – By Okoh Aihe

    For most people who see Las Vegas as the Sin City, what happens in Vegas remains in Vegas. They hardly want to talk about what goes on in those big hotels, how they lost hefty money at the casinos, how their boxing favourite lost a fight where they paid huge sums of money for front row seats at MGM Plaza, or how they splurged handsome amounts to fly copters over the city that seems to host all the lights in the world, especially at night. 

    What happens in Vegas remains in Vegas. At least, the food is cheap but good. One can say that. The hotel rooms are affordable. But you can get rooms that go for several hundred thousands of dollars, if you harbour such an esoteric taste or you just want to have a little taste of fantasy that can crush your fortunes. After all, some guys in entertainment want to expire mid flight or when the ovation is loudest. So, they indulge. It is a matter of choice. Vegas has a place for all, the rich and the poor, the boxers and the human martial fighting machines of the UFC or the ordinary guys who just want to revel on the Vegas Strip. I do not want to suggest that you should challenge Israel Adesanya on the Strip no matter the amount of beer in you. The guy spares no fools.

    What happens in Vegas remains in Vegas. But for most of the people visiting Vegas from April 13 – 17, 2024, what happens in Vegas cannot remain in Vegas because they will be attending the NAB Show where they expect to learn about an industry, which knowledge will be very handy and useful in their various jurisdictions. 

    The National Association of Broadcasters Conference and Exhibition is the biggest broadcast show in the world for broadcasters, equipment manufacturers and vendors, content creators and buyers, tech geeks, broadcast engineers, and even broadcast regulators, entertainers and Hollywood big boys, among others. A programme that originally started on October 11, 1923, with sixteen radio stations and twenty-three attendees, has become a major hit over a century later, playing host to those who really want to excite themselves in the world of broadcasting. And Vegas adds some more colour of flash and dash. 

    If you are a regulator, like the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which superintends the nation’s broadcast industry, Vegas is the place to be this April because at the NAB Show, there is so much knowledge available, so much expert information and master classes from the industry – manufacturers, vendors, software developers, programmers and even entertainers, that the regulator must soak itself in the midst without giving only the operators the opportunity for such knowledge. The regulator must be steps ahead if it is to provide proper regulatory direction and leadership for the industry.

    The other day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, justifiably placed a moratorium on travel by top government functionaries, including civil servants to stem the drain on the country’s lean finances and more to save the naira from a destined collapse. The action has paid off. Sometimes, some of these actions are taken because of the unfortunate perception that most of the trips embarked on by government officials are for jamborees. Some of these perceptions are as real as day and night. These guys don’t even try to salvage their little self respect. I have been at major global programmes with some of them. They don’t even show up at events or even lectures.

    But life doesn’t have to stop because of the stupidity and failing of others. This is why I want to make a case this morning. The broadcast regulator should be allowed to be in Vegas this April for the good of industry and country. A year out of Vegas by the regulator is like a year out of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). It may take several decades to catch up, and the world and its inventions do not wait for the sluggardly. 

    For instance, the three major pillars from which several themes at the conference emanate are: Create, Connect and Capitalise. Speaking about this year’s NAB Show, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, NAB Global Connections and Events, Chris Brown, said: “We have organised this year’s program around three main pillars – Create, Connect and Capitalise. Within each one of those pillars, we are breaking it down to focus on those different subject areas, depending on which view you are most interested in. Whether you’re coming in from a distribution view or the actual production creation side of the equation, or if you are just trying to figure out your ad model, there’s something valuable for everyone.”

    So well spoken. Over 1, 200 exhibitors and over 70, 000 attendees will work within the opportunities provided by the theme and sub-themes to squeeze out some advantages and requisite knowledge for their organisations. 

    Brown notes that since the programme started over a century ago with men wearing suits, the internet has hit the sector, changing so many things. Products and services are now offered as software, meaning that in this year’s event, the station’s IT departments might be the ones walking around the show floor, along with its chief engineer and technical staff.

    In broadcasting, so many things work together to create some kind of magic that will not fail to enchant or arrest. Apart from human capacity for knowledge and creativity, nuanced technology has juiced up the broadcast sector so much that it is difficult to ever contemplate impossibility in any sector of the industry. 

    All things are therefore possible, at least with the three Cs – Create (content for producers, creators, dreamers and streamers); Connect  (content for engineers, technologies, implementors, coders and geeks), and Capitalise (content for broadcast executives, advertisers, marketers, analysts and executives). There is something for every player in the industry, the only challenge in Vegas is to locate where you and your organisation fit in. 

    Some of the themes featuring this year are: Capture … New Audiences, Capture Your Vision, and Embracing the Future of Artificial Intelligence. Also to feature within  the conference are: Post/Production World, Programming Everywhere and a Streaming Summit. 

    As it is becoming a permanent feature in most conferences, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will attract maximum attention at the NAB Show. Organisers have informed that more than 120 Sessions will focus on AI, addressing generative AI, Legal Concerns, and the latest technological breakthroughs. 

    To go a step further, an AI-powered humanoid, named Ameca, will present a unique study on AI media alongside Futuri CEO, Daniel Anstandig. The internet brought so much change to the world, AI will take such change to a new height and indeed teach humans how to do a better and more efficient job in every field of endeavour, and broadcasting is taking AI very seriously.  

    For the regulator, this remains a challenge, new ways of doing things have emerged so suddenly. Streaming media, Artificial Intelligence, production for all aspects Social, and Over-The-Top (OTT) operations. The regulator has to find balance and be able to deal with new media as well as traditional media which may never fade away. One pot of knowledge is in places like Vegas where our regulator should maintain a robust presence. With them, like many others,  what happens in Vegas can’t remain in Vegas.

  • NIN-SIM linkage – a story in search of a good ending – By Okoh Aihe

    NIN-SIM linkage – a story in search of a good ending – By Okoh Aihe

    Looking at the pervasive insecurity in the nation at the moment, it will be right to say that the NIN-SIM Linkage Policy wasn’t a bad idea at all but for the sloppiness with which it was introduced by a former minister who literally slapped it on Nigerians as a necessity that must be executed within two weeks.

    Although the Nigerian Communications Communications (NCC) initiated an industry SIM registration process to capture the identity of phone users since 2011, the new policy would ensure that every phone line is properly matched with a national identity number with the full compliments of registration – picture and digital imprints – for the line to function. Quite simple, it looks but the implementation would indicate otherwise.

    A unique selling point of the policy was that it would guarantee consumer protection and crime prevention, support crime resolution and enhance national security by strengthening crime enforcement agencies to tackle the criminal use of mobile phones, stimulate a digital economy through online and digital transactions, while also promoting e-governance which will encourage the various tiers of government to do things differently by breaking from tedious bureaucracy.

    Instead of allowing technocrats in the civil service and industry experts to promote the idea, a minister shopping for achievements, as an industry voice would observe, simply sat on the driving seat pushing a process for which he was hardly prepared. And the results came, very adversely.

    But there were problems ab initio. One. The idea was not properly thought through as the two weeks ending December 2020 was too small for such a huge project. Eh em,  a project must have timelines, a beginning and plausible end. This one was amorphous, plainly amorphous. Two. It was the COVID-19 period and it smacked of absolute insensitivity for anybody to encourage a mass gathering of Nigerians at service centres in the name of NIN-SIM Linkage. Three. Data-weary or data-drunk Nigerians were simply tired of being pushed around after bank verification number (BVN) and other identity collection processes they have had to go through. And four. The capacity of the primary implementation agency, NIMC, was exaggerated. Apprehension reigned and it is still reigning.

    For instance, over three years down the line, a project that should have ended in two weeks is not half done. And the process continues to convolute.

    But there is an interesting story of a group of people finding strength in adversity or in anything that threatens their survival. The various stakeholders expressed a camaraderie in action. Knowing there would be challenges in the way, they bandied together to resolve issues before they ballooned into big problems. They set up registration centres and even built capacity in the implementation agency with monies running into several billions of Naira.

    However, the security situation in the country gives no indications that the above measures have worked at all. Children are being kidnapped in hundreds from their schools and there are killings going on in different parts of the country. Phones are used to negotiate ransoms and nobody is apprehended. The NCC is under pressure to take urgent measures to stem the tide although the regulator has no network of its own.

    As the regulator, the NCC holds the yam and the knife and has never been reticent in slicing pieces to whoever it wants. It also holds the stick to whip operators into line. Media headlines demonstrate the capacity of the NCC to take certain measures even if they hurt.

    A particular headline stated, “SIM-NIN linkage: NCC rules out extension, telcos bar 12 million lines.” The NCC directive was effective February 28, 2024.

    Referencing this action, President of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Engr Gbenga Adebayo, disclosed that “About 12 million SIM cards may not have been linked to NIN. Some of these SIM cards work on modems and mifi devices. According to the regulatory directives, those numbers that are not properly linked to NIN will have services withdrawn to them by midnight today. We stand by that regulatory directive and we are going to comply.”

    Good speaking in the face of very serious implications. Some of these lines were high revenue yields. The operators would have to lose that money. The subscribers would have to bear the inconvenience of such disconnection. And insecurity continues because such complex issues are not resolved with deus ex machina.

    This writer gathered that the NCC, working closely with the telecoms service providers, may have carried out a number of regulatory decisions subterraneously without puffing the smoke of such action in public. While a subscriber could hold four SIMs on each network in line with international best practices, the regulator, after some detailed auditing of the networks, was confronted with a situation where some individuals had as many as 100SIMs, 1000SIMs and even 10,000 SIMs all at a go.

    Pray! What does an individual have to do with 10,000 SIMs? Contemplating the grave security challenges that such unsavoury development could portend, the NCC has had to quickly weed those numbers out from the database of the various networks.

    While Adebayo may have spoken very boldly about complying with regulatory  directives of the NCC on NIN-SIM linkage, what appears troubling is that the service providers in the country have been holding the short end of the stick even at grave financial and material losses.

    For instance, by way of protecting their business, the operators had to set up thousands of NIN Enrolment Centres at their service centres to facilitate seamless NIN acquisition by the citizenry. This has not provided the magic wand, however. One can inform here that the next puzzle was that NIMC did not have the capacity to process the data being captured in these centres.

    It is not news any more that the telecom operators had to provide some technical support for NIMC, the government agency entrusted with curating the identity details of the citizenry. In a particular instance, MTN shelled out a billion Naira after an initial two hundred million that vanished like a drop in the ocean. Others provided sundry support.

    What is clear about NIMC at the moment is not a sudden return to efficiency but the appointment of a new head in Engr Bisoye Coker-Odusote who has promised to clean up the rot in the place and position it for performance. With such disposition, it will be an overkill to continue to flagellate NIMC except to wait for what may seem a moment of magic from the new chief executive.

    In this story, there is a government under pressure to save the people from security nightmares, there is a regulator that superintends a vital link in the security architecture (if you accommodate the cliche), and there is a NIMC that manages the nation’s identity, with the operators being the last in the chain. This writer has  been informed that the nation’s security apparatus occupies an overarching position in this chain but how well it has deployed the technology available in the telecom networks  can only be explained, perhaps, by the security challenges in nearly all parts of the country.

    My take is that the NIN-SIM linkage is a story in search of a good ending or, if you like, a proper denouement. For this to happen the relevant stakeholders need some moments of self introspection, to examine their ways and resolve to do things with more creativity. Urgently, NIMC needs more help from the government and industry as it has noticeably remained a disastrous link in the entire value chain . The operators who are appealing to the regulator for more time before putting a final ban on lines without linkages, should be able to project a time for the process to embrace a closure. Or should the exercise last forever!

    I am quite aware of the various efforts the regulator has canvassed to ensure the process remains seamless and less burdensome. Even then, it should not be too stiff-necked to listen to complaints, observations and suggestions. For instance, it is common knowledge that the process has wobbled because NIMC, which is an agency of government, lacked capacity or even the sincerity to conduct such a sensitive exercise. My sympathy therefore, is with the operators when they beg for more time or extension before lines are barred or even make some other demands. The operators don’t need to suffer losses because of the failure of an agency of government. They too need a fair hearing and proper representation in this NIN-SIM linkage story that has no end.

  • Cable force majeure in the international waters – By Okoh Aihe

    Cable force majeure in the international waters – By Okoh Aihe

    Faced with terribly hot weather that was complicated by the dearth of power supply across the nation, quite a number of phone users and big corporate players really got distraught last week when voice and data services simply went down. Tension spiked some more especially when this was happening at a time that food inflation was hitting over 37 per cent, with the troubling implications that the percentage of Nigerians able to afford a decent meal has further plunged.

    Things just really seem to go awry always. Nigeria seems to be happening to us all the time and the escape route looks inexorably sealed. No food. No light. Crazy heat. And now the internet is gone, not only making life difficult for people involved in online transactions and social media activities but even for the ordinary folks who, with very little data, can engage in non-stop internet voice communications.

    The financial institutions got a serious shaking and the little point of sale operator (PoS) by the street corner would not understand why transactions were failing. Some kind of inconvenient truth was emerging which nobody was ready to accommodate. Perhaps we could take everything that was thrown at us but not the failure of phones and the internet or even the dreary thoughts of returning to the banking halls for a transaction that could be processed seamlessly from the disappearing comfort of our homes.

    The first win here was for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms regulatory agency, which released a statement immediately, explaining that an underwater cable damage somewhere in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal was responsible for service disruptions in some West African countries, including Nigeria..

    In the statement titled, “Undersea Cable Cuts Disrupt Data, Voice Services along African West Coast, NCC informed that “A combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast, have negatively impacted on data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’ Ivoire, among others.

    “The cuts occurred somewhere in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, with attendant disruption in Portugal.

    “Cable companies – West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe have experienced faults while SAT3 and MainOne have downtime.”

    It was a cocktail of undersea cable damages, according to the NCC statement, as other cables like Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG) and Asia-Africa-Europe (AAE1) have at some points suffered cuts leading to degraded services. Not a pleasant time at all.

    The other major win went to MainOne, the Nigerian company founded by digital exponent, Funke Opeke, which was snapped up for $320m by global digital infrastructure company, Equinix, in early 2022. Without denials, prevarications or even equivocations, MainOne  declared a force majeure – an unexpected and disruptive event that may operate to excuse a party from a contract. That’s the way the dictionary puts it.

    When we were in secondary school, we were told by our Economics teacher that force majeure could be caused by natural disasters, acts of war, unforeseen human activities and much more. In a subregion without earthquakes, hurricanes or even volcanoes, human destructive activities were more likely. So, people speculated. But not MainOne who promised to restore services within weeks, although fixing the problem was going to be a complex operation.

    “We believe it is important to inform our customers of the fault details given the magnitude of the situation in order to set expectations and make contingency arrangements while the repairs are ongoing,” MainOne alerted.

    The company immediately took responsibility which is indicative of my belief that the telecommunications sector still works irrespective of the persistent assault by some highly placed government personalities in the past eight years. Nobody abnegated responsibilities; not the NCC, not the MainOne company.

    You don’t want to juxtapose this with the power sector where nobody seems to be in charge or even be bold enough to accept responsibility for the sector which remains a complete disaster in it’s wooliness.

    For years, we were told the capacity for the sector is 12,000 megawatts of electricity. Only about 4000 megawatts is transmitted to the marketing companies who, on their own, are doing less than 3000 megawatts to their customers at the moment. The nation is not only in darkness but development activities remain at Stone Age era.

    And we deceive ourselves! The biggest economy in Africa. But just look down south. South Africa generates 58,095 megawatts of electricity from all sources, according to the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, for a population of 60,845, 480, based on Worldometer estimates.

    Nigeria’s population is estimated at 227,513,006, based on United Nations projection since our country has not developed the capacity to conduct a reliable census! Over N200bn was shelled out for one recently, and nobody is punished for failures and criminal activities. Compare the energy output between Nigeria and South Africa, and we are decades apart!

    In telecoms, Nigeria can match any country in the world.  The industry remains our best foot forward. Right from the year 2001,  telecoms is one field Nigeria can speak and the world listens.

    Proof. As I write this material, the NCC on Monday said about 90 percent of services have been restored. Really, the problem has really been nearly resolved.

    “Following the disruption of March 14, 2024, which affected data and voice services due to cuts in undersea fibre optics along the coasts of Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, we are pleased to announce that services have now been restored to approximately 9 percent of their peak utilisation capabilities,” the Commission enthused.

    This means that since the date referred, the NCC has worked closely with the operators to ensure that a quick solution was provided to resolve the cable nightmare. This is what agile regulation stands for, being nimble in providing regulatory answers to complex problems of the industry, and scoring well even when a perfect score is nigh impossible.

    One other little lesson I think we have all learnt. The telecommunications industry is not just about the service providers, subscribers, base stations, underground cable and all that. It goes beyond that. The industry builds it’s nexus of activities on so many platforms, including the belly of the oceans – home to the undersea cables and the outer space which houses the satellites, both low flying ones and those domiciled at the geostationary orbit.

    The cable cut in the West African region is a  timely reminder that global peace is needed for humanity to carry on with its trade and that interconnections and interrelationships are so complex but seamless that a little headache in one small corner of the world could become a big migraine to the rest of the  global community.

  • Pay TV market prepares for new competition – By Okoh Aihe

    Pay TV market prepares for new competition – By Okoh Aihe

    Competition is about to have a new meaning in the Pay TV industry. At the launch of Silver Lake Television (SLTV) in Abuja, last week, Secretary to the Government, George Akume, said the new entrant has promised to affect the market with service quality and affordability.

    The launch could be a strong indication that the government wants to play a more visible role in the industry and position it to be more profitable to investors and other stakeholders, including talents and content makers, while giving the subscribers maximum satisfaction for their subscription.

    There is yet another level of euphoric concerns. Nollywood has been on the ascendancy. The coming of SLTV is yet another opportunity for the industry to saloon its wares which have attracted global attention, even prompting the Tinubu administration to create a special Ministry of Culture and Creative Economy to aggregate the opportunities. Yes, Nollywood will be the ultimate beneficiary of a Pay TV industry that is more competitive.

    “SLTV has responded very loudly and clearly, and from the information made available to me, they are willing to give their fellow compatriots real value for their money in terms of service quality and affordability.

    “Nigeria is an opportunity that is impossible to replicate or find elsewhere in any part of the world. The Federal Government wishes to assure management of SLTV of her full backing as they continue to do legitimate business in Nigeria’s broadcast industry,” Akume, who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant, Technical, Prof Babatunde Bernard, said at the occasion.

    SLTV is being promoted by Metrodigital whose owner, Dr Ifeanyi Nwafor, observed that the Pay TV industry in Nigeria has not witnessed real growth over the years because of policies and legal framework that negatively impact the sector, pointing out that the current administration has started on a note that could attract investors to the industry

    He is positive that his programming mix of 55 channels and creative price offering, starting from N2, 500 on a pay-per-view  platform, will shake up the industry and swing it to the advantage of SLTV.

    Nearly everybody agrees there has been some lethargy in the industry that needs a shaking, although this is largely attributed to monopoly practices, according to SLTV promoters, who are poised on making what seems an entrenched status quo uncomfortable.

    The pay TV industry has long been plagued with a litany of accusations: of a regulator, which is the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), that has created a monopoly; of a monopoly that fleeces the subscribers after cornering the market; and of subscribers that are helpless because of the dominant practices of a monopoly, and are unhelped by a regulator that looks so weak. The other extreme end of thought is that the monopoly service provider is a foreign entity that doesn’t mean well for the nation.

    There is a fixation of thoughts in the industry and, in fact, there are some people who believe that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code of 2019, which is due for a review, has made some provisions to assuage such line of reasoning.

    But what is the status of the industry? Has the NBC created a monopoly? The coming of the NBC in 1992 was to create competition and a level playing field in the broadcast industry. In spite of the complaints, competition is robust in some segments of the industry which, unfortunately, does not include Pay TV.

    This is not the failure of the NBC, if you permit me. Rather, it is the failure of an economy that hardly makes provisions for local players, the volatility of an industry whose services must be flavoured with contents that are purchased in dollars, and the frustrations of local investors whose efforts do not enjoy enough gestation period to support a business for the long term.

    I will give only two examples here. There was once a HiTV promoted by my firend, Toyin Subair, who thought he had a magic wand to unlock the sector and force competition after a long study of, and stay in the industry even as a lawyer providing essential services.

    Agile and rambunctious, HiTV gave us joy for a time as a near perfect alternative, then it went in a poof, leaving Subair and his co-investors to lick their wounds while strategizing for another opportunity to return to the market. You may allege all you can, but this wasn’t about the HiTV promoter but about a market not ready for such delicate and structured investment that could take a while to yield returns.

    There is or was a TSTV which does or did not possess that kind of capacity or force of HiTV but it boasted patriotism and sustainability. As I write, TSTV has been off air for months, leaving a void that could be difficult to fill on return. TSTV is witnessing a down time and it’s not a good story for the industry.

    Programming is the life wire of Pay TV. Content is king in the modern Pay TV business. Good, premium content, which could be local or foreign but well processed and packaged into channels to arrest TV viewing eyes. Thankfully, the nation’s entertainment industry has positioned itself to feed the demand of TV programming. But foreign programming is not that kind and tolerant. The operator must go to the international programming market, like MIPTV, to stake his dollar strength. It is a complex market, my friend, and very harsh.

    This is the market that SLTV wants to play in. It’s not about patriotism. Technology may offer an advantage but programming is the real deal. Creative marketing may play a role but content aggregation and professional processing and packaging may be the deciding factor. Government support will be good but the Nigerian government will need to find out how nations encourage their international broadcasters. Not with sanctions.

    So who is SLTV? Simple definition. SLTV is the little David trying to play in the field of giants. But, dear friend, David had a preparation time before going for Goliath’s head. He killed the lion and a bear. He was being prepared for the big one and the most significant day of his life.

    The first time I heard of Metrodigital, promoter of SLTV, was sometime in July 2022, when the small organisation got a judgement from an Appeal Court in Port Harcourt against Multichoice and the NBC where it prayed the court to cause the regulator to direct Multichoice, the biggest Pay TV operator in Africa, to sub-license some channels to Metrodigtal, based on some sections of the 6th Edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.

    Although I described the case as a David versus Goliath fight, I was impressed by the young organisation which was determined to flex the content of the Code in order to find some position of competition or even advantage in the Pay TV market.

    For instance, the Code says in 6.2.5: To ensure fair and effective competition to all platforms at an agreed fee, rights owner, operators or exclusive licences to Live Foreign Sporting Events shall offer rights to Broadcasters on the different platforms inclusive but not restricted to the platforms stated below – Satellite (DTH), Multipoint Microwave Distribution System (MMDS), Cable (Fibre Optics), DTT(Terrestrial), Internet, Mobile, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and Radio.

    I will observe here that no broadcast document has been as contentious as the 6th Edition of the broadcast Code, the process of its formation, the subterranean moves and the controversies. Be that as it may, it will be exciting to see how SLTV excites the market with its business plan. But I had warned in one of my interventions that it will be difficult to base your business plan on somebody’s ideas, plans, products  and programmes, especially in a competitive market.

    In the unfolding drama and expected competition in the Pay TV sector which seems to have attracted the imprimatur of the government, the response from the regulator has been measured and tempered.

    Speaking at the occasion, chief regulator of the broadcast industry, Charles Ebuebu, informed that the NBC was reviewing some policies  and regulations in order to create a more competitive ecosystem where the consumer will be the one making choices. While noting that the Commission was prepared to encourage a pay-per-view option in the industry, he suggested that such a decision may be informed by the agreements entered into by operators during content rights acquisition.

    I am pained by suggestions that a foreign company is exploiting Nigerians in the Pay TV industry. I do not know what many of us know about the coming of Multichoice but I am sure that Dewumi Ogunsanya, Chairman, and  John Ugbe, Chief Executive, are in a better position  to speak about their company.

    My final point is to alert the NBC that tech neutrality is always a better choice for a regulator, I mean, concerning pay-per-view, while adding that a competitive market will always enjoy some segmentation which provides for big players and small players, and even keep the doors ajar for new entrants into the market.

  • An urgent message for President Tinubu and the National Assembly – By Okoh Aihe

    An urgent message for President Tinubu and the National Assembly – By Okoh Aihe

    I have a funny friend who would always see things where they hardly exist or make meaning out of situations that challenge understanding. Years before the Nigerian government would pick Stephen Oronsaye to run a hot knife through the unwieldiness of the Federal Civil Service, my friend would reel out a list of parastatals and agencies within the federal system, and some of them I have really not heard their names before.

    Then he would give a good laugh. They are there not to do anything or be of any use to society but just to collect their budgets and make returns to some sources. Oh, the height of cynicism, you would say. Years later, the government probably heard his kind of talk and decided to do something. The report of the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies headed by Stephen Oronsaye was so profound that Nigerians expected implementation immediately. But that wasn’t to be as the wheel of government grinds even more slowly than justice’s.

    Last week the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government, in a move to mitigate human suffering arising from poor economic decisions, decided to implement the recommendations of the report and, as the President would add, completely.

    Since then, I have been pelted with questions. What do you think? Is the government going to merge the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) in a much anticipated converged regulatory body? Say something!

    What do I have to say when the government has already spoken? It is a decision well taken and we expect some immediate action.

    But have you seen a copy of the report and the white paper? I saw a summary somewhere and it was pretty interesting. The report recommended a merger of the NCC and the NBC as the Communications Regulatory Authority of Nigeria (CRAN) with the regulatory functions of NIPOST transferred to the new body. At least three directorates to be created under the new CRAN to perform the functions of broadcast, telecommunications and with the regulatory functions of postal services.

    The enabling laws setting up the NCC and NBC should be repealed to accommodate the new law that shelters the new body and its responsibilities.

    Another major recommendation was for the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), remember that name? to be liquidated immediately. I am sure the committee too, was tired of the pain NITEL had caused the entire nation with its failure.

    The liquidation of NITEL was the only recommendation the government accepted. Every other one was rejected, in the infinite wisdom of government.

    And the government has made a major decision to implement the Oronsaye report which President Tinubu says must be implemented in full!

    But did you observe that the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi, hardly said anything about the relationship between NCC and NBC? There was no need waking the Titanic. I have always had my fears about the unlikely possibilities of a merger which were sundrily confirmed by workers within both organisations. There are troubling details in the divergent nature of the organisations which do not accommodate any convergence.

    However, President Tinubu says implement in full.

    The big boys have spoken. Every other thing for me remains academic, purely scholarly to accommodate the fancy of a lonely character stewing in pleasurable phantasmagoria. This is where ideas jumble up to the irritation of those who may never understand.

    Let’s take a little trip to jurisdictions where they have done things a little bit differently, environments whose practices may have stoked the patriotic fire in Oronsaye and his team. This won’t be a trip to Afghanistan or even Qatar, I promise you.

    In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates interstate and international communications through cable, radio, television, satellite and wire. A converged regulator.

    Ofcom is the converged regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, which include: Television, radio, fixed line telecoms, mobile and postal services, including the airwaves carrying the various services.

    South Korea has the Korea Communications Commission  (KCC) which is responsible for regulating broadcasting and communications services, protect users in the industry and carry out necessary actions that guarantee the independence of the regulator.

    Coming nearer home, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is the official regulator of the South African communications, broadcasting and postal services sectors. ICASA is a converged regulator which has done much in making South Africa one of the most competitive industries in Africa.

    So, do we need a converged regulator in Nigeria? I do not have an answer to that question, except that if best practices were of any significance, converged  regulators enjoy some advantages over split homes where industry regulators stand in silos doing their own thing.

    To be very frank, I do not think that Nigeria is as competitive as any of the jurisdictions listed above or even as connected in terms of people interface and usage. So, there must be something happening in converged regulatory jurisdictions that need further scrutiny.

    By the way can the Nigerian government spare Oronsaye all travails and formally apologise to him for causing him discomforts just because he did a good job for his nation!

    A Puzzle at the NCC

    The effusions of this writer over the appointment of two Executive Commissioners at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in the persons of Abraham Oshadami (Technical Services) and Rimini Makama (Stakeholder Management), last week, have largely been trimmed by readers who observed there was something totally out of place in the appointments.

    While Oshadami was picked from within the NCC with requisite industry experience – regulatory, local and international,  having joined the organisation as a manager, Makama worked in the allied industry and equally boasts of a good background. However, those who called this writer all pointed out that their appointor has erred in not following the principles of the federal character which recommend the sharing of federal appointments among the states, between regions and even between the north and south as the case may be.

    With the dissolution of the Board by the current government and recent appointments at the Commission of the Executive Vice Chairman, who is the chief executive of the NCC, and the Executive Commissioners, all the executive positions have gone to a part of the country, which may really be inadvertent.

    But such development matters a lot to readers out there and even industry watchers who quickly warned that the Tinubu government should not dilute the standard it is trying to establish in the telecommunications industry by making appointments that will carry more controversy than their intended good.

    The telecoms industry suffered a lot under the last government and should not be punished further by actions that can be avoided.

  • A generational shift at the NCC? – By Okoh Aihe

    A generational shift at the NCC? – By Okoh Aihe

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, last Thursday, appointed Engr Abraham Oshadami as the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). When I stumbled on this bit of information taken from the statement by the Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, at about 2am Friday morning, my heart literally stopped beating, momentarily.

    Also appointed is Rimini Makama who will serve as Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management.

    Oshadami. I know that name as it kept ringing in my head. It wasn’t time to sleep any more. Some good things are happening in our nation in spite of the desperate times. Two pictures came to my mind that very morning, the Nigerian Communications Act 2003,  establishing the NCC, and one glorious afternoon I was privileged to spend with former chairman of the NCC Board, Chief Olabiyi Durojaiye, in his house at Ikeja, Lagos. May God keep him in a good place. All alone in that house, the venerated elder told me the story of life, a tiny bit of which I will reveal here.

    First, the Act. The Act which sets up the Board of Commissioners – chairman, executive vice chairman, 2 Executive Commissioners and 5 non-executive  Commissioners – states their qualifications and fields of competence as follows: finance or accounting, law, consumer affairs, telecommunications engineering, information technology, engineering generally, economics and public administration. At all times, the President should ensure that the Board is properly constituted with at least six members.

    Particularly the Act encourages the President to make his appointment of the Commissioners from the six geo-political zones. The Executive Commissioner , Technical Services has to be homegrown or sourced from within the Commission to serve as the curator of institutional memory and referential experience to the Board.

    A little recall validates the foregoing – Mallam Abdulrahman Ado, Engr Steven Bello, Dr Bashir Gwandu, Engr Ubale Maska and now Abraham Oshadami. That is the way the Act was designed which makes it one of the best anywhere in the world. And it also protects because the political locusts have not been able to eat up the NCC in spite of their irritating greed.

    The Act has served the industry well. Now, let’s go to that memorable meeting with the former Board chairman. I would not know the depth of politics that was eating up the system from within. But that very day he told me, don’t mind all these people running around the place claiming all kinds of achievements by the NCC. The only person who really knows something about telecommunications among the Board members is Engr Maska who, interestingly, is a very quiet and humble person. Few months later, Senator Durojaiye was removed unceremoniously in such a manner  that constituted a brazen assault on the Act.

    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.

    The appointment of Oshadami and Makama is therefore particularly significant as the beginning of a regenerative process to bring life back to a regulator that was raped serially by political appointees, whose obsessed object of pursuit was percuniary settlement for self and generations yet unborn. This is why the appointment of a tested technocrat and professional as stated earlier may serve as an encouraging inflection point for an industry in search of rebirth.

    This is what they bring to the NCC. Oshadami is a First Class graduate of Electrical Engineering from the University of Ibadan, who has worked in the Computer and Telecommunications industries for 29 years. At the NCC which he joined in 2004, he has been trained over the years to play fundamental roles in Telecommunications Regulation, Information Technology, Spectrum Management, and Traffic Network Optimisation.

    On behalf of the Nigerian government, Oshadami has served as the working Group Chairman on Emerging Technologies for the African Telecommunications Union, Chairman, Nigerian Delegation to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) World, Vice Chairman, ITU Study Group 1 – Spectrum Management (2015-2019), and Vice Chairman, ITU Radio Communications Advisory Group (2023-2027).

    Oshadami has enjoyed the privilege of seeing the industry from great heights and, without doubt, his experience strikes the fundamentals of Telecoms regulation and global industry practice, and this could be the reason there is joy within the Commission and industry as his training has positioned him to give maximum support to the new EVC who is desirous to steer the telecommunications industry to a new height of growth.

    A highly placed industry source told this writer that “Abraham Oshadami is a square peg in a square hole.”

    Makama comes to the Board with her own bag of achievements having been embedded in the rich but strategic tapestries of the technology sector. A lawyer by profession, Makama has mostly worked in the technology sector, apart from the period she spent  with the International Criminal Police Organisation ( Interpol) as a Principal Legal Assistant in Lyon, France, between 2007 and 2009.

    Named in Forbes ‘20 Youngest Power Women Under 40 in Africa, 2014, Makama describes herself in her CV as an “Experienced senior executive with a proven talent for leveraging government relationships to advance the corporate agenda. Former Government Affairs Director, MEA Emerging Markets at Microsoft specialising in public sector cloud adoption.”

    In her time with Microsoft, from June 2016 to May 2023, Makama was a key driving force behind the continuing upward growth trajectory of Xbox globally; and advanced global vision and strategy leveraging international market analytics and insight for her organisation’s business. Being put in charge of Stakeholder Management, she has found a good place to exhibit her wares.

    Makama is credited with launching Xbox Cloud Gaming in Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Australia, and represented Microsoft’s interests on the board of the Digital Economy Task Force of the US Chamber of Commerce, SMART Africa Alliance and the American Business Council – Technology Group.

    It is safe to say that between Oshadami and Makama, the President has appointed raw talents to the Board of the NCC in what many may see as a needed generational shift at the Commission. But there is something else.

    During a staff delayering process which happened at the NCC recently, some guys whispered to me that Dr Aminu Maida, the EVC, has said that he was only prepared to work with young people. My candid observation here is that those who are older than him, and there are so many of them, may have reasons to be uncomfortable at the NCC. Fortunately, the Civil Service Rules give them protection and are quite clear on how everybody exits.

    A little lesson here. There is what they call the Rehoboam Syndrome, the complex  of a young king in the Bible who despised the advice of the elders to follow the hot blood of his age mates. His action broke his kingdom into two.

    My little advice here is that Maida will need the wisdom of the elderly and the tech craziness of the young at heart to make a difference at the Commission. He will also need the maturity of the senior staff of the NCC to manage and retrain staff that were arbitrarily employed under the last administration, although this writer has been warned that some of them are not trainable at all, as their primary qualification for being at the Commission was being wired politically. They find no joy in the work. Not even in the money. Complete misfits.

    I congratulate Oshadami and Makama and welcome them to the NCC. There is joy and excitement in their new positions. But there are challenges ahead, lots of challenges because the management of the Commission before Maida nearly ruined the place. The rebuilding process will not be easy. Their initial actions will be held in suspicion by those who still feel disappointed at the disaster that nearly wrecked a revered institution. I wish them well.

  • Mobile World Congress, more than an annual ritual – By Okoh Aihe

    Mobile World Congress, more than an annual ritual – By Okoh Aihe

    The Mobile World Congress, MWC 2024, holds next week, from February 26 to 29, at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. The city looks forward to this great event which, at some point, was gathering over one hundred thousand people in four days every year, and the industry looks forward to the meeting because it provides a great opportunity for networking and deal-making.

    The Mobile World Congress is hosted by the GSMA – the GSM Association which draws membership from the mobile industry, over 750 operators and allied companies, 400 of them including equipment manufacturers and vendors. Last year, the Mobile World Congress added €461m to the Barcelona economy, in four days.

    Every year, the final days of February are firmly rooted in the calendar of industry practitioners. It is fun. It is hard work. It is a lot of trekking to do, moving from one hall to another and looking for topics and products that will arrest your instincts and shape your business. At the end of the day, Barcelona makes up for a lot of things.

    It wasn’t always Barcelona. I remember the early days in Cannes, South of France, at the Palais des Festivals et des Congres. The yachts in the beautiful waters of the French Riviera for  those who want to play exclusively big and with some splash of glamour. A couple of my friends will remember Cannes as well. There was this particular exhibition stand that grabbed lots of attention by featuring a popular porn artist. A certain friend got too taken in with the performance and dropped his phone inadvertently. The young performer asked her assistant to keep the phone. My friend went back with his head lowered in defeat and shrouded in shame. The lady stretched her hand with the phone in it. Is it this? Oh Cannes had its peculiar allure, the narrow streets and the thick coffee served in finger cups.

    After ten years, Barcelona won the bid to host the MWC, lots of hotels after hosting the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, big event centres and lots of history and pull that people were only too happy to return to the city every year in spite of the stubborn pick pockets and other denizens of the underground rail system. It is not tucked in like Cannes. Barcelona breathes.  It has Barca, the football team. It has Las Ramblas boulevard, which I always referred to as the Ajegunle of Barcelona. But the street is transformed into something very beautiful at night with life overwhelmingly at its fullest. 

    Barcelona offers more than a location for the Mobile World Congress. The theme for MWC 2024 is Future First and will address the urgency of bringing industries, continents, technologies and communities together to realise the future’s potential. Whether at the conferences or the exhibition, the agenda will be shaped by six sub-themes reflecting the latest trends and technologies. These themes, according to the organisers, will feature across the 17 different stages we have across the nine halls of MWC and 4YFN, providing a platform for over 1,100 speakers. 

    The themes are 5G and Beyond, Connecting Everything, Humanising AI, Manufacturing DX, Game Changers and Our Digital DNA.

    Already listed to speak are: Alef Aeronautics CEO, Jim Dukhovny, who will share his experience designing and developing flying cars; Dell Technologies Founder, Chairman and CEO, Michael Dell, who will talk about the importance of Dell being a valued partner for telcos; Ethiopia Telecom’s CEO Frehiwot Tamiru who will share her technology vision for telcos across Africa; Oxford Quantum Circuit’s CEO, Ilana Wisby who will discuss all things Quantum-as-a-Service; Microsoft’s Vice President and Chairman, Brad Smith; Xtend’s Co-Founder & CEO, Aviv Shapira, showcasing how 5G mobile technology is the catalyst for robotics. 

    One of the hottest spots to be at the Congress is the GSMA Ministerial Programme, not just because of the free lunch and steady flow of beverages, but for being a constellation of policy makers who enable the digital economy, including Ministers and heads of regulatory authorities who use the rendezvous to meet with mobile industry CEOs and senior representatives of international organisations, to share knowledge, and evolve priority policy and regulatory issues. 

    When you are fortunate to attend such privileged sessions, you hear heavy things; for instance, how governments should handle operators who, sometimes, are richer than their host countries. It is always good to encourage highly placed decision makers in government to attend such sessions. 

    Mobile World Congress is a place to learn. You humble yourself like a top-of-the-class student and with papers and pens in your backpack ready to learn from those who think the Future First and make tomorrow’s life beautiful today. 

    In one of those days, an organisation had hosted some lawmakers to a dinner at one of the popular restaurants on Las Ramblas. Great evening with so many people in attendance. There was good food but there was also a stage presentation. You need to eat with your mouth, open your eyes and your ears to follow the stage performance. Without the words and chants you don’t enjoy the dance. But the only problem was that our lawmakers made so much noise that they disturbed everybody. Just like somebody playing loud music in a cinema hall. How do you reconcile such unruliness to needed civility! 

    Without doubt, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani will be at the Congress and so is the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida. This is their programme, and their knowledge and youthfulness will do the country proud, obviously. 

    As it is, the Nigerian Communications minister seems to have been doing a dry run of his Barcelona presentation. February 19, 2024, he launched an ambitious Project 774 LG Connectivity which aims to connect all 774 local government offices in the nation leveraging on the low-hanging fruit facilities of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat) and Galaxy Backbone. 

    “Project 774 LG Connectivity will create at least 300 direct jobs as we deploy nationwide and potentially more jobs indirectly from the increase in digital access,” the minister said. 

    Quite an ambitious package except that he needed to look at choices of technology bundles to deliver his dream project, beyond the preceding two immediately available to him.

    But the international community loves hearing this kind of audacious plan, so he will find listening ears. Besides, he will be in the good company of tech enthusiasts and freaks whose idea of Future First is to see beyond  the galaxies of ordinary understanding. 

    But Nigeria is having a bad run at the moment. The mobile networks still can’t boast of acceptable service quality. The economy is bad. Inflation is 29.90 per cent. There are desperations on the streets and the government wakes up to new skirmishes and demonstrations every day. Yet tomorrow looks even more uncertain and the government is at best confused in response.

    The world does not wait for anybody and we should be happy that the Telecommunications sector will be well represented in Barcelona where attendees will have no choice but to contemplate the Future First.

    One of the event themes is 5G and Beyond. While we struggle with the basics of the telecoms industry with our mobile networks running on mostly 2G and 3G platforms, little of 4G, and 5G yet to gain traction, the technology has hit a boom in some parts of the world, which will make discussions all the more interesting. 

    For instance, by the end of 2027, 5G  connections may hit 5.9bn. Global 5G services market is estimated to reach $2,208.25bn by 2030. Has 5G done enough to graduate to 6G which is already hovering in the horizon? This is obviously a huge market that should compel Nigeria to get things right.

    Humanising AI is another sub-theme of the Mobile World Congress 2024 that will discuss “Our future with artificial intelligence.” AI contribution to the global economy by 2030 is projected to be in the region of $16trn. While the money looks very tempting, its role in the mobile industry and the advantages and risks will take centre stage at the Congress.

    The Nigerian delegation going to the Mobile World Congress will have their hands full, to scout for products and relationships that can do our nation good. Why is the quality of our mobile networks still poor after two decades? How does the country benefit from the windfall of new technologies? That should be of considerable concern. The country is desperate for new opportunities at the moment and telecommunications holds genuine promise.

  • Digital language for Imo youths – By Okoh Aihe

    Digital language for Imo youths – By Okoh Aihe

    When I was much younger, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late political sage, in a moment of political flamboyance and philosophical exactitude, had said life was a “continuum.” It was the time children still rush to their dictionaries searching for words that could build up their vocabularies.

    Oh could he be talking about life stretching into the future indeterminately and without any break or what some may call interregnum? Vocabulary! Young men of yore liked to acquire them and throw them around like bullets by way of demonstrating their bombastic grammatical acquisition.

    Growing up, sustainability has joined my little collection. In language there is always something for the age. Sustainable development goals could be appropriated now by the United Nations, but my little flirtation with the word is more of project, programme or policy development, nurtured or supported to endure the vicissitudes of a fragile state. Unlike in politics where the winner takes all and everything comes to a screeching, shameful halt once he exits office. Or in moments of interregnum!

    Could this be the reason I was excited last week seeing some images coming out of Imo State? It was quite exciting for me to see that the SkillUpImo project has not been subjected to the opprobrium of an interregnum or endure a crushing hiatus that could have a telling effect on a well thought-out programme with which Governor Hope Uzodinma hopes to lure a number of youths away from the streets and crime, and imbue them with tech skills for a better future, even for a better state and country.

    In Imo State, interregnum has lost meaning or relevance. While yet to form a cabinet after an election victory, Governor Uzodinma, secured the partnership of global tech giant, Meta Incorporated, formerly Facebook, to train 5000 tech graduates on digital marketing on Meta social platforms of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, still using the enthusiastic commitment of former Commissioner of Digital Economy and E-Governance, Dr Chimezie Amadi.

    That is sustainability, that the importance of a cardinal programme of the State government was not allowed to flag. An official of the Nigerian tech partner of Meta, Innovation Growth (IG) Hub, Daniel Chinagozi,  told reporters that the training was one of the series lined up to support the government in its audacious effort to decongest the streets of restless youths and give them a meaningful living.

    The governor in his first tenure promoted an ambitious Imo Digital Economy Agenda (IDEA) 2022 – 2026, with one of its primary pillars being Digital Literacy and Skills Acquisition. Under the programme, the government planned to train 100,000 youths, women and people living with disabilities in core 21st century skills in software development, blockchain, game development and other technical vocational skills.

    A smart move by the governor was to enlist Dr Amadi, a hard core technocrat at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to champion his vision for a new Imo.

    It was like hitting the bullseye. Perhaps for the visible achievements of the programme and even more for the love of his people, the governor has encouraged

    Amadi to pursue his state’s tech vision even in ordinary capacity.

    The efforts of the state in this respect are measurable. The training programme provided Amadi with an auspicious opportunity to give a situation report. Speaking on Channels Television, last week, Amadi informed viewers that through the SkillUpImo project which is about a year old, the governor has trained exactly 20,000 youths in Cohorts 1 and  2 in different genres of tech application, out of  which 5,000 were picked for further training by tech partners, IG Hub, representing Meta in Nigeria.

    On the choice of Meta, Amadi explained that the company builds its innovation around people and some of these technologies are specially suited for the promotion of MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), the sort of small businesses sprouting in different parts of the state, a number of them promoted by tech graduates of the ImoSkillUp project.

    “Meta through IG Hub is working with us to train digital marketing graduates from Cohort 1 and 2 by sharpening their knowledge and deepening their skills in using the Meta family of Apps to promote small businesses. Some of them have opted to set up their own ventures instead of searching for paid employment,” he said.

    Some benefits are already very noticeable, according to the former Commissioner. “The good thing happening in Imo is the sporadic growth of small businesses. Some companies come to Imo State in search of tech  talents to employ. Imo State is becoming a net exporter of tech talents to other parts of the country and even to the global community,” Amadi said.

    Until recently, Imo State resonated mostly in ugly situations, either insecurity or mugging of Labour leaders. The governor has said his tech training drive for the youths is to stir them away from being cheap recruits for troublemakers. And Amadi would tell this writer that there is nobody who is gainfully employed that will want to spill his blood on the street.

    Does Uzodinma’s tech plan have the fuel boosters to accelerate to 2026 and achieve its goals without political distractions?  Will it achieve its training target of 100,000  and make Imo a digitally driven state – E-Government, connected ministries, connected cities, driven on e-commerce that is powered by a state supported broadband buildout? Time, they say, will tell.

    From afar, one can say Governor Uzodinma has got something good going in Imo State. On tech training for Imo youths, he has scaled the rubicon while shaming a discouraging interregnum offered by the absence of a cabinet, to press the accelerator of his best offering to the Imo people.

  • A Minister’s tech dreams and the enemies within – By Okoh Aihe

    A Minister’s tech dreams and the enemies within – By Okoh Aihe

    The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, is having a great time under the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That is the way we see it in this part of the world. When a cabinet minister hops from place to place, sometimes flying long distances without even the opportunity to read vital memos in the office, we say the person is enjoying, even with little thought to the risk of flying.

    The minister has made some movements within the short span of this government. He was at the G20 New Delhi Summit, India, in September 2023. Also in September, he was at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly which President Tinubu, was attending for the first time as President. Bosun spoke on the sidelines. Last month, he was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

    This administration, like others before it, sees technology as a major lever to pull the economy out of its present sorry state and stamp it with redemptive accoutrement even before the global community. Bosun, who has had a glowing practice in the private sector, is leading the charge and therefore, has to attend these meetings and speak to people with homogeneous thoughts on global economy.

    Particularly, he is flaunting the IT capacity of the Nigerian youthful population to change their world and be able to meet some needs in the global ICT shopping list.

    On the sidelines of Davos, Bosun said: “Also we have global challenges that we are part of but there are opportunities that technology has to offer to solve those challenges and with those opportunities is the gap that exists which is the workforce for technology.

    “And with the workforce in Nigeria, that 60 percent of our population is between 18 and 20 years, it means Nigeria can fill the gap. We are raising talents who can join the technical workforce that will solve some of these global problems.”

    The other day, the minister said the country would need about $2bn to build a fibre ring around the nation. He said he would encourage the private sector to make the investment. This is much smaller than the $5bn that was estimated to execute the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020 – 2025.

    The plan, which targets a coverage of 90 percent of the population and a penetration rate of 70 percent by the end of the plan’s lifetime, which is next year,  may not meet expectations at all. This is no naked pessimism.

    Is the minister saying something new? I am asking this question because of another question an industry source asked me: where are the deep thinkers at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the source asked. What does this have to do with the minister?

    We shall try to answer some of the questions without jumbling things up. The NCC is the regulator of the telecommunications industry and a primary player in the execution of the minister’s policies. The place was well resourced with personnel who thought about tomorrow through their studies, research and data analytics. Unfortunately, the system has been undergoing a lot of delayering of staff with the last batch leaving only recently. It is knowledge exodus that will affect what happens at the regulatory agency in the days ahead.

    The paucity of telecommunications services in Nigeria was well documented within the Commission. So, instead of playing only the role of the regulator, the NCC initiated a number of programmes that could assist in bringing services and knowledge to the people.

    Thus was born the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), in different locations of the country with headquarters in Abuja, Wire Nigeria (WIN), Digital Awareness Programme (DAP), Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI), and InfraCo. The InfraCo was a different layer of thinking encouraged by the realisation that the country was too vast for one or few operators to ring with fibre. More operators have to be persuaded even with subsidy to deploy fibre optics in different zones of the country, seven zones in all, with Lagos standing as a zone because of vast telecoms demand.

    These various programmes established some knowledge centres in our institutions, set up tech facilities and, in some cases, built major facilities in the case of DBI that can serve as tech incubator centres in different parts of the country. The only one that has tanked is the Infraco which has not taken off at all in spite of the laudable plans, arrangements and projections. This failure is acknowledged in the current  Broadband plan.

    Is the minister acting in the void or saying something new? Not at all. The NCC saw this a long time ago and decided to project itself as a strategic service rollout stimulator in the value chain.

    An industry source told me last week that the minister has to build out his expectations by harvesting the low hanging fruits resident in the various parastatals under his ministry. He wants to affect the youthful population with universally requisite IT skills, encourage local and international investors to play a role and generally create a situation that leapfrogs technology to the front row in the projected national economic develoment.

    The source is suggesting that the Minister should align with the NCC to do a technology audit of its various projects to determine what is available in-house and why those that have failed , failed. DBI, according to the source, provides a disturbing  case. The institution has massive physical infrastructure build out all over the country. In Lagos, in Kaduna, in Adamawa, in Kano, and in Enugu among other locations, DBI has state-of-the-art facilities that are just waiting to be activated.

    But what killed the DBI dream? Instead of operationalising DBI facilities, the last administration at the NCC with tacit encouragement of an overbearing minister, shifted attention to building of IT parks, and installation of WiFi in major markets and airports.

    For instance in March last year, about two months to the end of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Federal Government approved the sum of N24.20bn for the provision of broadband internet connection in at least 20 airports, 43 schools and six marketplaces nationwide. A happy Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, told a shocked populace that the bills would be picked by the NCC. The source of money for the payment is as convoluted as the contract itself. But it doesn’t smell good at all.

    A source told me that the amount was much more  than whatever budget that was ever set aside as subsidy to fund the InfraCos which was planned to help extend fibre to different parts of the country. But do we ever learn anything in this nation?

    Good literature was done for the current Broadband Plan which observed why the previous one didn’t achieve much results . For instance, the issue of Right of Way (RoW) remains. The Federal Government has not been able to persuade states to agree to a uniform charge of N145/m. Infraco incentives defined but not yet implemented. USPF incentive structure for rural coverage is not attractive because of focus on CAPEX and OPEX. Sustainability of various initiatives by NITDA, USPF, DBI and state governments remains an issue.

    Almost all the factors that upstaged the success of the former Broadband plan and even more, are at work against the current plan which expires next year. Another industry source reasoned that the minister cannot achieve much in his tech dreams without looking at the success rate of the current Broadband Plan and what he takes from there into the future.

    On the way forward, there is a consensus among industry players that the minister must encourage the NCC to revisit Infraco and ensure that it works this time instead of some booby traps that destroy a vision. They also see DBI as a silver bullet to achieve the minister’s dreams. Instead of allowing a huge physical infrastructure to be lying waste, the minister should stimulate the NCC with policies that can turn DBI locations into Incubation Centres, Tech Development Centres or Science Labs  that can attract or host contiguous higher institutions and even be more useful to host communities.

    The options before the minister are multifarious but a hard choice is still better at the end of the day than words which could be too cheap to achieve reason or results.

  • Let truth heal the rotten process of SIM/NIN harmonisation – By Okoh Aihe

    Let truth heal the rotten process of SIM/NIN harmonisation – By Okoh Aihe

    I was just wondering, why can’t we perform very simple tasks as a nation without unnecessary perambulation? The NIN/SIM harmonisation was planned to be a very simple exercise, just for only two weeks. But disharmony has never been so much on the stroll than in this exercise which has become so obfuscated that reason and excuses have given way to suspicion and now recriminations.

    At what stage is the exercise? Too difficult for anybody to access except that available evidence points to the fact that any time soon about 10 million mobile lines will be taken off the mobile networks for the notorious reasons that they have not been properly registered because the SIM and NIN cannot properly reconcile their relationship.

    This means one thing, revenue loss to the operators – MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9MOBILE. In an operating environment that remains unstable, with operating cost rising everyday in the face of an absolutely devalued currency, this spells a lot of trouble for the operators who have to be at their creative best to remain in business. And there have been a lot of troubles and struggles in the industry which people hardly know just like they don’t know that the monkey sweats because of the hair on its body.

    It was not always like this. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) and National Identification Number (NIN) forced their way into our conversation in December 2020 when former Communications Minister, Dr Isa Pantami, suddenly came up with what seemed a sublime policy, he thought, had the magic wand to cure Nigeria of all its problems, including insecurity which has remained a nightmare ever since.

    From all indications now, the policy is not so sublime. It’s either the process was not thought through or it was sabotaged ab initio. The truth is coming out now and what it washes up is not so salutary, like the breeze blowing the backside of the fowl, it reveals a side that isn’t always the best.

    And only the truth, according to the holy books, can make whole. Speaking at a training programme for Front-End Partners (FEP), Abisoye Coker-Odusote, the new Director General of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)  said, “On assumption of office, we observed countless infractions and unwholesome practices in the NIN enrolment and modification services. Most of the reports of infractions, upon investigation, were done by some of our Front-End Partners.

    “I am not exonerating NIMC staff completely but as you may be aware, on different occasions, I led sting operations to some of our offices, where some staff were caught red-handed perpetrating unwholesome conduct.”

    I want to congratulate Coker-Odusote this morning for not trying to fight truth or reality with obnoxious untruths. So much has been said about the failure of NIMC but under the previous administration, the agency had enhanced capacity to bamboozle the people with every of their actions no matter how very inane.

    Even the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), curators of the SIM registration, which former EVC, Prof Garba Umar Danbatta, so willfuly subordinated to a minister with an exaggerated knowledge of the telecommunications industry, has been pointing five fingers to the failure of the nation’s identity managers.

    An NCC source told this writer that NIMC has become a major problem because they created a platform that could be easily manipulated. For instance, NIMC would create a bypass which enabled people under 16 to be registered with only their pictures taken without the biometrics. Some of these people, the source lamented, have been found to register multiple SIMs just by changing only their clothes without even NIMC finding out that they have been capturing the same faces.

    Another practice is the generation of unique identity numbers for individuals or organisations which make it possible for one person to register over a thousand SIMs and that can be quite frightening. There is also a token issued by NIMC for a sum that is used to generate virtual NIN by the operators for a SIM to be registered. The money involved makes this attractive. I will return to this later.

    An industry source jolted this writer into appraising the true situation the country is steeped. “We have spent billions of Naira trying to build capacity in NIMC by supporting with equipment and training, it has not helped. Money that should have been invested in service buildout has gone into areas where progress has been difficult to register. There is total lack of capacity at NIMC,” the source lamented.

    Another source explained that for over a decade mobile operators have been coerced into buying facilities and employing teams for SIM registration, pointing out that there is no part of the world where  corporates have been given the responsibility to collect the bio data of citizens, a function that should be solely NIMC’s in Nigeria.

    The foregoing is a stale argument that we may never understand as corporations  in Nigeria hardly attract any empathy or understanding. As it is there are problems, if not complications compelling this writer to encourage NIMC management to go beyond identifying problems but to plug them right away.

    There are economic implications as the operators will lose money, but the more troubling are the security implications which clearly invalidate the original idea of the exercise, to tackle security issues. On the strength of this, an industry source explained that the subterranean intention may actually have been for some dealmakers to make some money from the policy, hiding under the overbearing weight of insecurity.

    On its part, NCC is taking some actions, as an official told this writer. “There are so many things we have seen in the  registration platforms that we are removing. There is a situation where one person with a NIMC unique number could reggster over 400 lines!” Like a silver bullet but the unique number brings no good.

    As it is, the job is well cut out for NIMC, that is if you accommodate that cliche. Great that the DG has confessed to weaknesses and sharp practices noticed in the registration process. What is needed is a complete overhaul, a thorough house cleaning.

    For instance, how many unique numbers have been issued? How many tokens have been generated so far and who are the beneficiaries of the income arising therefrom? An NCC source told me that too many alarming things have been done at NIMC. Is the DG able to confirm that such actions and other activities too sordid to mention have not compromised the NIMC platform to the level of concern? A former minister introduced the SIM/NIN harmonisation as his mark of genius, which ingenuity has really not helped the nation. What is the current minister doing about the policy?

    One final question. Is it not possible for somebody to acquire a SIM card simply by tendering a National ID Card, International Passport or even a Driver’s Licence  as done in other parts of the world?

    I suggest we come clean with the truth. Let’s free the mobile  operators from a superfluous responsibility and also release them from a chokehold so that they can fully concentrate on service delivery to their customers. It is not their responsibility to manage the nation’s identity system.