Demand, Supply Forces Redefine Telecoms Operators’ Market Shares

DESPITE placing ban on two mobile network operators, MNO, over allegations that they used their market dominance to compete unfairly in the telecoms market, recent investigations showed that the market had actually created the environment that put them in the advantage position as dominant operator.

The National Mirror uncovered in a report obtained from the NCC that patronage of mobile subscribers across the country between 2013 and 2014 indicated that each of the four MNOs actually battled fiercely to become the leading oper

ator in the rapidly changing, innovation-driven market.

The former Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Eugene Juwah had in April 25, 2013 pronounced South Africa’s MTN and Globacom, second national carrier as dominant mobile operators in critical segments of the nation’s telecoms market.

Our latest investigation showed that only one MNO continued to lead the market of the GSM while the others struggle to claim the same position, which it was gathered the operator may have ascribe to it.

For instance, reports from the NCC showed that mobile market segment figure as at

December, 2014 recorded a total of 136,772,475 active voice subscriptions indicating that it accounted for 97.83 percent of the entire market.

However, 44 percent of the 97.83 percent mobile market segment share went to Mobile Telephone Network, MTN, with a whopping figure of 59,893,093 leaving the other three operators to scramble for the remaining 53.83 percent.

While MTN took that chunk of the market share, national carrier, Globacom snatched 21 percent of the 53.83 percent thereby placing second with a lead figure of 28,219,089 but Airtel Nigeria was quick to trail behind with less than one percent scuttling with 20 percent of the active voice subscription of the market share with a figure of 27,556,544 such hat later comer into the industry and Arab owned operator trail far way with 14 percent share of the mobile GSM market, which is 21,103,749.

Although the dominant operator quest did not look the direction of the Mobile CDMA and the Fixed Wired/ Wireless market segments operators due to the crisis in the segment, which analysis have blamed on the superior technology of the mobile GSM, statistics revealed that there had indeed been a dominant operator without a pronouncement from the operator.

While each accounted for 1.57 percent and 0.13 percent share of the entire market, the NCC which appears silent on the state of that segment indicated Visafone has consistently dominate that market segment.

Investigation revealed a different outlook of market dominance as reflected by the cumulative total numbers ported incoming and outgoing across the all network particular reference to the mobile GSM segment.

The porting trend report from inception between May, 2013 and December, 2014 for the four major GSM operators revealed that Etisalat, which trails behind the three other MNO as the least dominant operator had the highest number of ported subscribers of 92946 from other networks.

On the other, MTN Nigeria, which has consistently occupied the position of dominancy in the last two years, recorded the least ported numbers of with 16,434 followed by Globacom and Airtel with 85,918 and 38,156 respectively.

Under the same, it was gathered that MTN Nigeria suffered a massive exit of subscribers out of its network as 96,496 subscribers moved their numbers to other network.

However, the Etisalat, which industry analyst have classified as the least growing network in the GSM segment suffered the least porting disadvantage with just only 28,164 of its subscribers leaving its network while growing network Airtel Nigeria and Globacom lost 51,902 and 42,091 their subscribers respectively to other network.

According to a Lagos based Consumer Rights Advocate, Mr. Damian Eze, blamed the regulator for the current trend of growth in the industry saying that the MNO have been urging NCC to review the 30 per cent differential it recently granted to MTN Nigeria for off-net and on-net retail mobile voice tariffs as it is a threat to their business.

He made reference to the MTN’s “Family and Friends” promo, which he said was is in violation of NCC’s regulation noting that “it remains a puzzle why the regulator would change the rule of the game midway without informing stakeholders of its intention and explain why it should favour a player at the detriment of others.”

According to him, the Commission has an obligation to promote fair competition and prevent the misuse of market power or anti-competitive practices by any licensee stressing that investors who desire regulatory certainty to guide their decisions will be disturbed where the industry regulator undertakes far reaching decisions without transparently seeking the input of stakeholders.

Eze called for on the NCC and the supervising Ministry of Communications Technology to put in place policies to address challenges affecting broadband development in Nigeria saying that in spite of its huge resources and market potential, the country continued to underperform in the area of broadband development in comparison to its peers.

“While Nigeria’s mobile broadband penetration stands at 10.1 per cent, the average for peer countries in Africa is 30 per cent. Again, peer countries have an average Smartphone penetration of 26 per cent, as against Nigeria’s dismal averages 12 per cent”, he said.

The spokesman for the NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo said that the regulator is committed to providing a level playing field for all operators noting that its concern as a regulator is to ensure that the industry performance meets the expectation of all stakeholders.

According to him, all polices of the NCC foster the growth of the industry and the development of the economy as well as ensuring that subscribers get value for their money.

We Shifted NIN Usage to Allow MDAs Harmonise Their Database –NIMC

THE National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), has said that it shifted the mandatory use of the National Identification Number (NIN), to enable Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, to harmonise their data base.

The Commission had last Tuesday disclosed that it shifted the date for the commencement of the mandatory use across the country from September 1, 2015 to January 9, 2016.

According to the Commission, the extension of the September date follows the recent directive by President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that the extension will enable the Commission progress further on the harmonisation database of ministries, departments and agencies of government with that of NIMC.

The Commission’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Abdulhamid Umar, said that the shift was meant to avoid the situation similar to what was experienced when the CBN wanted to enforce the deadline date for the BVN, which eventually led to a late rush and a massive turn out of citizens and the attendant struggles they had to go through.

It explained that the shift would ensure that double enrollment was reduced to the barest minimum during the transition period when the harmonisation is being implemented.

He said that NIMC management has taken into consideration the deadline for the completion of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) exercise thus extending the time frame for the completion of the harmonisation it has begun with the CBN on the BVN programme.

Umar disclosed that with the planned harmonisation citizens will not be required to have their biometrics taken every time by government institutions in the near future noting the MDAs will invariably act as valid agents to the NIMC, collecting their own data as well as providing data required for the issuance of the NIN by the NIMC based on the minimum national standards for biometric and demographic data capture already set by the MDAs.

NIMC disclosed that it has concluded plans to provide pre-enrollment services on smartphones to ensure that citizens do their enrolment using their smart phones, adding that it would ensure that more citizens completed their demographic enrolment before they proceed to NIMC Enrollment Centres for their biometric data capture to complete their enrollment.

The Commission said that the method will help to decongest the Enrollment Centres as well as ensure that citizens enroll at their convenience to beat the deadline.

The NIN is an 11 digit number assigned to an individual upon

successful enrollment into the National Identity Database (NIDB) is what represents the unique entry of individual’s personal information in the National Identity Database.

Huawei Deploys 200 Commercial Networks

GLOBAL Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions provider, Huawei said its Agile Network has been deployed in nearly 200 networks for commercial use in seven industries including government, finance, medical services, large enterprise, transport, education, and broadcast media.

President of Huawei West Africa Region, Mr. Shi Weiliang who made disclosure during the launch of the Huawei Agile Network in Lagos, said that Huawei’s Agile Network is the industry’s first network centered on services, users, and experiences.

The launch of the Huawei Agile Network was part of event meant to declare open the Huawei Network Congress (HNC) West Africa 2015, which was held in Lagos with the theme: “From Agility to Imagination” focusing on “introducing SDN technology” and “upgrading customer experience”.

More than 200 stakeholders from Banks, Power DisCos, Government and channel partners were at the event attended by chief executive officers, chief technical officers and analysts.

Weiliang said that Huawei’s Agile Network has helped customers build multiple high-profile solutions such as intelligent transport, wireless cities, smart shopping malls, and smart travel noting that the HNC 2015 is the forum being used to share and discuss with industry partners the practices and future of the Agile Network, with the aim of helping enterprises to quickly enter the age of agility.

“We are now in a fast-changing era where Cloud computing, Big Data, and Software-defined networking (SDN) are no strangers to us. As mobility, Bring your own device (BYOD) , and digital social networking become terms commonly used in our work and life, the rapid changes of this era are more and more evident. In such an era, IT capability is becoming an extremely important core competency for an enterprise”, said Weiliang.

MTN Hinges Internet Penetration on LTE-Smartphone Technology

THE massive roll-out of LTE broadband technology, coupled with the increased rollout of smartphones at affordable rates in Nigeria, would further drive broadband penetration in the country, beginning from 2017.

Senior Manager, Transmission Access Planning Network Group at MTN, Mr. Olusegun Salami, who disclosed that at the quarterly industry agenda setting seminar organised by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association, NITRA, disclosed that the actual journey of broadband penetration started in 2007, with the launch of the third generation technology called the 3G, which he said, put an end to the narrow band service being provided through the 2G networks.

In a paper presentation titled: ‘Foreign Direct Investment-An Impetus To Achieving Ubiquitous Broadband Penetration,’ he said Nigerians were beginning to see significant improvement in broadband penetration, but explained that by 2017, when more service providers must have launched their LTE services the broadband landscape would change.

According to him, Nigerians would experience faster browsing speed and navigation, while on the internet stressing that smartphone, which would help drive the use of broadband internet, must come cheap.

“It is for this reason that MTN decided to come with low pricing smartphone that will enhance increased use of the internet, through mobile devices,” Salami said.

He disclosed that fibre system remains the best way to achieve broadband penetration in an economy with population like Nigeria, adding that MTN is appreciative of Government efforts in employing policies to further open up the economy in a manner that the economy will be able to attract more FDI noting that further devaluation of Naira will attract FDI.

Salami lauded Government for moving in the direction of increasing its investment in the development of the nation’s infrastructure particularly in the areas of electricity power supply, roads, telecommunication saying that such would reduce the cost of doing business thereby wooing more FDI.

He called on the Government to encourage production activity via production incentives and/or subsidies in order to increase the nation’s GDP.

Chairman of the event and Group Chairman, Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem kicked against the devaluation of the naira in order to encourage FDIs noting that it place indigenous investors at disadvantage.

Nigerian Businesses Need Technology to Survive, Says Expert

HEWLETT PACKARD (HP) has said that Nigeria was not exempted from the growing trend whereby organisations are keying into the potentials of technology to improve their business.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, Lagos State, Mrs. Nike Animashaun, who made the remark at the opening ceremony of the 2015 Hewlett Packard Technology Tour said businesses around the world are using advanced technology to reduce the cost of doing business while also churning out high scale productivity that redefines economies globally.

Animashaun said as a responsible government, Lagos State is aware that with information technology, business transactions have become seamless globally, reducing physical presence and creating breath.

According to her, the Lagos State Government is excited to be part of the HP Technology Tour 2015, noting that the magnitude has the capacity to boost Nigeria’s ICT sector and enhance greater technological advancements through extensive brainstorming on pertinent issues within the IT industry.

She said that growing with businesses globally, HP recognized the potential of Information Technology and have consistently re-innovate to ensure its customers are not left behind, especially businesses who dare to survive the very challenging global economic terrain.

Commercial Director, Middle East and Mediterranean Africa, HP, David Rozzio said that the HP Technology Tour was conducted across the globe to bring HP customers closer to the latest in information technology.

He said that the technology tour was meant to provide Nigerian businesses and IT professionals the opportunity to tap into the latest technology; and improve the performance and overall profitability of businesses while also guaranteeing security of business intelligence.

70,000 IT Personnel Needed to Tackle Skill Shortage

FOR the country to effectively tackle its current IT skill challenges, about 70, 000 personnel must be added to the nation’s IT workforce.

Cisco Nigeria gave the projection at the end the Cisco Networking Academy held at the University of Lagos, noting that tertiary institutions are not producing enough ICT graduates to meet this demand.

General Manager, Cisco, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mr. Dare Ogunlade said in a remark during the training that governments urgently need to deploy policy and training programmes to help solve the world’s fastest-growing gap in networking professionals.

He stated the demand for Internet Technical Professionals is increasing in proportion to the demand for connectivity adding that the global shortage of skilled IP networking professionals will be at least 1.2 million people in 2015, according to INSEAD Business School’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2014 co-authored by Cisco.

The industry expert disclosed that the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index, Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2014-2019 revealed that mobile data traffic is expected to grow 11-fold over the next five years in Nigeria, which is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 63 percent – two times faster than expected fixed IP traffic growth.

He explained that it highlights that connectivity is accelerating at a fast pace in the country therefore creating a growing need for skilled ICT professionals stressing that the lack of young ICT professionals is not limited to just Nigeria.

He said that increased connectivity, the Internet of Everything, rising digitisation of all business activity, globalisation of trade and travel, and economic growth globally has created the same problem in a number of countries globally.

Ogunlade said: “Specific programmes and targeted policies are needed to expand the total pool of qualified people in Nigeria, as well as globally. More effort is particularly needed to expand the pool of qualified networking talent by increasing the number of new Networking employees.”

Nigeria’s Mobile Phone Sales Worth N4.4bn Monthly

THE AMOUNT of mobile phones sold monthly in Nigeria has been estimated at about $20 million, while the country is also described to be very environmentally friendly to most devices that are imported in the country.

Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of BLU Nigeria, the sole distributor of a US-based BLU mobile phones, Mr. Stephen Fevrier, disclosed that the entry into the already saturated Nigerian mobile phone market was to bring something different to mobile phone users in the country.

According to him, though some of the world’s leading mobile phone brands are already in the Nigerian market, BLU’s unique design, quality and affordable price give it an edge over the other brands.

“If you look at most of the specs, you can compare the phone to Samsung and Apple, and not with these other phones that litter the market in Nigeria. There are three major selling points of the BLU phone and they are design, quality and affordable price. There is a phone for everybody in BLU mobile,” he said.

He said BLU mobile phone has long lasting battery life of over 72 hours of heavy usage, after about two hours of charge adding that other features include upgradable operating system (OS), which gives its users the ability to upgrade its operating system as new version OS is released.

He pointed out that the phones also had dual SIM ports, water resistance features, camera, television and radio, with one year warranty that covers factory errors.

Fevrier noted that though the product is barely a year in the Nigerian mobile phone market, it has recorded tremendous success especially in the low and high-end categories adding that its popularity is more with the feature phones.

He said that BLU is not unmindful of the fact that it is competing in a market already dominated by some notable big brands but expressed the belief that with the quality of product it has brought into the Nigerian market, it will not be long it takes over the Nigerian mobile phone market.

“We are pretty much aware of the quality of product that we have. You know we have some strong brands too that we are competing against. For that reason, we needed to put our house in order first so as to compete well.

“Once we are done with putting our house in order, we shall commence serious campaigns in form of road shows and media campaigns.’’

Source Code Theft Threatens Nation’s Software Industry

The nation’s software industry has over the years been bedeviled with teething problems such as piracy and unbridled importation and patronage of foreign software. However, investigation revealed that source code theft may soon be the latest burden investors and professional s in the industry may have to contend with as quacks have identified this area as major source of cheap money. 

THE GROWING trend of software piracy in the country has for long be a subject of concern for regulatory agencies, investors and professionals in the industry based on the damaging impact on their investments and the economy generally.

However, investigation indicated that despite sundry efforts to deal with the patristic monster of piracy in the industry, the problem is still prevalent as less than 50 per cent of software in the economy is believed to be purchased from developers or their authorized vendors.

Even as stakeholders, including the governments, are determined to sanitise the market, a new dimension has been added by pirates and their other ICT fraudsters to the war with the latest but gradually booming source code theft menace.

Although not yet popular in the industry, our investigations showed that some notable software developers in the country are currently having involved in a running battle against source code thieves, with one of them alleging the theft of his code by another professional colleague.

Indeed, it was gathered that the software developer, whose software is believed to have a strong share of the nation’s software market, may run into further losses following an alleged stealing of his source code by somebody he trusted.

According to a computer programmer and founder of Compucat System, Emmanuel Okitiakpe, the source code is the brain behind every software released by a developer into the market noting that without the source code, the developer is no longer in business.

He explained that software is usually written in a kind of computer instructions or programme before it can be referred to as software saying that before such programme is written, it is first analysed to solve a particular problem.

Okitiape clarified further that it is after such programme had been carefully written that it is given to the computer, and it is that state that it becomes software saying that after that the developer can then begin the process of debugging the software using the source code.

Corroborating the importance of the source code as stated by Okitiakpe, the President of Programos Software Group Limited, Emmanuel Amos said that if at that point the source code is stolen or copied by another person the investment made by the original owner of the software nullified noting that in such situation the one who stolen the source code may just be using it do another business.

Amos explained that it is a little easy for the original developer to start all over if the source code is merely copied, since it is possible for him to start rewriting the programme for the software saying that if the source code is stolen without the a copy, the developer is invariably left naked.

He further described the source code as an asset to the developer by which he uses to maintain a relationship with those clients that are using his software stressing that any lost of that means that the developer is out of business since he will not be able to improve further on the product.

Investigations reflected that although source code theft was not as common as that of software piracy yet the damage it is capable of doing to the investments of a developer can be substantial.

The Programos boss pointed out that sharing income may be lesser to bear noting that more precarious is a situation where the owner of the source code does not known that it has been be stolen, since such crime is usually committed by a trusted person.

He said that the financial implication is that the trade security of someone has been taken away from the person thereby making it impossible for the individual to do maintenance work on the software, which is an additional income for the developer of the software besides actual cost of the sale for the software.

He disclosed that due to the technical nature of software piracy the Nigerian Copyright Commission is founding difficult handling it adding that the stealing of source code is even more complex since it is a near abstract product.

Amos called on the Federal Government to set up a Software Copyright Commission that will be made up of experts in the field of programming stressing that the practitioners are in a better position to understand the gravity of source code theft.

He said further that the lost of source code could also affect other staff working in the company whose source code for a particular software has been stole.

According to Business Software Alliance’s (BSA) latest findings, an increase in the use of genuine software by one percent contributes $73 billion to the global economy while pirated software contributes $20 billion.

On the economic losses, the International Data Company, IDC disclosed that consumers globally will spend 1.5 billion hours and $22 billion identifying and recovering from the impact of malware, which arises from the use of pirated software.

The IDC further said in his latest report that businesses all over the world will be spending $114 billion to deal with the effects of malware-induced cyber-attacks.

Expert Asks FG For Software Copyright Commission

A SOFTWARE developer has called for the establishment of a Software Copyright Commission, SCC, in order to effectively tackle the growing menace of software piracy in the country.

Speaking in an interview, the Founder and President Programos Software Group Limited, Mr. Emmanuel Amos said that the country is currently not winning the war against software piracy because the police and lawyers lack the capacity to fight offenders.

According to Amos, who is the brain behind development of software for the Nigerian capital market, a software protection body is in a better position to secure the right of digital intellectual property saying that the Nigeria Copy Commission is well enabled to do that.

He said that the current copyright law is not inclusive enough for abstract professions like the software profession noting that “many other software developers in this country also suffer this silently and helplessly from the attack of software pirate but would not talk.”

He added that although there may be related law but that such laws may just be in silos and not effective in the fight against software piracy saying that the agencies like the Nigerian Technology Development Agency, NITDA, and National Office of Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP, can control the menace if empowered.

Referring to a recent discussion he had with a security operative whereby there was a display of lack of knowledge about software, he said that only a Commission on it can properly educate and inform security agencies on the protection of digital intellectual.

He disclosed that infringement on digital intellectual property is a great lost to the owner of that property stating that many software development companies in the country have been grounded as a result of software piracy.

He noted if it is so difficulty for big companies to survive the attack of software pirate, how then easy will it be for start-up companies and individuals to weather the storm software piracy.

Amos disclosed that once the source code of a software is stolen it therefore means that the company has been pushed out of business saying that an If “One luck I have is that I have groomed the Nigerian Capital Market for almost two decades and I have a clientele that is currently fighting for me.”

He said that he ready to fight the battle against software pirate because of the future of the industry in Nigeria and so that those who steal source code in order to kill others business will not succeed.

He further said that whenever a software developer suffer piracy challenge it puts the company in bad light before its customer stressing that in that case the solution is getting the source code back or rewriting the code.

Malfunctioning Websites Hamper MDAs’ E-governance Dividends to Citizens

Claims by governments across the country about their commitment to using IT driven platforms to enhance governance appear to be mere slogans. Investigations show that most MDAs’ websites that should keep the citizens informed about government policies and programmes are either nonexistent of malfunctioning. Staff reports.

In the first quarter of this year and before the exit of the former Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, a report she credited to the bi-annual United Nations e-Government Development Ranking index stated that Nigeria has moved 21 places in the ranking.

However, assessment of some government websites does not reflect the indices that gave e-governance in Nigeria that ranking.

According to the ranking, there was said to be standardisation of all MDA websites and deployment of ICT in all government parastatals while daily routines had become seamless.

Nigeria in the ranking pooled a total of 190 points to climb to 141st position in 2014, from 162nd in 2012, thereby moving to 21 places from the previous ranking in 2012.

How investigation  revealed that a lot of the MDAs websites far from what should be regarded as standard websites.

Our investigation, which was narrowed to key areas such News and Media menu, and the link of such websites to the social media as well as social media activities on some selected MDAs website reveals a sad state.

Our investigation particularly examined how often news and development are updated on such websites. It also examined the news update from national dailies posted on

the website.

A visit to the website of the Ministry of Communications Technology revealed that the last posting made in the News and Media menu of the website was in March 2015 while most of the photos posted on the photo gallery were photos of 2013 and 2014.

The last posting of daily newspaper report posted on the Daily News Report menu of the website was made in March 2015 while the last tweeting activities on the Ministry’s tweeter was June 24.

It was gathered that even in the use of the social media, the Ministry of Communications Technology was far behind global standard.

For instance, the last post on the Facebook of the Ministry was in April 2015 while only 144 people of the about 80 million Nigerians that visited the page which was created in 2012.

The Ministry has five departments under its supervision namely: Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Nigeria Technology and Development Agency, NITDA, NIPOST and Galaxy Backbone Plc but of all, the most active of them is the NCC.

It was discovered that NITDA has no news event menu that captures development and trends in an agency that is supposed to technology development in the country while the last news item posted on its latest news menu was in April 2015.

Investigation further revealed a dormant social media presence for NITDA as the last post on its Facebook page was in September 29, 2014 while the page, which was created in 2001 so far had only 3,566 likes.

Its tweeter account revealed that NITDA has only one tweet, five following, 25 followers and one favourite.

As for the Nigeria Postal Service, its website has no posting on its News and Media menu and there was no link to any Facebook and Tweeter accounts while the only post made was on its photo gallery, which was a 2013 photo award ceremony.

For NIGCOMSAT, the story was the same with no link to a Facebook account except for Tweeter account whose last tweet was in June 15, 2015 while the last time its News menu content update was in June 8, 2015.

Also a visit to the website of Galaxy Backbone Plc., a company that is a key driver of telecoms infrastructure in the country revealed that the last news update concerning its online activity was in May 2015, besides there is no news update of national dailies its the website.

A look at the Galaxy Backbone Face- Book page showed that the page, which was created in 2006 had only 384 likes while the last post on the page was in June 18, 2013.

However, it discovered that the Galaxy Backbone appears to be current with global trending events and news as indicated in its Tweeter account although the news item tweeted on June 29 2015 reported on June 18 on a telecoms news websites. The last tweet was tweeted on June 29, 2015 at the time of filing in this report.

But the account, which was created in 2010, has only 176 tweets, 45 following and 316 followers.

So far in the entire MDAs websites visited, only that of the NCC has a Norton security protection while none of them have the security key icon meaning that they are not secured and are vulnerable to the least experienced hackers.

Commenting on our investigation, software developer for the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Mr. Emmanuel Amos disclosed that it is a reflection of the infancy state of e-governance in the country.

He noted that an efficient government website must not only be functional but should start and end a process for the common citizen, which should indeed reflect standard e-governance.

According to Amos, most of what is hosted today as websites by the MDAs in the country are just screen paintings with no effect saying that the cheapest service such drivers licence application or immigration service cannot fly on those websites.

While expressing worry about the kind of websites qualified platform for e-governance he stated that “to a great extent our people contribute to these failures because they want to truncate standard best practice processes and give room for human circumventions for corruption.”

He noted that these websites are not up to standard because of lack of readiness and enforcement to do the right adding that “Why do they work in other countries. We are simply corrupt.”

Amos observed that Nigerians are a major problem of e-governance and that technologies have always been in government stressing that the people do not want the government to get to the level of deploying technology for everything due to corruption.

While revealing that government automation process lacks auditing, he said that there are evidences that every aspect of governance requires technology to be effective saying that even the “Our health system needs data. The power supply we all worry about need data to enable proper planning.”

Notwithstanding the poor standard of most government websites, Amos noted that there good efforts made in many areas of e-governance saying however that they are all work in silos which reduces our egovernance next to nothing.

He explained that “you can see the National ID thing, e-voting system deployment, the banking BVN, the XoXo try ‘ s Credit Bureau responsibility has gone into oblivion.”

According to him, that is one reason government cannot function well and thereby satisfy the citizens in the current dispensation.

Managing Director, Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria, IXPN, Mr. Muhammed Rudman however said that there areas that these MDAs have done well besides the current state of their websites stating that there are challenges in the country as far as e-governance is concern.

He explained that the challenges of e-governance was what gave rise to the Nigerian e-Governance Forum so that issues that security and how to protect children and youths online.

He added that there are still challenges as to why Nigeria cannot share telecoms infrastructure with neighbouring West African countries so that regional traffic will not be a problem to the citizens of the region.

Nigeria's Telecoms Economic Output Drops

IN WHAT seems to be a deviation from the norms, the contribution of the telecommunications sector to the total economic output of the country dropped by a margin in the opening quarter 2015.

• ·         Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM, continues to dominate mobile subscription with 98.34 percent of the total
• ·         The growth in subscribers was mainly driven by Globacom, which recorded an average rate of 1.45 percent
• 
  
•       MTN dominated the number of subscriptions, with 61,218,803 subscribers

In Naira terms, the telecommunications sector contributed N1, 344,489.25 million or 8.38 percent to the total economic output, which is a marginal decline from the 2014 average contribution of 8.46 percent.

According to latest report on the sector from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, made available to the ICT-BizAfrica, the opening quarter of 2015 recorded a real growth rate of 5.36 percent, a rise of 0.61 percent points from the 2014 average growth rate of 4.75 percent.

The report observed that it was the second time in the space of four years that the sector would be recording a negative performance noting that the only negative yearly growth rates were recorded in 2011, with the lowest rate reaching - 6.45 percent in the third quarter.

However, according to NBS, the following quarter saw the highest rate record of 8.67 percent, which has not been matched to date stating that the share of telecommunications in real GDP has fluctuated between a relatively narrow margin between 2010 and the first quarter of 2015, peaking at 9.32 percent in the first quarter of 2010, and reaching a low of 7.68 percent in the third quarter of 2012.

The NBS report further observed that the annual averages have shown steady marginal declines from 9.03 percent of real GDP in 2010 stating that it declined to 8.68 percent in 2011, with marginal declines of 0.04 percent points in 2012, 0.07 percent points in 2013 and 0.11 percent points in 2014.

The telecoms sector report for the first quarter from the NBS revealed Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM, continues to dominate mobile subscription with 98.34 percent of the total, followed by CDMA with 1.54 percent of the total, whist fixed wire and wireless make up 0.09 percent and 0.04 percent respectively.

According to NBS, a total of 143,057,324 subscribers were registered with GSM technology to the four networks of MTN, Etisalat, Globacom and Airtel as of April 2015 adding that MTN dominated the number of subscriptions, with 61,218,803 subscribers or 42.84 percent of the total.

The report said Globacom followed with 21.00 percent, whilst Airtel was third most dominant at 20.48 percent putting Etisalat in the fourth position with 15.69 percent stressing that since May of 2014, monthly growth in GSM subscribers has averaged 0.95 percent, with the greatest increase recorded in December of 2014 at 1.97 percent and the lowest in July of the same year at -0.43 percent.

However, NBS stated that the growth in subscribers was mainly driven by Globacom, which recorded an average rate of 1.45 percent over the period, followed by Etisalat with 1.37 percent and Airtel with 1.29 percent, whilst MTN recorded the lowest average monthly growth in subscribers at 0.44 percent.

Similarly, the greatest monthly growth rate of the four networks was recorded for Globacom in July of 2014, in which the number of subscribers increased by 1,637,543 or 6.37 percent while the lowest rate was recorded for Airtel with a figure of 436,260 or 1.72 percent fewer subscribers was recorded.

The internet subscription section of the report showed that only 60.75 percent of the active GSM lines had internet subscription with the majority of internet subscriptions being on the MTN network, with 39,520,285 or 45.48 percent of the total, followed by Globacom with 19,690,526 or 22.66 percent of the total.

Airtel ranked third with 17,272,665 subscribers or 19.88 percent of the total, whilst Etisalat had the lowest number, with 10,421,229 or 11.99 percent of the total.

However, the growth statistics in the internet sector revealed Globacom as the major driver with an average of 539,034 additional subscribers each month, a rate of 3.39 percent, although all the operators exhibited strong growth. Between April of 2014 and May of 2015, monthly growth in internet subscriptions averaged 2.36 percent.

Porting activities of the report stated that a total of 15, 519 active subscribers ported with different network in April of 2015, representing just 0.01 percent but of these Etisalat received the most, with 9,875 or 63.63 percent of the total, followed by Airtel with 2,993 or 18.90 percent and Globacom with 1,717 or 11.06 percent with MTN receiving the fewest subscribers at 994 or 6.41 percent.

On outgoing subscribers, the four network operators recorded a total of 15,357 active subscribers leaving their networks in April of 2015 while MTN recorded the most, with 8,161 or 53.14 percent of the total leaving the network for another.

Airtel followed, with 3,381 subscribers or 22.02 percent of the total transferring, whilst Globacom came third with 2,038 or 13.27 percent of the total. Etisalat had the fewest wishing to transfer, at 1,777 or 11.57 percent of the total.

According to NBS, over the period of May 2014 to April 2015, monthly growth in subscribers transferring away from their network averaged 2.96 percent saying that transfer was primarily driven by MTN, which recorded a monthly average of 8.71 percent for the same period while the only operator to record negative monthly growth over the period on average was Globacom, which had a rate of -1.75 percent.

For internet subscribers on the CDMA networks, two of them Multilinks and Visafone had a total of 150,799 internet subscriptions, which is just 6.75 percent of the total CDMA mobile subscribers.

The NBS report stated that Visafone holds the large mobile subscription majority of the internet subscriptions, with 150,252 or 99.65 percent of the total saying that the remaining 527 or 0.35 percent of internet subscribers are held by Multilinks.

However, monthly average growth in the number of internet subscribers remained low at 0.05 percent, driven by Visafone, which also had 0.05 percent average growth.

Multilinks on the other hand had high average monthly growth, of 15.69 percent, although absolute numbers remained low while Visafone experienced a month on month declines in internet subscriber numbers in four consecutive months in 2014, from July to September, reaching a trough of -2.39 percent that month, with 3,687 fewer subscribers that month. Growth picked up thereafter, with 2,063 or 1.35 percent more subscribers in April of 2015 from the preceding month.

Broadband Access: Daunting Challenges Undermining Penetration Drive

DAUNTING challenges enunciated in the Nigeria’s telecommunications operating environment are likely to stagnate the industry stakeholders’ efforts in the actualisation of the professed 2018 set target for 30 percent broadband penetration by government.

There is a professed jubilation that the nation is on the pathway of excellent performance as far as broadband penetration is concerned but investigation showed that so little has been achieved when compared with what obtained in the global economies, whose telecoms expert labelled Nigeria as the fastest growing telecoms market in Africa.

President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, Engr. Lanre Ajayi disclosed to the ICT-BizAfrica that content is still a major subject of discussion when the quest for more broadband penetration is in focus.

According to him, the quest for more broadband penetration is not commensurate with what the broadband will be used for saying so many government activities are not yet online, and where there are government activities online, it is not properly deplored.

He said that for broadband availability to be useful there much be sufficient online activities, particularly from the side of government, since most business activities in the country are linked with governance.

However, speaking at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), Broadband forum 2015 held in Abuja, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah expressed satisfaction that the present level of broadband penetration has impacted on the economy.

Juwah who was represented at the forum by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, Dr.OkechukwuItanyi cited education, health care provision, energy management, security, and information dissemination as areas in the economy wherein broadband services have had positive impact on the nation.

He however admitted that there is the lack of a robust fixed network infrastructure noting that there is the need to rapidly develop the infrastructure to provide universal broadband services required for a coordinated national approach.

Juwah stated that efforts have been made to address the challenge saying that one of such was the crafting of a National Broadband Plan covering the period 2013 to 2018.

The policy and regulatory strategies for accelerated broadband infrastructure development was thus articulated taking due cognizance of the unique conditions prevailing the country.”

The ATCON highlighted that the quest for broadband penetration seems to have left bulk of the nation’s citizen in the rural areas out of the broadband quest by the industry saying that presently most Nigerians in the rural areas do not have access to the internet.

He said that where that is present, the speed and stability of the connection is far below international standard. 

Secretary-General of CTO, Prof. Tim Unwin disclosed at the CTO that that is an area where government and the private sector need to focus on.

He said at the forum in his welcome address that government officials and policy makers should put all hands on the deck if the nations within the Commonwealth must harness resources to make broadband available to their citizenry especially in the unserved and under-served.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications Technology, Dr.TunjiOlaopa said that broadband is the catalyst for achieving a knowledge based economy saying that it potentially influences the entire economy as a general purpose platform used as a key input across various sectors ranging from health, commerce, education, banking” among others.

According to him, the economic impact of broadband penetration has been found to be quite impressive, noting that World Bank studies showed, quite conclusively, that in low and middle-income countries, every 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration accelerates economic growth by 1.38 percentage points indicating the need for the world over to do everything possible to ensuring the roll out of broadband infrastructure.

Still on the sideline of the CTO concerning the present state of broadband penetration in the country, Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher said that nothing has be done yet by government and their agents to address the challenges of broadband penetration.

He said that the Ministry of Communications Technology and the NCC must put in place policy and regulatory interventions to address challenges affecting broadband development in Nigeria.

According to him, in the telecommunication sector revenues and profits go to one operator while others struggle to survive noting that it is largely responsible for the broadband investment deficit and resultant low broadband penetration in Nigeria.

 Willsher stated that the presence of several struggling operators, many of whom are barely active, in an industry the size of Nigeria’s, is indicative of serious underlying issues with value distribution across the industry.

He said that the concentration of 70 percent industry EBITDA and probably all of the industry’s net profit in one operator is to the detriment of the rest of the industry.

 “Nigeria has underperformed in the area of broadband development in comparison to its peers. Nigeria’s mobile broadband penetration stands at 10.1 percent while the average for peer countries in Africa is 30 percent. Peer countries have an average Smartphone penetration of 26 percent while Nigeria’s Smartphone penetration averages 12 percent”, he said.

 He called for tailor-made regulations to enable unprofitable operators compete more favourably in order to attract a greater share of the currently lopsided value in the industry. 

According to him ‘it is perfectly normal to have asymmetric regulation in a market where one operator holds the sort of market share and significant market power – and pertinent to ask is whether Nigeria can learn from the success of other markets in restricting dominant players in the interests of the industry and the country at large’.

Aggrieved Willsher said that if struggling operators can extract a better share of industry value, they are more likely to increase their broadband investment which will drive broadband development in Nigeria.

 While identifying inadequate spectrum support broadband deployment as a key challenge in the provision of broadband services in Nigeria, he suggested that mobile broadband is clearly Nigeria’s best route towards achieving its broadband coverage objectives given the high cost associated with fixed broadband.

He stated that the most valuable coverage spectrum is under-utilised with the sub-optimal use of the 800MHz spectrum and the delays being experienced in the freeing up of the 700MHz spectrum saying that accounts for Nigeria’s inability to meet the June 17^th 2015 deadline set by the ITU to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting.

He revealed that the recent closure by the Central Bank of Nigeria of the Wholesale and Retail Dutch Auction windows has resulted to telecommunications operators sourcing foreign exchange to fund equipment purchases at significantly higher rates through the interbank foreign exchange market.