By Emmanuel Elebeke & Nnamdi Ojiego
The 2011 Technology Times conference ended last week in colourful note, will stakeholders charting a way forward for the nation’s Information and Communications Technology sector.

The event, which attracted who is who in the ICT industry had captains of industries and experts in the sector present to cross fertilize ideas on how to move the sector forward. Leading the pack of speakers gathered at the conference was the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, with theme Entitled, “creating new channels of opportunities in the communications industry.”

Dr. Juwa lamented the administrative bottleneck that  characterized the passage of 2010 Budget of NCC and the controversy that also characterized the SIM cards registration proposal as part of his administration’s five point agenda for the year,and  affirmed the resolve of the commission to pursue the agenda with vigor and commitment.

As part of its strategy to fast-track growth in the nation’s telecommunication sector, Juwas said that  NCC has set a five point agenda for year 2011, which he said would enable the commission consolidate on the previous achievements.

He listed the five point agenda as:  Broadband development and national connectivity, consolidation of mobile wireless services, vigorous compliance monitoring and enforcement of regulations and directives, true competition apropos the benefits of the consumers and enhanced international relations.

Having passed through the initial hurdles, the NCC boss said the Commission has set all the machinery in motion to actualize the set goals, just as he explained the recent partnership agreement entered by NCC with seven firms to execute the SIM cards registration project in the country.

These he said would be achieved without compromising the health and welfare of the industry and with the overall interest of the consumers in mind. He listed the companies as: SW Global (South East), PNN (North Central), JKK (South West), and Chams (Lagos). Others are: DataGroupIT (North East), Eagle/CBC (North West) and E-Kenneth/SageMetrics (South South).

“So many issues occupied my attention when I came into the Commission. First administration issue was the 2010 Budget that wasn’t passed on time by the National Assembly, and second, was the SIM Card registration that became very controversial as it was misunderstood.

The first hurdle was scaled late in the year when the Budget was passed and solving the first huddle also partly resolved the SIM card issue.

I am happy to announce at this forum that only yesterday, the Commission entered into agreement with seven organizations that will execute the project in different parts of the country.”

According to him, the activities of the contracting partners will be coordinated by KPMG, an international professional services firm with a member firm in Nigeria, adding that the firm will provide end-to-end project management coordination of the entire project., with six months contract period .

“It is our considered opinion that KPMG will rely on its global experience to ensure conformity with our agreement with the service providers,” he declared.

On the issue of quality of service (QoS) by the operators, Engr. Juwa said the commission had taken various measures to ensure high quality service delivery to Nigerian people in the days ahead.

On broadband connectivity, he said his administration will continue to ensure that it continues to build capacity in the communications industry, that can impact on both city and rural dwellers.

“In this direction we shall pay very serious attention to the development of broadband for both fixed and wireless services. We shall work and collaborate with stakeholders to set up broadband projects across the country. Apart from voice connection that is getting matured, a robust broadband will reduce the cost of bandwidth and make it easy for people to access data services with less stress,” stated.

Quoting a 2010 report, titled The Future Built on Broadband by members of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, he expressed firm believe  that with the strategic and innovative use of broadband ICTs, the international development community can surpass its present achievement.

This according to him will make it possible for the achievement of  the interlinked MDG agenda by 2015 to address the existing and emerging global challenges. He however, decried the less than one per cent fixed broadband penetration in Africa, saying that this illustrates the challenges that persist in increasing access to high-speed, high-capacity internet access in the region.

He also assured on consolidation of mobile wiresless services by the commission, noting that they are mindful that so much still remains to be done.

The NCC boss further explained the determination of the administration to pursue vigorous enforcement of its mandate to ensure that telecom consumers are better served.

To him, only true competition can lead to a proper balance in the market place and provide affordable services for Nigerian telecommunications consumers, and reinstated the determination of NCC at ensuring constant and adequate regulation to ensure that no monopoly threatens the market.

We will invest in youth entrepreneurs— ATCON

The roadmap for Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, in this year was to create awareness and invest and empower young Nigerians who have the intellectual resources but do not have the capital and requisite experience to be on their own.

The stand of ATCON was made known by its National President, Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu while delivering his keynote on the “Interplay in Telecom Market”. He said some of the problems in the telecom sector included lack of skills, and that consumers are not properly educated.

“What we want to in ATCON is to create awareness through various methods. We want to synergy with organisations, including the regulator who can join us to create awareness because, we have a framework where people can contribute their performance.

“We will directly invest in youth entrepreneurs who have intellectual resources but have not worked under any business before. We will train and empower them and make sure that when they start their business, it will not crash. We will collaborate with the government, stimulate fund for upcoming companies.”

Om-Ettu said what they were doing was to make people have interest and concern in investment that would create jobs, build capacity, provide options, ensure quality of service and lower price. He said when there is more competition, quality of service would improve and price reduced.

Our focus is on capacity building— NCS

Nigeria Computer Society, NCS, has said that its main focus in 2011 was to build capacity for the ICT sector in particular and the nation as a whole.

The 1st Vice President of the Society, Dr David Adewunmi, who represented the President said any country that does not recognise the role professionals play in the development and growth of the economy finds it difficult to survive. He said that this was evident during the just concluded voter registration exercise where some of the professionals used were not known to NCS.

“We have to build capacity because in IT, it’s either that you know it or you did not know. We have a programme for the youths and we do encourage youth programmes. We run seminars, training and workshops to grow and empower youths. During our national and regional conferences, we normally have sections devoted to enlightening people on capacity building.”

Mr Adewunmi bemoaned the trend of using non IT professionals as head of IT department in some organisations including public service, and called on the government to stimulate capacity building in the country. He also revealed that the Society has concluded plans to register all training institutes across the country to be able to control them.

Telecoms customers will become king in 2011  — Accenture Boss
For the Managing Director of  Accenture Nigeria, Mr Niyi Yusuf, the renewed push for Quality of Service, QoS, and regulatory scrutiny through compliance and policy monitoring, as well as the healthy competition among the operators, telecoms customers would be truly king in 2011 and beyond.

He said the current industry structure as well as the market maturity level is the one that fosters intense and huge demand-driven competition and growth. “The industry will experience stiffer competition driven by price war and quest for QoS and value added services. Increasing customer sophistication with huge active population size will shape the Nigeria’s telecoms market and make customers truly king in 2011 and beyond”

Mr Yusuf who spoke on the “Outlook of Nigeria Telecoms Industry: Trends & Opportunities”, however, stated that despite the enormous challenges of doing business in Nigeria, the telecoms industry has evolved enviably. According to him, the recent socio-political and economic updates still suggested an overall attractiveness of Nigeria as a strong investment destination.

“The soundness of Nigeria’s socio-political and economic environment is being challenged. despite this, its overall attractiveness as an investment destination remains strong and the telecoms landscape has evolved enviably over the years.”