By Nnamdi Ojiego

The cost of providing ICT services in Nigeria is still very high. This was the view of an Information Technology marketer and Chief Executive Officer of Gamnet Solutions Limited, a marketing communications company, Mr Godwin A. Morgan.

According to him, the ICT sector is bedevilled with a lot of challenges resulting in consumers paying through their nose to get IT services.

His words; “ICT provisioning is still capital-intensive. Funding is perhaps a major setback for now. There is also a problem of multiple taxation levied on ICT providers by various levels of government”, stressing that these challenges were affecting the cost of service delivery in the telecom industry.

“Another issue is that of quality of service which operators most often blame on lack of basic infrastructures, principally power. we have challenges of cyber security and associated issues. These challenges are affecting the growth of ICT in different ways”, he explained saying “Once these are tackled squarely, the economy will be better off”.

Morgan expressed joy that the introduction of mobile marketing and on- line transaction has impacted positively on the country’s economy. Said he; “The impact of mobile marketing is very positive and impressive. Much more have been achieved through mobile marketing at the most cost effective manner.

“The stress of physical marketing has been taken off and much more are being achieved now. Cashless transactions have been enhanced thus reducing the risk of theft/robbery involved in cash transactions”he revealed saying though, it was not yet uhuru as a lot still needed to be done in order to explore fully, the potentials of ICT.

He however, called on government to continue to provide enabling environment, streamline taxes, and maintain the level of regulation currently in force. He also charged the stakeholders to invest in human capital development as well to improve on their quality of service. With these, the industry will continue to make giant strides”, he assured.