ICT experts list imperatives of local content, others
By Adeyemi Adepetun
WITH over 70 million subscribers' base and an investment in excess of N3 trillion in the last eight years of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector development in Nigeria, experts have said that to further accelerate this growth, there was need to improve on local content development in the sector.
Specifically, the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe, had recently said that the Nigerian telecoms sector has gone from a teledensity of 0.4 in 2000 to about 50 per cent in October 2009, with digital mobile network spread covering the 36 states of the federation, with a coverage of over 90 per cent of Nigeria's population, in which the Nigerian telecoms sector growth is driven by the power of digital mobile telephony.
But to the President of Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Mr. Lanre Ajayi, in a chat with The Guardian recently, with an enabling environment, government policies has to encourage local hosting of our web content and has to empower Nigerians the capacity to develop the web applications required in creating the local content.
Ajayi said the major challenge-facing local content today in the country is the ineffectiveness of the country's Internet Exchange Point (IXP), stressing that because the exchange is ineffective, it becomes cheaper to host our content abroad. "The exchange is ineffective because most of out Internet traffic are carried by satellite and they do not pass through the exchange point. We need to migrate our internet traffic to terrestrial networks. These will demand that we embark on massive intra-country fibre roll out, which will make it easy for us to aggregate our local traffic to the exchange point that will eventually encourage local web hosting."
He said that despite the huge investments in ICT in the country, to measure in local content development as compared to other countries of comparable status, like Egypt and South Africa, we are not doing well, "we mostly download contents from abroad and hardly upload anything. Most e-Services that promote local content, like eCommerce, e-Government are not prominent here in Nigeria and that is what the Nigeria Internet Group is trying to promote through the Internet for Jobs (I4J) Initiative."
He opined that there would be a need for massive investments in national fibre roll out but that this should be left for the private sector to accomplish, while the human capacity development particularly in the area of web application development should be a major responsibility of government.
Ajayi added that the regulator should further encourage national fibre rollout, to discourage the use of satellite, which is not connected to the Nigeria Internet Exchange point from being a dominant source of access to the Internet in Nigeria.
In his own view, the Managing Director (MD) of Jidaw Systems, Mr. Jide Awe, said local content has to do with the amount of local input in the production and delivery of ICT goods and services.
Awe said in the hardware area, improving the local content would entail the use of components and materials from local sources, which reduces local hardware acquisition costs, stimulates economic activity and job creation. With affordable computing facilities, more people, not just businesses, have access to reasonably priced computers for education, recreation, business and other creative activities.
To him, significant local content in ICT can transform the economy into one that is more globally competitive because foreign inputs and dependence are reduced and the country is moving from consumer to producer. It facilitates overall prosperity - job and wealth creation and sustainable economic growth.
"Contents created locally tends to be more relevant to local interests and needs than products produced for global markets. It is important for people to have ways of meeting their own needs locally. Incorporating local content into ICT can facilitate this. Local content production is also an imperative for digital inclusion and widespread participation in the digital economy. If most of the available content delivered by technology is foreign, people are disconnected and not encouraged to use modern technology to generate ideas, acquire knowledge and spread knowledge", he added.
The Jidaw Systems MD explained further that there is need for practical policies and implementation that encourage the development of local content in ICT in Nigeria. He said the role of the regulators is to create an enabling environment to both stimulate significant investment in local entrepreneurship and content development, adding that the production of local products, services and content must be encouraged.
"Foreign providers are using their power and resources to dominate locally. We can see this in all aspects of life- software, banking, news, education, television and so on. Even the local structures are continually being used to spread foreign products, services and content locally. Because foreign interest are strong and well developed, deliberate policies must be developed to support existing as well as start up IT entrepreneurs who provide ICT services and ICT enabled services using significant local inputs, not just trading or sales", he stressed.
