Daily Independent (Lagos)
Aaron Ukodie
5 January 2009
A meeting between telecommunication stakeholders and the new Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, is underway today in Abuja.
The meeting was called by the new minister, who is expected to use the occasion to hear from the industry operators on the challenges they face and the issues they expected her to address during her tenure.
Already there are indications that Akunyili was in for a testy time at the ministry when there are many unresolved issues plaguing the sector, intrigues and the peddling of half- truths regarding the industry operations.
There are many who are of the view that the Information and Communications Ministry is a different kettle of tea from the National Agency for Food and Drug (NAFDAC) where Akunyili was reported to have had impressive performance.
The ICT sector has several complex inter-working processes that must be carefully understood and objectively addressed for an optimal performance and they are not just about grand standing about low tariff and a marching order to operators to improve on quality of services.
Particularly for Nigeria, the argument which government and politicians have failed to accept is that government has a bigger role to play in assisting operators to improve on quality of service and bring down prices.
Some of the thorny issues that would face Akunyili in the ministry include the unresolved matter of the proposed merger of Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) with Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), sale of shares of NITEL to a competent core investor, role of NigComSat and rural telephony project.
Akunyili may also supervise the appointment of a new and competent Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, who would be able to continue the good works in the commission when the tenure of the incumbent ends in the first quarter of 2010.
President of the Association Of Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, said a number of issues would be tabled before the new minister for her attention.
The Task
These issues include the need for government to play a role in solving the quality of service challenge. According to him, no matter what the network operators do, if government fails to play its own role of solving the energy crisis that hinders smooth business operation in the country, attainment of maximum quality of service threshold would be a mirage.
In the past while the country's lawmakers and other critics pummelled the operators and regulator for poor quality of service, many of them kept a blind eye to the energy crisis factor and the role of government in solving the challenge.
He also said the minister would be told of the need to tackle the issues of security for telecommunication infrastructure across the country. Adebayo explained that a lot of infrastructure built since 2001 by the telecom operators are being damaged, some by government agents with impunity.
Government would also need to provide access roads for operators to enable them deploy their base stations and other infrastructure to remote areas and carry out maintenance quickly.
Telecommunication network operators are increasingly finding it difficult to secure right of way and are facing the problem of damage to their infrastructure, especially on the country's highway, which are now experiencing dualisation.
Abuja, he said, remains a problem, as many operators still find it difficult to gain right of way to deploy base stations for optimal performance of their networks.
According to him, the minister would be told of the need to work in collaboration with the National Assembly so as to declare telecommunication infrastructure national infrastructure and protect them from wilful damage.
Restructuring Process
The unfinished business of restructuring the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, which understandably led to the merging of the Information and Communications ministries into one ministry, would also be table before the minister.
The government in 2006 commenced a desire to restructure the information and communications industries when it set up a committee to examine the wherewithal of a converged industry.
It, however, impulsively went ahead to create the Ministry of Information and Communications ahead of the work of the committee only to realise that restructuring in a true sense was more than mere name changing and merging of ministerial portfolios.
It is understood that the committee completed its work and advised government on the amount of work required to effect a true change that would take the advantage of science and technology in the years ahead.
But work had since stalled on the project and the Yar' Adua's administration since its assumption of office in 2007 had operated as if the issue never mattered.
Proponents of a restructured industry argue that because of the radical changes that the Internet and, indeed, Internet Protocol (IP) has offered, it shall be contentious if not totally difficult to determine what is telecommunications, broadcasting, technologies and services and, especially to distinguish between where one stops and the other commences.
It is the view of experts that a clear view and sharp industry management shall resolve this and enhance smooth management, reduce cost of doing business and ultimately cost of service provision.
One of the proponents of a converged environment and management, Executive Chairman of Lagos Executive Cyberschuul and Former Vice-Chairman of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Titi Omo-Ettu, argues that a continuous application of legacy systems and management of new systems using the old methods would create confusion, duplicity, legal entanglements, increase cost of doing business and ultimately impose severe cost on consumers.
Omo-Ettu said: "Those who are opposed to change argue issues, which surround who gains what and who losses what. They talk about persons when the argument is about issues and they particularly make otherwise healthy debates to become unexciting. These are usually enough to confuse a government that has no view of its own."
He said government's mandate is to resolve these issues or quit if it lacks the interest or will to apply emerging technologies into governance and that is why government cannot be allowed to do nothing.
The minister must enumerate a clear roadmap to achieving improved quality of service in the telephone system and strategies for upgrading broadband access to Nigerians.
President of Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, said Akunyili's tenure should address the issue of cyber security and data retention, ensuring that there is improvement in broadband penetration, telecom franchising and the issue of virtual operations.
He also said the matter of SIM card registration should be brought to a logical conclusion.
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