NCCT: ‘Mimiko bridging ICT divide in Ondo’ Written by Abiodun Awolaja Tuesday, 03 September 2013 00:00 Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, with Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko at the event.The week-long second national conference of the National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT) hosted by the Ondo State government between 18th and 24th August and held at Jojein Hotel, Akure, highlighted a number of issues that impinge on the present and future of telecommunications in the country. Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, speaking on the rationale for holding the meeting in the state, said the government’s bias for ICT- driven programmes informed the decision. Ondo, she said, was one of the most progressive states in the field of leveraging ICTs for socio-economic benefit of its citizens and indigenes, citing the Abiye programme, a world recognised initiative to significantly reduce maternal and child mortality with the simple technology of a mobile phone and the Kaadi Igbe Ayo, a bio-metric card that will aid the targeted delivery of social and other services to citizens. The event, attended by state commissioners of ICT from across the country, the leadership of telecoms providers in the country, members of the academia and the media, provided opportunities to address the challenges in the sector and fashion a blueprint for greater national relevance and productivity. As observed by the telecoms providers at the conference, the industry is currently plagued by vandalism, over-taxation informed by sundry illegal policies by state government, leading to endless litigations; harassment by state revenue boards, in active collaboration with the security agencies. Indeed, as observed by the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, 70 per cent of the challenges facing operators in the country’s telecommunications sector had to do with unreliable public electricity, according to the president of ATCON, Mr Titi Omo-Ettu. This view was echoed by Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who observed that “while talking about standards and compliance, one cannot but encourage the ministry along with her regulatory sister agencies like NCC and NBC to pay more attention to issues of consumer dissatisfaction.’’ In her keynote address at the conference, Johnson said the ICT industry is the fastest growing sector in the Nigerian economy, contributing 8.53 per cent to GDP, with 4,644 public access points to the internet all over the country. The NCCT, she said, was established to facilitate inter-governmental consultations on ICT matters in order to avoid unnecessary disparities in ICT policies in the country. As she pointed out, four things define government’s mandate for the industry: to connect Nigeria with a ubiquitous physical fibre, satellite and microwave telecommunications network that reaches the nooks and crannies of this country; to connect Nigerians through the wide ownership of cost effective devices or access to devices where people can still not afford them; to aggressively drive the participation of Nigerians in lCT businesses and improve local and domestic value add in the sector and, finally, to leverage lCT in government to improve effectiveness, transparency, governance and reduce the cost of governance. “Under the Connect Nigeria Programme, a national broadband strategy and roadmap has been developed by a Presidential Committee to facilitate the achievement of fivefold increase in broadband penetration by 2017. The committee comprised network operators, lCT infrastructure providers and of course representations from the states, an inclusiveness that has more or less guaranteed that the plan will be implemented successfully. This plan was approved and endorsed by President Goodluck Jonathan in May, adding that a Broadband Council chaired by herself has already being inaugurated to oversee the expeditious implementation of this plan. Under its Connecting Nigerians programme, she asserted, the Federal Government is promoting the student computer ownership scheme for students in tertiary institutions, continuing with various initiatives to connect schools to the internet, the Nigeria research and education Network connecting universities to the internet and each other via fibre optic, the deployment of additional public access venues, the financial and digital inclusion programme that leverages the extensive assets of NlPOST and collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture to provide connectivity in the rural areas to facilitate the rollout of the extremely successful ewallet programme and extend that programme beyond fertiliser subsidy to market and other information farmers need to improve productivity and for rural dwellers that will be included in the Save One Million Lives (of mothers and children) programme of the Ministry of Health. Mimiko, in his address, pointed out that the conference was being held against the backdrop of breath-taking speed and changes in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) world; in particular, the unprecedented convergence of computer networks and other communication systems which has revolutionised life on the planet. From the common desktop computers to the ubiquitous smartphones, tablets and most recently ‘Phablets’ it is crystal clear, he opined that ICT has become very much the core of modern civilisation. However, against the progressive mantra of deploying ICT for social mobilisation and eradication of poverty, the governor observed that stakeholders in the industry must ensure that the revolution in the sector was targeted at facilitating good governance and lifting the rural poor out of the morass of despondency and despair, warning that allowing the gains of the sector to further sharpen the divide between the urban and rural areas in the country would spell doom for the country. In his view, leveraging on the immense possibilities inherent in the unfolding ICT revolution for the improvement of living standards and development is a key challenge confronting developing economies such as Nigeria. Thus, the NCCT, should continue to brainstorm and help articulate a realistic and sustainable agenda for Nigeria’s socio-economic growth through the development of ICT. In the same vein, the governor solicited strategic partnership between the government and the private sector in order to ensure that Nigeria transits from being a consumer nation to a highly productive one as far as ICT software and tools are concerned. Mimiko observed that, for Ondo in particular, through effective utilisation of ICT tools, the nation could bridge, not only the digital divide between the government and the governed, but also keep pace with modern trends in public service delivery. “A major push in this regard is the introduction of the Ondo State Residency Card project (otherwise known as Kaadi Igbe Ayo) which was envisioned as a veritable platform for multi-purpose welfare services management for all citizens and residents in the state. “Kaadi Igbe Ayo is being deployed towards strategic planning and development in the state; efficient record keeping and management of human resources in the public and social sectors. In particular, the platform is a veritable tool in the scaling up of qualitative and quantitative delivery in our people-oriented sub sector such as health, education, transportation and agriculture. Interestingly too, the project is facilitating the systematic development of database for efficient security and surveillance purposes,” he said. He commended the Communications Technology Minister for enunciating a Broadband Policy for the nation, but expressed the hope that the document would be reviewed from time to time to keep pace with breathtaking developments in the field and broaden and deepen stakeholders’ buy-in and ensure greater flexibility in fundamental infrastructural issues like fibre versus wireless preference. He argued however that the ministry should not seek to enforce direct implementation of ICT policies, but rather concentrate on policy enunciation, standards setting and ensuring stakeholder compliance. “Our job is not finished until we have taken all our people to the cyber space where information and knowledge truly reside. We must indeed take all Nigerians to the cyberspace. I have no doubt in my mind that the Federal Government will continue to be a worthy partner in this regard. This government is fully committed towards putting Ondo State in the forefront of the evolving ICT revolution. We shall continue to explore ways and means of making the governmental machinery and the entire people of Ondo State more ICT-competent and oriented,’’ he stated. Read 203 times
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 04:53:16 +0000
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