New trends

The federal government through the Ministry of Communications Technology, and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), had in the past, taken broadband campaign beyond the shores of the country.

The two government agencies had gone the extra mile in convincing both local and international investors to invest in the country’s broadband initiative. These efforts are beginning to yield results as foreign and local investors are now showing interests to invest in Nigeria’s broadband initiative.

New investment interests were further spurred by the re-basing of the Nigerian economy, where the telecommunications sector was promoted and ranked alongside the Oil and Gas, and Power Sectors, after it contributed 9.58 per cent to the country’s re-based Gross Domestic Product (GDP), valued at $50 billion.

The increased confidence in the sector is also a result of better articulated objectives and policies by the sector regulators, improved participation by sector players, and a more invigorated approach to broadband penetration in Nigeria. Positive Effects The impact of the improved participation in the deployment of broadband infrastructure in West Africa has been significant. Over the years, there has been a digital explosion in West Africa with increased adoption of internet and ICT based solutions. Currently, Nigeria records the highest numbers of users online at 67 million (37.59 per cent penetration) when compared to other African countries, according to Internet Live Stats 2014.

The development, no doubt, has spurred the growth of e-commerce businesses, attracting investors like Wakanow.com, Jumia.com, Konga. com (modelled after Amazon), with an increase in Nigerian content online with companies likePassNowNow.com, IrokoTV, Spinlet.com and NollywoodLove.com, among others. With the volume of transactions recorded on these platforms, and their significant turnover, it is believed that the Information and ICT sector will in the nearest future, rival the productivity of the oil, and gas and power sectors in the country. The sector seems to be on the right track as indicated by a critical analysis of ongoing trends. This is evident in the National ICT Policy, National Broadband Strategy and Local Content Guidelines, currently being implemented by the federal government to encourage the participation of local players in the sector, as manifested via the Bitflux auction, the recent award of Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) licence by the NCC set up to encourage willing operators to reach un-served and under-served areas with broadband access. Investments Despite these leading indicators, improved accessibility and affordability of internet services, as well as service quality are critical success factors that will drive the industry in 2015.

The ongoing investments in the area of broadband infrastructure by MainOne and IHS, following the broadband infrastructure licence they won through the InfraCos bid process, is expected to improve business performance at reduced costs and also help businesses to leverage on existing world-class infrastructure, under the InfraCo arrangement.

Aside that, MainOne, like other data operating companies, has invested in a Tier III Data Centre with over 600 rack capacity. The centre, known as MDX-i, is designed to improve accessibility and affordability of data services and also help the ICT sector leapfrog hitherto infrastructure challenges towards becoming one of the highest contributors to the nation’s GDP in 2015, considering that there would be a huge need for technological deployments to support the comprehensive adoption of the cashless economy and the growing digital start-up ecosystem.

The relevance of such critical infrastructure was highlighted by the Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, when she articulated the Ministry’s primary focus for the ICT sector in 2015. According to Johnson, “We have four priorities for the ICT sector.

The first priority we have is building a broadband infrastructure across the country, and that will continue to be our priority until we get to the saturation that we want. The second priority is about local content and it is getting more Nigerians to participate in the fast growing sector.

The third is getting more Nigerians connected and doing more on the internet whether via commerce, education and health. The fourth focus is getting ICT governance to improve significantly”.

Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Funke Opeke, said “The recent launch of MDX-i Lekki Data Centre, an 18 month project costing N7 billion, is a trailblazer and a mark of heavy investment. Apart from being the premier Tier III certified Data Centre in West Africa, it is the most connected Data Centre facility in the region, leveraging fibre connectivity from the major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telecom Operators (Telcos) in the region. The MDX-i Data Centre has ambitiously resolved to address the growing demand for colocation, cloud and disaster recovery services in West Africa and boasts of a 600 rack capacity.”

“The impact of such a facility in Nigeria is the ease of adoption of ICT solutions while simultaneously addressing critical factors such as cost and quality service. As an example, for companies looking to start a new business with a 24*7*365 online sales channel, outsourcing the data centre operations to a service provider like MDX-i ensures optimum availability without having to build a computer room or a network,” she added. Advantages Speaking on gains of investing in critical infrastructure, Opeke said it would reduce time to market and reduce related capital expenditure. In addition, companies can scale up infrastructure rapidly and securely with capacity growth on demand, allowing them to focus on their core business strategy.

Though the achievements of the Nigerian ICT sector in the past few years has surprised the rest of the world, stakeholders believe there is a lot more work to be done especially in the areas of making the political, social and business environment conducive for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who want to participate in the digital economy.

However, all these have to do with investments in critical ICT infrastructure, which include broadband infrastructure, to enable SMEs as well as big organisations, benefit from the current and predicted growth in the ICT sector.