‘Paucity of Terrestrial Fibre Bane of Africa’s Internet Penetration’

Experts at the just concluded Africa session of the International Telecoms Week conference, which held in Chicago, USA, have described terrestrial fibre constraints as the mother of all bottlenecks hindering increased internet penetration on the continent.

During his presentation on the theme: “Enabling Content on the African Continent”, Chief Executive Officer of Xalam Analytics, a research firm, Guy Zibi, analysed the African digital journey, highlighting dramatic changes that have altered the dynamics of the digital transformation of the continent.

According to him, the international capacity challenge has been solved, with most coastal countries exhibiting an oversupply of subsea cables serving the continent. However, he noted that the reach of such capacity was still limited due to limitations in the availability of terrestrial open-access fibre which remains extremely low in most markets especially Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and Tanzania among others. These limitations have translated into retail connectivity prices as a proportion of income being twice more expensive in Africa compared to Latin America and the Caribbean and trice when compared to Asia.

Zibi highlighted the dangers of deepening the continent’s digital divide with services limited to narrow addressable markets and Africa’s inability to fully partake in the fourth industrial revolution. He reiterated the need for more aggressive deployment of terrestrial infrastructure, especially in metropolitan and local networks to reach the end users and enhance affordability. A panel that included high-level representation from Orange, MTN GlobalConnect, MainOne and Kwese, challenged African policy makers to proffer incen- tives to encourage the deployment of broadband infrastructure of scale to support the rollout of much needed infrastructure to rural areas.

The Africa Panel session at ITW was sponsored by MainOne for the 7th year in a row and continues to provide a platform for players to share perspectives on the opportunities and challenges across the region with a global audience. The discussions focused on infrastructure challenges as well as regulatory and economic constraints that impede increased internet access and proliferation of broadband across the continent.

The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu has stated that the collaboration between Nigeria and India, through the platform of the Indo-Africa ICT Expo, would enhance digital transformation that would boost the Nigerian economy.

The Minister who spoke during the fourth series of the two-day Indo-Africa ICT Expo 2018, which held in Lagos this week, said the platform is an opportunity for Nigeria to leverage on the Indian technology to boost economic development in Nigeria. Shittu therefore called on the private sector, particularly those whose businesses are driven by Information and Communications Technology (ICT), to take full opportunity

of the Indo-Africa ICT Expo. According to him, “It is not enough for Nigerian businesses to be mere marketers of ICT products and services. They must rather collaborate with the right group to establish ICT platforms and factories that will promote skills training and employment opportunities in the country. Foreign ICT companies that want to do business in Nigeria must be prepared to establish ICT factories in Nigeria.”

The High Commissioner of India in Nigeria, B.N Reddy, said the focus of the Indian government is to collaborate with the Nigerian government to scale up ICT skills in Nigeria. This, he said, would require

networking at various levels of government, industries and the academia.

“The experiences that we have developed over the years in India, we will bring to bear in the Nigerian market. ICT is the next frontier for economic growth and development and we are bringing that development to Nigeria. We are currently working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian government and stakeholders to boost technology development in Nigeria. Nigeria must however have the appropriate technology to drive development and that is the kind of technology we are bringing to Nigeria.”

Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications, Government of India, Mr. Amit Yadav, restated the commitment of Indian government to promote ICT development in Nigeria. “Indian government is committed to develop the Nigerian ICT market. India is vast in technology development with deep broadband penetration across India. Our National Broadband Policy is focused on inclusive broadband growth for the country. About 6.5 per cent of out GDP contribution is coming from the Indian ICT sector and we can replicate all these in Nigeria,” Yadav said.

The Indian Minister of Communications, Shri Manoj Sinha, who spoke through live

broadcast, said the collaboration between India and Nigeria remained key to the Indian government in the area of ICT development. He said the choice of Lagos for the event was in recognition of the vast potential that exists in Nigeria, and also of its importance as a gateway to the West Africa and other parts of Africa.

Shittu, who invited more than 100 government and industry stakeholders from within Nigeria to attend the forum, said the Nigerian Government, in collaboration with the India Government, would forge closer relationship in order to accelerate ICT growth in the country as well as boost the two countries’ economies.