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The Imperative for Broadband Awareness, Adoption Among Nigerians(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Emma Okonji writes on the need for government to expedite action in creating awareness on broadband among Nigerians owing to its importance in national development Over the years, developed countries have used broadband to advance their economies. With broadband, people can do much more online like e-commerce, reaching out to people, and building their social and business networks across borders from the comfort of their offices and homes, as well as developing local apps that could address various challenges peculiar to Nigerians. These and many other opportunities abound with broadband access and the Nigerian government has seen the need for broadband access in Nigeria, hence its recent campaign on broadband penetration and awareness among Nigerians. Determined to create ubiquitous broadband access for Nigerians, the federal government, through the Ministry of Communications Technology, recently launched the broadband campaign in Lagos, with a view to taking the campaign to other parts of the country. Speaking at the Lagos launch, the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, said there was need to take broadband to every nook and cranny of Nigeria, and create awareness on the benefits of broadband among Nigerians. Creating broadband awareness The broadband campaign, according to the minister, was to complement the country's five-year National Broadband Plan from 2013-2018 that was approved last year by the federal government, which seeks to make broadband available to all Nigerians by 2018. Following the successful launch of broadband awareness campaign in Lagos, the federal government went ahead to inaugurate a Media Advisory Committee that will further drive the broadband campaign. The 15 member committee, which is made up of media professionals, is expected to assist the communications partners to create immense publicity for the broadband awareness campaign. The federal government, through the Ministry of Communications Technology and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has taken the broadband campaign awareness to core international investors at different telecoms fora, organised by the International Telecoms Union (ITU) in Dubai, UAE and Bangkok in Thailand. The awareness drive, which was focused on wooing international investors to come to Nigeria and invest in the country's broadband plan, is beginning to yield results, according to the minister. Having succeeded in introducing the nation's broadband plan and its benefits to core investors, the federal government decided to have a soft launch on broadband awareness for Nigerians, and went ahead to inaugurate the Media Advisory Committee that will further take the campaign to Nigerians in the urban and rural communities, through massive publicity that will highlight the benefits of broadband to Nigerians. The committee is also expected to educate the public on what broadband is all about and how Nigerians could easily have access to broadband in various locations where broadband exists. Technical Consultant to the Minister of Communications Technology, Mr. Jinmi Oluanuiga-Sonuga explained that the committee would among other things, create awareness for the Nigerian National Broadband Plan, foster demand for increased adoption of broadband, encourage local and state governments in driving the adoption of broadband, educate Nigerians on the need to have broadband connectivity, and also educate them on where and how to get broadband. Broadband and national development Growth and development of several nations have been attributed to the level of technology development in such countries. Statistics have shown that countries that embraced and implement technology solutions, are far ahead in technology advancement than countries that are still fiddling with technology adoption. For instance, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and USA are ranked globally as the first tier technology savvy countries, while countries like Germany, France, UK, Switzerland and Singapore are rated as second tier globally. The third tier technology savvy countries, according to the rating, are Austria, Sweden, Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Countries grouped under tier four and tier five are Spain, UAE, Finland, Norway and Denmark. These countries are rated as the first twenty economies of the world in the adoption and use of technology in developing their economies. Nigeria is ranked along side with Congo, Mali, Ethiopia, and Niger, as the bottom twenty global economies that are beginning to adopt and use technology for national development. The rating has to do with the use of computers, Internet, popularity of favorite websites, online business, and adoption of technology cars, airplanes, cameras, modern conveniences, digital music recording, robots, public transportation such as Bus/Train/Subway, digital television, radio, architecture building standards, digital research, the use of software, among others. The low status of Nigeria in terms of global technology ranking, has raised concerns in government, hence the drive by government to create broadband awareness and adoption across Nigeria. Speaking on broadband and national development, President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Lanre Ajayi, told THISDAY that government needs to do more in empowering Nigerians and making broadband available to all Nigerians. According to him, "What government is doing in the area of broadband awareness campaign is commendable, because broadband awareness will drive national development." He however called on government to also consider subsidising computer ownership among students of tertiary institutions, insisting that if it is achieved, it then means that every household in Nigeria will have laptop computer that has internet connectivity. This is added, would boost development among Nigerians. Still on broadband and national development, Chief Executive Officer of MainOne Cable Company, Ms Funke Opeke called on government to build a national backbone infrastructure that will transmit broadband capacities from the shores of the country, to the hinterlands, for easy access by Nigerians. According to her, "Nigeria has enough broadband capacities from MainOne, Glo 1, and the MTN West African Cable System, but the challenge is that the capacities are lying fallow and untapped at the shores of the country. "What the country therefore needs, is a critical national backbone infrastructure that must be built by government to transmit broadband capacities from the shores of the country to the hinterlands, where the demand is." Government has however been commended for the planned licensing of seven Infrastructure Companies (Infracos) that will provide broadband capacities and access at the six geo-political regions of the country, and Lagos as the commercial hub of Nigeria. Broadband and local content development Local content development is key to individual empowerment and national development. But without broadband, no nation can develop its local content for national development. Today in Nigeria, the awareness of local content development has been created among Nigerian youths. Most software developers today are coming up with local software solutions that address peculiar challenges in the Nigerian environment in the areas of education, health, transportation, among others. The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson has come up with several initiatives to boost software development in the country, through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative. Corporate organisations like MTN, Etisalat, Microsoft, and Google, have keyed into the initiative, to train several Nigerians in local software development. Microsoft, last week, was at the Tinappa Resort Centre in Calabar, Cross River State, to brainstorm with some software developers and government officials, on how best to develop software that will address local challenges in the areas of education and agriculture. All these, however, boils down to availability of broadband, the reason why government is intensifying its campaign on broadband awareness and penetration. NCC's position on broadband Convinced that the Open Access model adopted and being implemented by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to drive broadband penetration, the Commission said Nigerians would soon begin to enjoy the benefits of broadband. Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah who gave the assurance in Lagos recently, said government was doing everything possible to create access to broadband and at the same time create broadband awareness among Nigerians. Acknowledging the role of broadband to national development, Juwah said the federal government had taken several steps, including the articulation of a national broadband plan, as well as providing an enabling environment for the development of infrastructure that will support the growth and access to broadband services at affordable cost to consumers. Juwah explained that having excelled in voice telephone revolution in the last 13 years, when total connected lines jumped from 400,000 in 2001 to a phenomenal 127 million at the end of January 2014, that the next revolution that is being championed by NCC, is the broadband revolution. In technical parlance, broadband is the super highway in the internet space, through which bandwidth capacities are transmitted at high speed, for easy access to the internet. Now that government is at the forefront of broadband penetration and awareness creation, it would be good if Nigerians see the vision of government and help government is actualising such vision, by embracing the adoption of broadband for different uses in areas of health, education, transportation, agriculture, among others. Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |