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Ensuring Universal Access in Nigeria(This Day (Nigeria) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The issue of universal access, which is basically, the deployment of different policies and technologies aimed at making information communication technology, ICT, readily available to all persons, especially the rural communities, is now becoming a top agenda of late. The Nigerian Communications Commission NCC at a recent national stakeholders consultative forum on strategies for achieving universal access in the country stated that the extension of telecommunication services to rural areas requires focus and urgent attention. Engr Ernest Ndukwe, the executive vice chairman of the NCC in a presentation at the forum disclosed that the NCC has been designing and promoting mechanisms for defining policy options and programmes to achieve universal access. He stated that the commission was working in line with the Federal Government's policy of deploying telecommunications to every nook and cranny of the nation. According to him the goal of the government is to provide necessary infrastructures that will enable all Nigerians have access to modern information technologies and services. He disclosed that a rural demand study conducted by NCC showed that there was an enormous demand for telecommunications services in rural parts of the nation. He stated that the study showed that there was a huge access and market gap as a result of minimal affordability in most the rural areas. Engr Ndukwe, at the presentation identified several strategies that will ensure universal access in Nigeria. He stated that for universal access to be a reality it was necessary to establish funding mechanisms and enact policies and formulate strategies that will address the digital divide existing between the rural and the urban areas .He disclosed that a presidential taskforce was currently working at harmonizing issues in telecommunications with the goal of attaining universal access. He also called for service providers to be empowered and offered incentives that will attract them to the rural areas while facilitation of long distance transmission infrastructure and the engagement and participation of rural communities in the rural areas was a strategy that cannot be ignored in the quest for universal access in the nation. The issue of funding is an all important, all pervasive requirement that must be embraced if the quest for universal access is to be a reality. The federal government realizes this hence the establishment of the Universal Service Provision Fund, USPF. The fund was primarily set up to promote the widespread availability of network services throughout Nigeria by encouraging the installation of network facilities and services to institutions in unserved and underserved areas or for underserved groups within the communities. USPF is financed from contributions from the annual NCC license levies, monies from the National Assembly, gifts and loans, among others. The CEO and secretary of the fund, Mrs Emokpare stated that the USPF fund has a vision and a mission to provide ICT access for all. She stated that the fund will not own or manage ICT infrastructure, but will assist in the development of infrastructure and projects that will ensure access for all in unserved and underserved areas in all the geopolitical zones in the nation. Emakpore stated that the USPF will provide two types of funding that includes the provision of subsidies and grants to operators to enable them deploy network access to rural areas. A number of universal access programmes geared towards ensuring universal access to the nation include the accelerated expansion of backbone infrastructure nationwide. The Peruvian example can be adopted by Nigeria in the quest for universal access. Peru, a South American country has a population of 27 million, with 32 per cent living in rural areas and 68 per cent in urban areas. The Peruvian government in order to drive ICT access to the rural areas formulated a universal service policy that deployed massive subsidies as a tool to ensure universal access in Peru. The subsidy policy was effectively used as a tool to extend telecommunications access and coverage in Peru. According to Jesus Guillen, the manager of Investment Fund of Telecommunications. FITEL, the Peruvian government executed a universal service policy financed by FITEL to ensure broadband access to underserved areas in Peru by subsidizing the cost by as much as $112.9 million to attract Network providers who normally will not be attracted to the rural areas to deploy their services. As a result of the subsidy, cost of ensuring access to the rural areas by providers was greatly reduced. This method, according to Guillen has been so hugely successful that most of the unserved rural areas in Peru now have access largely provided by the network providers. Also countries like India and Guatemala have used the same subsidy strategy to effectively drive ICT to the rural areas. The quest for universal access to the rural areas is sure to massively improve the quality of rural life, enhance economic development and ensure equal access to advanced telecom services etc. Most of the participants at the forum gave suggestions and insights on how universal access can be enhanced in Nigeria. Mr Wale Goodluck, the regulatory manager of MTN in his submission says the ability of all operators to roll out the 3G networks will enhance universal access. He also stated that local government councils and states must be carried along in the quest for universal access. He urged states and local government councils to provide an enabling environment for operators and look beyond multiple taxations if universal access is to be made possible. Henry Olaga, a private telecom provider, in his comments called on major operators to avoid the temptation of providing last mile solutions. He called on all stakeholders and governments to join hands in facilitating investments in the rural sector to enhance access. A major thrust of the contributions however harped on the need for adequate infrastructure as a backbone of universal access. The issue, for most was that what the nation needs to make any meaningful impact in the ICT drive, is not just universal access but infrastructural access. The call for subsidies as provided by the fund should be geared towards providing necessary infrastructure that will in turn naturally affect and bring in access. The Federal Government should as a matter of priority provide basic infrastructures like power, good roads etc if it is really serious about ensuring universal access in the country. The Fund should be especially targeted at tackling the infrastructural divide and addressing the huge cost of doing business in rural areas brought about by lack of adequate infrastructure. Anyway one looks at it, a major impediment to ensuring universal access in Nigeria is the issue of power. And the USPF will be very effective if its used in ensuring uninterrupted power for effective access in rural areas, according to Engr Yahaya, a telecommunications engineer. Another strategy for ensuring universal access in the country by stakeholders is that of franchising. Most expressed the belief that only local businessmen who know the terrain and the peculiar cultures of the people in the rural areas can effectively franchise to assist in bringing access to the communities. In his contribution, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, the General Manager of VGC Communications stated that the adoption of franchising is a strategy that can enhance universal access in the country. Adebayo stated that the fund should be used to encourage local businessmen to deliver services to local areas. He said that the strategy of using local businessmen who are from the communities and know the norms and cultures as a franchisee to provide telecommunications services was a strategy that cannot fail. Several other speakers at the event agreed that the rural folks themselves have a lot of role to play in ensuring universal access. They noted that rural folks must also participate in the quest for ensuring universal access by having a commitment to protecting the infrastructures and projects when provided from vandalization. They also called on the NCC to adopt the carrot and stick approach by giving operators incentives to compel them to deploy their services to rural areas and punishing them if they fail to deploy the services to the rural areas. One of the most important strategies made at the forum for universal access was for cyber cafes to be used in ensuring access. Lai Omotola, president of the association of Cyber Caf Operators commenting on the strategies for ensuring universal access stated that cyber cafes were effective tools in bridging the digital divide in the rural areas. According to him, since cafes were already deployed in most of the rural areas in the 36 states of the federation, Government should further assist the cafes by providing funding that will further empower the cafes with latest technology like Wimax and broadband access that will ensure access. He stated that the cyber cafes strategy is an indispensable and unbeatable one in ensuring rural access and providing universal access to all the nooks and crannies in Nigeria. The need for universal access can definitely not be put in the cooler because apart from food, and shelter, communication is one of the most basic social needs of man. The urge to communicate is ingrained in all living humans and is as old as time. Universal access is thus a means by which communication and the tools for effective communication are brought to low income, poor, rural, underdeveloped areas of any nation. Nigeria in a bid to ensure universal access in the nation has of recent embraced different policies and strategies including the setting up of a fund called the universal service provision fund to drive the expansion of telephone services to rural areas in the 36 states of the federation. The fund, which took off in July this year, is poised to change the ICT landscape of the nation. Information and communications technology is no doubt a development enabler and an important tool for achieving the nation's millennium development goals. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com) Copyright 2006 Accra Mail. Distributed by Allafrica Global Media. |