Collective Engagement Towards Achieving a Connected World, by Zeenat Sambo

Over the years, it has been heartwarming to observe how the federal government, tech enthusiasts, stakeholders, and players in the tech innovation ecosystem are advocating for digital literacy and inclusion to ensure Nigerians are part of the digital economy agenda. However, the significant number of unconnected people remains a concern for tech industry stakeholders in Nigeria.

It is on this basis that the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) emphasized the need for all key players to collaborate and work in unison towards developing the digital space and ensuring a broader connected audience.

In a conversation on “Connecting the Unconnected from the Skies” at the Communications, Space and Technology Commission event in Saudi Arabia, the Minister stated that digital economy cannot work in silos and needs the collaboration of all stakeholders to ensure more people are connected and enjoy digital engagement in health, education, civil activities and all other sectors of their society.

Connecting people at local and global levels is a process that ensures that a wide range of people (poor, rich, high, low, tech savvy or not) can benefit from one or more technological trends and create a network of digital actors that will enable a large number of people to participate and be inclined toward digital inclusion in the future.

A report by the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affair states that the world population had reached 8 billion.

Meanwhile, statistics indicate that about 5.3 billion people are connected globally while about 2.7 billion people unconnected. With indications of 64 percent people connected and about 36 percent people approximately unconnected.

From all indications, the connected populations will continue to benefit from digital services, while the unconnected population will grow without access to facilities, online resources, and others if not cautioned at the earliest.

In addressing the need to internalize strategies to sustain a successful digital economy, Pantami noted that “the Nigeria case study on connectivity is indeed a success story. I took over as the minister on the 21st, August 2019, if you look at some of the initiatives we came up with and the success story we have been recording is really mind boggling.

“The first thing we did was transform the ministry from an ICT sector to a digital economy sector. Secondly, we developed a National Digital Economic Policy and Strategy for digital Nigeria with 8 pillars. Among the pillars are (1) development regulation, (2) digital skills, (3) solid infrastructure (broadband connectivity is necessary), (4) service infrastructure, (5) digital service development and promotion, (6) soft infrastructure, (7) digital society and emerging technologies, and (8) indigenous content development and promotion”.

While enlightening the Saudi Arabian delegates on the success story of Nigeria connectivity, Prof. Pantami informed them that Nigeria simplified these pillars by formulating 19 national policies with 17 already implemented to achieve a good prospect in the digital ecosystem.

In restating the chronological achievement of the ICT sector under the digital economy, the sector had recorded 14.72 percent contribution to the GDP in the 1st quarter of 2020, 17.92 percent contribution in the 2nd quarter of 2021 and 18.44 percent contribution in the 2nd quarter of 2022 respectively.

It is quite remarkable that as the federal government strives to create policies and regulations to ensure an enabling environment in the digital sector, the Ministry, its agencies and stakeholders are collectively focused on facilitating a better connected society.

By creating awareness and deploying tech literate people to numerous communities, the National Information Technological Development Agency (NITDA) noted that their training centers across the country, several MoUs with tech giants, startups empowerment programmes and other numerous support has provided people in the rural areas with the access to digital services and enable them to profitably scale up businesses.

The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) in its contribution to achieving a connected Nigeria noted numerous leaps with its most significant achievement being the deployment of 5G network, recorded 79.8 percent of Nigerians connected to the internet and generated about N1.5 trillion over the past three years in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

Furthermore, part of Galaxy Backbone (GBB) latest achievement was the unveiling of its data center in Kano.

The world-class Digital Services Infrastructure and Tier 4 Kano data center, promises to improve the total customer experience for its demanding clients in both the public and private sectors.The other sectors also have helped Nigeria position itself to become a better connected nation with numerous projects across the country.

To increase the number of connected people globally, Pantami advised countries to implement an approach where each and every stakeholder has a role to play and be friendly with their regulatory instrument so as to attract more investments.

Secondly, he urged governments to provide intervention and a subsidy as the need arises. For example, in Nigeria, Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) is provided annual budgetary allocations to provide connectivity to unserved and underserved areas, especially, areas that are mostly not profitable due to low population.

Thus the provision of such interventions or subsidies will help the communities to be connected and enjoy numerous economic and social benefits.

Thirdly, the government should introduce incentives like tax holiday, pioneer statues among others to attract more foreign direct investment and the government should roll out obligation that allows regulatory institutions to give targets to both public and private sectors to achieve a strong connectivity within a stipulated period.

Lastly, it is imperative that government and stakeholders create awareness and provide opportunities for training targeting people in rural areas, people living with disabilities, women and also prioritize populations that are left behind. More awareness needs to be created about the opportunities that abound in the digital economy in order to attract increased local and foreign venture capitalists.

Without a doubt, the ICT sector unlocks the potential of other sectors, and each sector cannot work in isolation anymore but must network to get a possible positive outcome. Therefore, both the government, and private and public sector engagement should be encouraged to achieve a visible connectivity and support to boos the fortunes of the digital economy.