No longer a dumping ground

The era of Nigeria being used as a dumping ground for substandard ICT products may soon be over with the fresh moves by the ministry of communication technology to fight the scourge

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

For a long time now Nigeria has been a dumping site for substandard goods especially information and communication technology, ICT products Scattered across the country, from Computer Village in Ikeja to Alaba electronic market also in Lagos, fake and substandard ICT products like handset and accessories; television or radio sets, computers and allied products have become common sights. While majority of them are imported, quite a large number of such products are produced locally. Importers of these products often capitalise on the poor purchasing powers of most Nigerians to offer these substandard or fake products.
But as cheap as these products may come, findings have revealed that dealing in them may just be a matter of being penny wise, pounds foolish. Worried by the influx of these substandard products, Minister of Communications Technology, Omobola Johnson, noted recently that the era of Nigeria being used as a dumping ground for substandard ICT products may soon be over as government is set to fi ght the scourge by setting standard for all IT products imported or produced in Nigeria. Omobola rightly observed that the absence of Nigerian standards or non-domestication of international standard in Information Communication Technology is largely responsible for the country being made a dumping ground for substandard products over the years.
This has to stop, she warned, adding that Our indigenous and locally manufactured products, including software applications, can hardly be exported to markets in Europe, the Americas and Asia because many of them are not certified in accordance with international standards. According to her, we can bring this unfortunate trend to an end by set- ting the standards against which the products will be tested and strictly enforcing those standards. To this end, there is therefore the need for a conscious and spirited effort to reposition the country as hub for software applications and IT-enabled services. This, the minister said, underscores the urgent need for a rigorous standardisation process for Nigerian IT products and services.
Johnson stressed that the issue of standardisation was one that was extremely important if we as a nation must be part of the global economy and for Nigerian companies to be globally competitive. It was perhaps in realisation of this that the minister inaugurated a 20-man Technical Committee charged to develop a framework for technical standards for the nations ICT industry. The committee whose members include Chima Onyekwere of Linkserve; Leo Stan Ekeh of Zinox; Barbara James, CEO of Henshaw Capital partners; Toyin Abdulmalik Ibrahim of SMEDAN; Kemi Abonta of NITDA; Emmanuel Onyeje of Microsoft; Olufunmilayo Ajayi of Oracle[ Pius Okigbo Jr, of ISPON; Juliet Ehimuan of Google; and Teemu Kijarvi of Nokia, among other has up to one year to submit its report.
The minister urged the committee to regard its work as an assignm e n t t h a t would contribute immensely to the growth of the ICT sector and the national economy. She further hinted that her Ministry would also raise a private sector led committee to develop a framework and template to establish a pilot scheme of Technology Incubation Centres for Nigeria. Olusola Teniola, an engineer and Chief Operating Offi cer of Phase3 Telecom who represented ATCON at the inauguration shares the view that there is indeed a need for experts in government, academia, and the private sector to work together to solve the issue of Nigeria being a dumping ground for substandard IT products and services. Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA), Prof. Cleopas Angaye, said the agency on its part would collaborate with the Nigerian customs and immigration to prohibit unwanted software coming into the country. Angaye noted that there was need to have a strong standard for IT through a formation of legal framework that could be executed in the law court as it is obtainable across the world.
That is why we actually have the Attorney General on the committee so that we could frame a law that could be executed in the law court as it is obtainable across the world, we need a strong standard and strong law for standard to be enforced in this country like I said it has been long overdue, Nigeria is coming up in the ICT penetration, this is actually the right time for the committee to be set up he stated. To Angaye, the committee should ensure the standards to be recommended for ICT products and services would be globally accepted. If we come up with what should be standard in Nigeria, it should also be globally acceptable, he said. Ibrahim Tizhe, member of the committee, who is also the President of Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, promised on behalf of the committee members that the team would put in its best.
We will work hard to place Nigeria where it is supposed to be when it comes to IT products and services, Tizhe said. Head, Planning Research and Information Management System, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Tersoo Orngudwem, underscores the importance of standards in all forms of transaction and stated that standards make an enormous and positive contribution to most aspects of our lives. Standards, he said, ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, effi ciency and interchange-ability - and at an economical cost.
When products and services meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted and be unaware of the role of standards. However, when standards are absent, we soon notice. We soon care when products turn out to be of poor quality, do not fi t, are incompatible with equipment that we already have, are unreliable or dangerous. When products, systems, machinery and devices work well and safely, it is often because they meet standards. When standards are absent, we soon notice.
He added that the advent of ICT demanded a closer overall cooperation, in the standardisation arena, among the three key international standards organisations: International Standard Organisation, International Electronic Commission and International Telecommunications Union. Orngudwem further maintained that standards make the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more effi cient, safer and cleaner; facilitate trade between countries and make it fairer .
As a matter of fact, standards provide governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation, and conformity assessment; share technological advances and good management practice; disseminate innovation. It safeguards consumers and users in general, of products and services while making life simpler by providing solutions to common problems.
In the past, waging war against counterfeit or substandard products, a number of arrest and seizures had been made by Nigerian authorities. For instance, recently authorities in Nigeria had collaborated with the global Information and Communication Technology fi rm, Hewlett Packard, to execute a large local seizure of counterfeit printing supplies made for HP printers. HP supported Nigerian law enforcement offi cials who confi scated nearly 6,500 illegal items in a highly- coordinated strike.
Authorities raided an illicit workshop and four connected retailers, seizing a total of 3,600 ready-for-sale laser print cartridge counterfeits, 1,800 fake fl at boxes and 950 empty l aser print cartridges intended for illegal use. In the same vein, police arrested four people associated with the counterfeiting operation while additional intelligence obtained during the raid led to the capture of a key figure in the local counterfeiting scene. English Africa Channel Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Africa, Sherifa Hady, noted that over the last four years, HP has assisted the government in the seizure of nearly nine million pieces of fake printing supplies products and components in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
According to Hady, through HPs anticounterfeiting programme, HP actively educates its customers and partners to be vigilant against fake printing supplies. She said the company also cooperates with local and global law enforcement to detect and dismantle illegal operations that produce counterfeit HP printing components. With substandard products, the fact remains that the economy has always been on the receiving end. The high volume of counterfeit and substandard products in the domestic market has remained threat to Nigerias economy, raising serious doubts on current efforts by the Federal Government to resuscitate the real sector to contribute meaningfully to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In Nigeria, while it is estimated that over 55 per cent of imported products are fake and substandard, an estimated N30 billion is believed to be lost annually to fake or counterfeit goods in terms of loss of tax revenue to the government, income to local manufacturers, and employment generation to Nigerians. In the ICT sector, a recent research carried out by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the International Data Corporation (IDC) revealed that Nigeria lost more than N19.8 million to software counterfeiting and associated problems in 2009.
Obtaining similar valid data from other sectors was, however, diffi cult given the constraints in data coalition in Nigeria, but the loss runs into billions of naira annually, according to Ify Umenyi, Director- General of the CPC. Decrying the economic loss of counterfeits product to both local and global economy, Hady said the revenue loss stands at about $775bn annually and accounts for between 5 to 7 per cent of the global economy and equivalent to loss of about 2.5 million jobs.