Your group was part of those that advocated for the creation of the ministry of communication and technology. Now that we have it, do you think the ministry is capable of addressing most of the issues confronting the ICT sector in Nigeria?
Well, I think our attitude matters, especially when we asked for anything from government. In this case, the attitude I want us to adopt is the one that always support government to achieve results. If all of us work towards making it work, we would improve the situation. I am not expecting a situation where everything would be perfect. I am not expecting a situation whereby government would appoint the best person in the world. But whosoever is appointed, let us cooperate with the person. Let us look at the good side of what they have done and use it advantageously. Let us look at the bad side of what they have done and let us use it in a way that we can make progress. At the end of the day, the important thing for us is to make progress. I don’t want an attitude where we would say that because government has not done what we wanted, therefore, we continue to criticize government.
My own attitude is that fi rst of all, we said we wanted a change; they tried to make a change, even though what the government did was not exactly what we asked for but like I have said, don’t let the attitude be that if there is no document, then nothing would happen. No. When we asked for liberalization, and we asked for what is called NCC now, what we were asking for was NTRA, Nigerian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, in 1992-93. That was what we wrote in our document. But they gave us what is called NCC, and we accepted it and made it work. We saw a lot of lapses, things that were not good enough, but they gave us something and we made it work. Then later on, we improved on it, and when the Communications Act came in 2003, it was a serious improvement on Decree 75 of 1992. So, I think our attitude was what mattered. And let me tell you, in the industry that we are in, it was not developed by the government; it is being developed by the players. A lot of the work that was done in the industry was the one that was done by the players, enthusiasts, professionals. It wasn’t that government did any particular thing except that it approved the things we asked for in our programme.
Let’s talk about NITEL. Why has it been difficult getting it privatised?
The problem with NITEL’s privatization is that of the temperament of those that were put in charge at the initial stages. I have said that several times. Between 2002 and 2007, I have said the temperament was wrong. We identifi ed corruption when they were trying to corner NITEL and sell it to government offi cials. We didn’t know that at fi rst. But later on, it occurred to us that corruption was involved. As a matter of fact, at a particular stage when Mallam Nasir el-Rufai was there, I was making attempt to report him. At a time, I was calling journalists to ask for Obasanjo’s e-mail address telling them I wanted to report what Nasir was doing. Later on, somebody called to tell me that I was merely wasting my time, that el-Rufai was only implementing the script of Obasanjo. He told me so many things and I was surprised. As a matter of fact, if I had continued asking such questions, they probably would have locked me up.
I was surprised. But again, we realized that we were the people who made the mistake. After corruption, the next problem is that of incompetence. In fact, we identifi ed incompetence in the BPE a long time ago. When I listened to the fl ash of the recent probe by the National Assembly, it was clear that there was incompetence. The person they put there now does not even know what she is doing. She doesn’t have any clue. She was just saying ‘I was not there’. She didn’t even say anything to convince me that even if she was there…. and in any case, she was in the system. “I was not there, I was not there,” really shows incompetence on her part. For me, in the past few years, I have stopped thinking about NITEL. The last time I talked about it was in 2009. In fact, I called a press conference and I mentioned all these things. I even said it that time that I don’t want to think about it again but each time, something would happen to make me to talk again. And I think the last thing I said was that, I want to assume that there was nothing to salvage in NITEL again.
It’s only the licence, as the First National Operator that NITEL is holding but that can be retrieved and auctioned. That is the thing that is unique in it. Maybe people don’t really know. They are just thinking NITEL is just any other company. No, far from it. That First National Operator licence is a lot and it should not be lost. It should not be given out at a price that would be a loss to Nigeria, because, that was what they were trying to do. They were trying to reduce the cost, so that they would buy it themselves or somebody would buy it on their behalf and they would go and buy it later. But it didn’t work for them. They themselves didn’t even know what they were doing. You know when you are involved in corruption, you have to tell lies, you have to just keep on muddling things all around until they eventually destroyed the acquisition. So for me, I think the entity called NITEL should be wound up. Yes, wind it up, retrieve the licence, and auction the licence. Some people are valuing assets, houses, equipment, no, that is not what you value in First National Operator licence, and it is the worth of the licence.
How much in your estimation do you think the licence is worth?
Well, it is very complex to calculate. I said that in 2009, I called all of you (journalists) and I said N2.2 billion. We did a calculation. But since then, I have not done it again.
Since the calculation was done last in 2009, wouldn’t it have increased?
No, it doesn’t increase. If anything, it reduces, but not much. Since then, the only factor that could have reduced it is the coming of Etisalat. Etisalat came in and took some of its market share. So that may reduce it a little bit, not substantially. That is the way I look at it. NITEL licence is a very expensive licence.
There is this rumour that Glo, one of the GSM telecom service providers and the Second National Operator is making attempts to ultimately acquire NITEL. What does this portend for the telecom industry?
Once you say it is a rumour, I don’t think there is anything to discuss. But if you talk about the situation, then I would say NCC should be allowed to advise federal government on that kind of issue. Considering the fact that the operator is already a Second National Operator, it offends fundamental principles of liberalization. As the second national operator, one cannot buy the other. It is not possible. Don’t let us say it is not possible, but it should not be done. The NCC should be left to advise the Federal Government on that, not for us to be talking about it when it is a mere rumour. I mean you have said it that it is a rumour, so let’s face it. It is a rumour, we don’t know what is happening, but something must be happening somewhere that people are reading to be that, but why bothering ourselves. We don’t want anything but fact. We run the industry on facts not on rumour. The purpose of setting up Second Operator is to check the First National Operator so that there must be competition. You don’t then make one to buy the other. That would defeat the very essence of having the Second National Carrier. It will kill competition
There is so much talk about broadband internet, but access to it is still very low. What is responsible?
Of course you are right. Broadband internet is an evolution. If something is evolving, won’t it start from somewhere? It is a natural thing. In America, even broadband is evolving. There are many parts of America that don’t have broadband. Just like it is happening in any other land, it has to evolve. We are now struggling to make sure that we leap-frog in broadband. This is because broadband solves problems faster than earlier technology. It is better we leap-frog and use broadband because it is cheaper but it becomes cheaper when we put access into the hands of so many people. It would be very productive and the cost would come down. When we started liberalization, some people were saying cost of telephone will go up, we said yes it would go up, but it would start coming down after some time. Do you know how much we bought SIM card when we started, it was N35,000. How much is SIM card today? It is just N200. That is what would happen to electricity if we liberalize very well. It would jump up, but after sometime, it would start coming down.
That is the natural fl ow of things. We have proved it in telecoms now and that is it. So, we are now saying that if we invest in broad band, it is advantageous. How do we invest in it? It is by making sure that many people are empowered to play so many roles, that is, people doing what we called retail sale of broadband. Right now, the retail sellers are not many and the cost of broadband is expensive. You remember at the summit, Main One said they have reduced the cost by 75 per cent at Lagos. But in Ijebu ode, nobody is getting any broadband. How do you say you reduce 75 per cent? This is because nobody is bringing it from Lagos to Ijebu ode. There are no investors who are doing that. That is why we did the Broadband Summit. Many investors would come up very soon.
They would be doing various jobs. Consultants would be having jobs, people would be fi nding jobs, and prices would be coming down. Many people would be doing many things with broadband. How do we explain to the masses, especially those who are not technologically inclined what the term ‘broadband ‘really means? The way I want to explain broadband to the common man is the fact that when you want to transfer information from one place to the other, you can transfer what is called voice, that is what we say, you can transfer text, that is what we write, you can transfer video, that is what we see, you can transfer video that is moving like fi lm.
Those ones are very complex to transfer. Text is easy, voice is easy, but video is not very easy. When it is moving, it is even very complex. But when you have broadband, those things become very easy. And many of us want to transfer things like that now. We want to be watching television on mobile, if possible. If you have iPad for example, you know it is very easy to carry, and the screen of iPad is very close to that of fl at TV screen. If you are watching television on it, it can be very mobile, and to do that, it requires additional technology. Now, that additional technology, we want to put it in the hands of ordinary people. If ordinary people have access to it, there are some things they would do which they are not doing now. Many Nigerians, no matter their social status, love football.
So if they can watch football, those guys would be very happy to do that. If they need it, why can we give it to them and make it business and let them pay for it. If Nigerians are paying N500 to watch a football match, you will make tons of money. You will just be making money. Nigerians want to do e-medicine. For example, when you are reading something on a scope here and then what is showing on the scope here can be transferred to another place to be showing on another scope there. Of course, it is a very complex technology. But it is being made easy now by broadband technology. If there is no broadband, you can’t do that at all. But people are doing that now. If we are able to share the cost such that everybody can afford it, it would be very good.
What are the strategies being put in place to attract investment in this sector so as to ensure that broadband infrastructure for last-mile option is achievable?
The first is to create awareness so that people can know that that they can even do business. That was what we did with that summit. We were about 165 that came to that summit. Almost 30 of us were probably investors. They have money. They want to invest in telecoms, but they don’t know how to go about it. Having come to that summit, there was a paper that talked about the various investment options. When they see that, they would go and meet a consultant and understand that there is this investment, how can I go about it? Out of those 30, don’t be surprised if 10 of them succeed in the next 12 months. That is how to build the market. Those are the ones who came to the summit. Don’t forget there are others who came from overseas, who already know it. They are just coming to invest. So, investment is the fi rst thing. And that is why we are creating awareness. The next is the identifi cation of funding requirement.
I mean, you want to invest; it gets to a point where you don’t have money. We can go to government. We intend to go to government to ask for fund. But we don’t want to go to the government when there is nobody to use the fund. There must be people who already want to do it before we go and say we want stimulant fund. You can see that there is funding problem. Then of course, there must be a policy of government to protect investment. That is when we say, government must now bring out broadband policy. It is not telecom policy again or telecommunication policy again, but broadband policy. We have upgraded broadband now to the level of communication itself, which is very high and it is signifi cant progress. About four or fi ve years ago, nobody was talking of broadband policy. We were not talking about it, and then if the questions of awareness, investment, broadband policy and funding are solved, you will be surprised that in the next fi ve years, you would be able to get about 200 channels on television. In US, there are about 1000 channels of television. In your room, you can watch about 1000 channels. You can do it also here. Right now, I think we have about 17, but I am saying that we can have 200 in the next fi ve years. In fact, we can have 500 if we work very hard.
The SIM card registration seems to be facing some challenges. There are fears that many SIM owners might not be captured before the end of the deadline. What does this portend?
Let me assure you, there is no cause for alarm. If you are not captured, we would still capture you; it is as simple as that. There is no way such exercise could be perfect. Such things like that are not always perfect. We would continue to improve on it. So, I don’t really see any challenge. It is just counting. Counting is one of the simple things to do. We are just counting ourselves. It is not technical. It is just logistics, but it is expensive. People don’t know that. They keep on saying, why are they spending about N6.1 billion? If you look at the cost of advert alone, if you want to communicate, it is too expensive. You know how much it costs to place an advert of a full page in newspapers. You know how much a minute cost on TV, yet they would have to communicate in various languages. So, I think it is expensive. It is complex, but it is not complex in terms of technology. It is just counting and I give you my name, put it in the data base. I don’t see what is complex about that.
The on-going tariff war among the service providers seems to be giving subscribers some good deal but can you say Nigerians are being fairly charged for services rendered?
Well, there is no fairness in business. As a matter of fact, business is a matter of what you buy is what you sell. The objective of business is to make money. So, when you people start talking about fairness, I think you can only be talking about fairness where you know that you as a consumer, you have access to alternatives. If the alternatives that you have are expensive, it doesn’t mean you are unfair. It only means that the cost of business makes it the pride that it should be. But I also know that because of poor or slack regulation, operators can do things which they should not be doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment