CURRENT STATUS OF ICT IN NIGERIA

• “Economic, Social and Legal Aspects of The Internet”

February 16 – 26, 2005; Seoul, Korea.

Chinedu C. Okpaleke

Nigeria Development Gateway

cokpaleke@yahoo.com

Content• General Country Information• Structure of ICT Sector• ICT Policy & Legislation• Law on Information Technology - Nigerian National IT Policy - National Computer Security and Protection Bill• Telecommunications Sector - Fixed Telephony Network - Cellular and GSM Network - GSM Operators (Market Share)• Internet and Data communication - Internet Usage Statistics - National Internet Spread• Local Computer Manufacture/Assembly• Broadcasting: TV, Radio, Cable TV• Current Status of ICT Development in Nigeria 2004• Conclusions

General Country Information• Land Area: 923,768 sq. km• Population: 133,881,703 (July 2001 Estimate)• Administrative Divisions: 36 States and I Federal Territory (Capital)

and about 740 Local Government Councils • GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $114.8 billion USD (2004 Est.)• GDP Growth: 7.1% • Inflation Rate: 6.5%• Literacy Rate: 68%• Industries: Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Coal, Tin, Zinc, Columbite, Palm

Oil, Peanuts, Cotton, Rubber, Wood, Hides & Skins, Textiles, Cement & other Construction materials, Steel etc.

• Export Commodities: Petroleum & Petroleum Products (95%), Cocoa, Rubber

• Internet Users: 750,000 (2003 Est.)• Telecommunications sub-sector liberalisation: Domestic - 1992; GSM

Licensing – 2001/2002; Domestic long distance & international - 2002.

Nigeria

Structure of ICT SectorAuthorities: - Federal Ministry of Science and Technology - Federal Ministry of Communications - National Information Technology Development Agency - Nigerian Communications Commission Associations and NGOs: - Nigeria Development Gateway - Nigeria Internet Group - Nigeria Computer Society - Association Of Telecom Companies Of Nigeria - Nigeria Information Technology Professionals in the Americas (NITPA) - Computer Professionals Registration Council - Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria;Among several others.

ICT POLICY & LEGISLATION

• Nigeria Communications Act 2003

• Wireless Telegraphy Act 1990

• National IT Policy, Nigeria 2001

• Computer Security & Protection Bill (Still in review and Yet to be passed into Law)

• Electronic Media Deregulation Act 1992

Nigerian National Policy for Information Technology

http://www.nitda.org/docs/policy/ngitpolicy.pdfChapters: Human Resource Development Infrastructure Governance Research & Development Health Agriculture Urban & Rural Development Trade & Commerce Fiscal Measures Government & Private Sector Partnerships Arts, Culture & Tourism National Security & Law Legislation Global Consideration IT Popularization & Awareness Policy Implementation

National Computer Security and Protection Bill

• Covers a wide range of issues including: - Computer Contamination (SPAM), - Illegal Communications, - Computer Vandalism, - Cyber-squatting, - Cyber-terrorism, - 0nline Intellectual Property Rights

Infringement - Cyber-pornography etc.

Telecommunications Sector

• This sector has recorded more than 206.5% growth between 2002 and 2004, making Nigeria Africa’s and one of the world’s fastest growing telecommunications market, at present.

• Number of Telecoms licensees: 445• Active Operators (mobile, fixed, value-added

services – VAS): 99 (or 22.25%).• New/Additional mobile phone licenses will be

granted by the government through the NCC this year, 2005.

Fixed Telephony Network• Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd. (NITEL) - Pioneer and Government owned.

Has a limited Fixed Line infrastructure. It has a present capacity of about 700,000 lines (about 450,000 currently functioning).

• Private Telecommunications Operators (PTOs) include Intercellular, Multi-Links, Reliance (Reltel), Starcomms, Cellcom, among others. These operators provide Fixed Wireless Access and account for about 250,000 telephone subscribers.

• Total Telephony Density: 10 MILLION LINES (December 2004 Est.). Nigerian Communications Commission projects that the figure will rise to 20 Million in 2005.

• Telephony density/Percentage penetration per 100 people: 7.08 (Increase of about 206% from 2003 teledensity of 2.31). Teledensity and telephony infrastructure are concentrated mainly in the urban and metropolitan areas.

Limited Fixed Line infrastructure and slow pace of growth in the Fixed Line sector are presently inhibiting Internet access growth.

RURAL TELEPHONY efforts have been commenced by NITEL, using CDMA 450 technology in purely rural areas. NITEL has also commenced building new

networks using wireless CDMA 1900 technology in some urban andmetropolitan areas, in partnership with HUAWEI Technologies Co. Ltd. Of China.

Cellular, WLL and GSM Network

• About 4 Operators provide GSM cellular telephone services - MTEL - MTN - VMobile (formerly Econet Nigeria) - Globacomm Data services such as SMS and WAP are offered by these GSM networks, while

Globacomm also offers General Packet Radio Services (GPRS). Some of these GSM networks have roaming agreements with other international networks.

• The PTOs such as Starcomm, Reliance Telecoms (Reltel), Intercellular etc. also provide limited mobility telephones.

• Percentage mobile phone growth between December 2001 and December 2002 was 593 and mobile subscribers increased from a mere 25,000 in 1999 to 3.1million in 2003, making Nigeria one of the world’s fastest growing mobile (GSM) market.

• Cellular telephony density has risen to about 7 million lines and is expected to further increase with the grant of new licenses this year and increased competition among the telecom companies .

• More than 80% of the subscribers are in the urban and metropolitan areas.

(ii) GSM Operators(Market Share)

• Source NITDA IT Baseline Studies – March 2004; NSL Consulting)

45.5

30.3

12.1

12.1 MTN

ECONET

M-Tel

GLOBACOM

Growth of fixed and cellular phone subscribers

Years 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Fixed

473,000

553,000 600,000 702,000 853,000 N/A

Cellular

25,000 30,000 266,000 1,608,000 3,149,000 7,000,000

Internet and Data-communication

• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 40

• Service types:

Wireless, Dedicated line, VSAT, Dial-up

- email, Web, VoIP, Fax

• Registration of “.ng” domain name: Since March 1995

• Internet/Cyber cafes: No available data

Internet Usage Statistics(Source: NITDA IT Baseline Studies – March, 2004, NSL Consulting).

• Proportion of Internet Utilization By Age Groups

17%5%

45%

14%

11-20Years21-30Years31-40Years41+

NATIONAL INTERNET SPREAD

• Internet Access Points (IAPs)

IAP Density: 5 IAP per 1000 people

(Assuming 130million – conservative estimate- population)

Organizations

530,720 77%

Homes 122,431 18%

Cyber-cafes

32,060 5%

TOTAL 685,211 100%

Local Computer Manufacture/Assembly

• Four local PC assembly plants have been endorsed by the Nigerian government for assembly and manufacture of PCs and computer hardware. They have a combined capacity to produce about 1,050 PCs a day.

• 2 major players in this sub-sector are ZINOX Technologies and OMATEK Computers.

• There is a thriving informal market which mainly produce clones.

• A survey of the quantity of branded Computers produced indicate as follows:

Personal Computers: 20,000 per monthLaptops: 4,450 per monthUPS: 18,140 per month.Government support and further incentives will facilitate growth

of the this sub-sector, as well as increased local patronage of these products.

Broadcasting: TV, Radio, Cable TV

• The national TV and radio broadcasts are transmitted via satellite. There is a domestic communications satellite system with 19 earth stations.

• Television Broadcast Stations: - Public/Federal Government Owned TV: 39 Stations all under the Nigeria

Television Authority - Private TV Stations: 16• Radio Stations: - Public/Federal Government owned: 2 (FRCN and Voice of Nigeria, which

broadcasts external news bulletins and programmes in 6 different languages including English, French, Arabic, Hausa, Fulfulde and Swahili).

- Private Radio Stations: 32 - State Government owned TV and Radio Stations: 46 AM Radio Stations : 83 FM: 36 Shortwave:11 (2001 Est.)These broadcasting stations (radio and TV) are mostly located in urban/metropolitan areas (mostly state capitals), but several are received clearly in rural areas.

Current Status of ICT IN Nigeria

• A study conducted by the Nigeria Development Gateway collaborative.

• The study provides an in-depth analysis and examination of the current status of the Nigerian ICT sector. It covers statistics on Internet use in Nigeria (presently restricted to the urban areas and not available in rural areas). It also gives a fair idea of Nigeria’s readiness to fully participate in the global network, in this era of globalization.

Conclusions• The Nigerian market for basic telecommunication network

based services has been witnessing outstanding growth since its liberalisation and roll-out of GSM licensees’ services from 2001.

• There is growing and wide-spread availability of mobile telephones, but the growth in the fixed/main line telephone sub-sector is still relatively slow.

• There is broad availability of telephones, value added services, Internet access in the urban areas and capital cities (with the highest concentration in the commercial capital, Lagos, followed by other big urban centers like Portharcort, Abuja, etc.), but access in rural areas remains limited and virtually non-existent in some rural areas, thus contributing to an intra-country digital-divide.

Conclusions (contd.)

• Internet services charges are still relatively high among the ISPs but the existence of Internet/Cyber cafes makes access readily available to the mass-market. Value added and cheaper Internet services offered by the Private Telecommunications Operators have further eaten into the ISPs niche market but have made Internet services more readily accessible to a wider range of subscribers.

Conclusions (Contd.)

• ISP companies have concentrated their services mostly within major metropolitan cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Portharcort, Kaduna, Enugu, Owerri and Kano, to mention a few.

• There is urgent need for government incentives for service providers, aimed at encouraging them to improve availability of their services to rural areas and the smaller urban areas, thereby reducing the technological gap between the urban and rural areas.

Conclusions (contd.)

• The government should hasten the process for the enactment of a cyber-crime law; in particular the process for the passing of the National Computer Security and Protection Bill into law should be hastened in order to sanitize the Nigerian cyberspace and encourage e-Commerce and the growth of e-Banking.

• In spite of growing computerization and the growth of local computer manufacture and assembly, 80% of small businesses do not own a single PC and about 95% of public educational institutions do not own or have access to modern PCs.

Conclusions (contd.)

• Research institutions do not have adequate number of computers and the number available are not suited to the particular purpose.

• There is a yearning thirst for new technologies among the general populace as evidenced by the fast and unprecedented growth in the telecommunication mobile (GSM) phone sub-sector and the slow but steady growth of the local computer manufacture/assembly market, as well as the growing interest in cyber-cafes.

Conclusions (contd.)

• More incentives should be given by the government to local manufacturers of PCs by way of increased patronage and tax/duty waivers in order to engender the type of growth witnessed in the telecommunications sector, in this vital sector.

• The NCC should address in a more concrete and effective manner, interconnectivity problems and issues among the GSM operators, as well as the national fixed line operator, NITEL to further reduce incidents of dropped calls and poor access.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.

(End)