Denis Opudo
Mr. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu is the Nigerian Minister of Communication &Technology. Recently, he said that there is no formal cooperation agreement between Nigeria and Egypt so far. However, Nigeria is willing to enter into such initiatives with any country. He noted that Nigeria currently lacks prerequisite infrastructure in Communication and technology department. The ministry is calling upon potential investor to put up optic fibers. This will help the country to ease broadband operations. Moreover, Nigeria requires the establishment of ICT devices. Some of the devices are the cables and handsets.
In Africa, Nigeria is the leading ICT market. The Lagos city overtook Nairobi, Kenya in terms of ICT development and penetration. Lagos is the home to startups such as Jumia, Flutterwave, Konga, Farmcrowdy, Andela, and irokotv. The tech ecosystem in Nigeria secured support from various source. The major ones are the Yabacon Valley as well as $109m tech investment initiatives in Africa. Despite the potentials in Nigerian Market, the country ICT infrastructure is still poor. The government expenditure on ICT has been reducing over the years. The situation resulted to poor coverage and high costs of IT.
According to Isa Pantami, the director general of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigeria loses NGN 720 billion yearly via IT importation. The country usually imports IT equipment, services, and solutions on a yearly basis. The statistic report from the (NOTAP) indicated 90% loss to foreign companies. Furthermore, most African countries Nigeria inclusive still use 4G and below services. The developed countries on the other hand use 5G.
