The road to Nigeria’s digital readiness and transformation is still fraught with daunting obstacles.
While several countries are already transforming their business, political and social interactions through digital platforms and processes Nigeria is still lagging behind in many ways.
Recently Ajomedia through its eWorld Forums gathered experts to x-ray challenges to efforts by Nigeria to get ready digitally and transform its interaction’s ecosystem.
It was the 9th edition of such forums which had its theme: Nigeria’s Readiness for Digital Transformation. The event held at the Oriental Hotel, Lekki in Lagos.
Digital transformation, is generally defined as the integration of digital technology into all areas of business, fundamentally changing how countries operate and deliver value to citizens and customers.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ajomedia Limited, Publishers of eWorld Magazine, the organiser of the event, Mr. Aaron Ukodie, set the ball rolling when he stressed the need for Nigeria to be digitally ready through her policies formulation and implementation.
“The more prepared or ready (digitally) an organisation or nation is, the more likely it will achieve its desired outcomes,” he said.
Discussants at the forum looked at the infrastructural state of the country, the awareness drive and the will-power of government to make digital transformation a reality in Nigeria.
The challenge to Nigeria becomes more daunting when it is noted that advanced and evolving technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Automation, Self-driving cars and Artificial Intelligence (AI), realms in which Nigeria is not currently playing effectively, are projected to affect about 50 per cent of the world economy.
Experts who spoke at the event include, the Chief Executive Officer of Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria ( IXPN) Mr Muhhamed Rudman, The President of Medallion, Mr Ikechukwu Nnamani, The CEO of eStream Network, Mr. Muyiwa Ogungboye, The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, who was represented by Mrs. Chioma Okee-Oguguo, the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, who was represented by the Chairman, Regulatory and Legal Committee at ALTON, Mrs. Eno Udoma-Eniang.
According to them the answer to Nigeria’s digital readiness challenges may as well lie in dismantling obstacles militating against entrepreneurship and innovation in Nigeria, such as high taxes, lack of power supply, and inconsistent policies by government, high interest rates, and prohibitive prices for internet access among others.
They were of the view that though the Muhammadu Buhari led government is trying to improve ease of doing business, having moved as a nation from the 170th position in 2017 to 145 in 2018 based on the recent World Bank report, but insisted that the government needed to do more.
Rudman noted that there had been unprecedented transformation in the banking industry brought about by digitalisation, while citing transactions involving the use and movement of physical cash that are gradually declining. “The use of Point of Sales (PoS) machines and other several simple avenues of transaction have made life very easy to the consumers, the bank and government.
“Individuals no longer had to embark on a trip to the bank to conduct banking business, the banks on the other hand have less ratio of customers to attend to, in essence reduction in the cost of banking services as well as reduction in high security and safety risks.”
He said “There are many relative success stories in other key areas as well, such education, commerce, health, housing, employment, security, transportation, fighting corruption, among others”, but he added that the journey to digital transformation is perpetual and Nigeria can’t afford to slow down, especially with its ever-expanding population.
“We have to find innovative ways to educate our young population and equip them with the right skills to handle ever evolving job market”, he added.
Rudman said government needed to look beyond the digitisation of existing processes and services, and harness the power of digital technologies and data to transform existing business models in order to meet the increasing appetite and expectations of the rising digital consumer, by adopting new technologies in the way business is conducted.
Digital transformation, he said, should be central and strategic among public sectors across the world, with ever-increasing citizen’s expectation around delivering greater efficiency, offering better services to the public and exploiting a greater range of modern technologies.
Ogungboye, added that though, at the federal level, all payments now go through a treasury single account called TSA via Remita, most state governments have installed various software that track the collection of various levies which has resulted to increased Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and the private sector has witnessed an explosion of several telecommunications and software companies that are adding value to the economy at large, the 2017 Digital Evolution Index developed by Mastercard and Tufts University, still ranked Nigeria among countries in the breakout zone, meaning that it faces significant challenges with the low state of digitalisation, especially in the area of infrastructure required to increase the momentum of adoption.
According to him Nigeria’s readiness for digital transformation rest largely with all tiers of government, relevant government agencies, be it at federal, state and local government, the players in the Nigerian telecom industry, foreign investors, financial institutions and behavioral pattern of other industries that are expected to be digitally savvy and the generality of consumers.
“We cannot discuss the readiness of Nigeria for digital transformation without considering actions and inactions of governments and their agencies, as they all have key roles to play in determining our readiness to adopt digital transformation as a way of life.
According to him, Nigeria had since been ready for digital transformation with the establishment of the mentioned agency, but there were challenges that have slowed down her speed of digital transformation.
He listed these challenges to include delay in approval of Right of Way (RoW); Multiple taxation, Levies and fees on the same existing infrastructure; fragmented and limited distribution of fiber and telecom infrastructure to several areas of the country, creating large swathes of un-served or under-served communities within states and local government areas; long delays in the issuance of permits for new infrastructure; severe power challenges and multiple agencies doing the same function.
“Removing all the above bottlenecks will not be an easy task but the will-power of the government and having several forums like the eWorld Forum, will lead to an understanding of what to do, how to do it and the results that is expected for the generality and wellbeing of the citizens, will accelerate Nigeria’s digital transformation,” Ogungboye said.
In his contribution, Nnamani, said the company’s research report of 2017 on cybersecurity, showed that about 90 per cent of Nigerian organisations were operating below the security poverty line significantly exposing themselves to cyber security risks, which he said, negated the digital transformation.
Citing the research report, Nnamani said the people affected by cyber bullying ranged from the common citizen to media personalities and even government officials and organisations. The threat, according to him, poses serious danger on all online transactions, especially now that the e-commerce business is beginning to gain traction across the country.
Pantami admits that government has responsibility to drive digital transformation, hence NITDA had to identify digital job creation as one of its seven pillars and it is currently setting up Digital Job Creation Centres (DJCC) across the country.
“These centres empower users to set up businesses that incorporate cutting edge digital technologies. We want these centres to be triggers for the development of jobs that can thrive in this fourth industrial revolution, jobs that evolve with the needs of the citizens and take advantage of cutting edge technologies,” Pantami said.
According to him, the Local Content Development and Promotion pillar of NITDA would ensure that the information and communications technology (ICT) sector is powered by Nigerians and indigenous companies.
“We have an Office for Nigerian Content Development in ICT (ONC). The ONC focuses on five focal programs for the first phase of the local content in ICT programme. The Government Digital Services pillar focusses on how ICT is used to deploy government services to citizens in a way that is efficient, transparent and effective,” he said.
Udoma-Eniang, said to aid digitisation and digital transformation, there would be need for deployment of infrastructure to enable speed of broadband delivery and quality of service.
“Whilst businesses in eCommence, eHealth; eAgriculture and the rest may be coming up with better digital innovation, the issue is whether the current legal framework enables these businesses to thrive,” Udoma-Eniang said.
According to her, there cannot be digital transformation when basic infrastructure to drive the revolution are not in place.
She therefore called on government at each level to support the massive deployment of telecom infrastructure in their domain for efficient digital transformation of their day to day activities by looking at the long-term benefits of all the infrastructure in place for better service delivery to the citizen.
ALTON, she said, would be committed to the smart cities initiative by which the states in Nigeria could all be transformed to digital operating states.
On his part, Rudman was of the view that Nigeria needed to improve on connectivity and rapidly promote new forms of online learning, so that people do not necessarily need to travel to an industrialised country to get a degree and equally make it possible for university graduates to work in the global labour market from Nigeria.
“Government must have a strategic roadmap towards digital transformation, which should be developed with input from all stakeholders. To ensure its comprehensive implementation, government must establish follow-up mechanisms for continuous assessment, monitoring and evaluation of progress,” Rudman said.
The lingering crisis in telecommunications infrastructure in Nigeria and its impact on the country’s readiness for full digitisation was again brought to the fore by experts as a challenge that needs to be urgently addressed.
