FG lobbies ITU for additional telecoms spectrum

Ben Uzor Jr

The federal government is said to be engaging in intense lobbying for additional spectrum from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to enable telecommunication operators in the country provide innovative and reasonably priced broadband services to Nigerians. Bashir Gwandu, executive commissioner, technical services, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), made this revelation in an interview at the Radiocommunication Assembly conference 2012 held in Geneva.

Telecoms operators had earlier expressed concern that majority of the Nigeria’s population especially those who dwell in the rural communities will be denied access to telecoms services due to spectrum unavailability. Available statistics reveal that 40 million Nigerians living in about 850 villages across the country do not have access to basic telecoms services. An analyst told Business Day yesterday that Nigeria’s digital divide is still wide even with Nigeria’s 90 million active subscribers.

According to him, Nigeria needs additional spectrum which could be used by mobile operators to deploy high capacity mobile voice and data services, noting that there was not sufficient spectrum available for the regulator which explains why Nigeria was going to ITU to push for more frequency spectrum resource. “In other parts of the world, there is huge ground infrastructure. In Africa, we rely on wireless. We also have affordability issues which entails capacity to pay for deployment of wireline services.

“The alternative we have is to deploy wireless services. For wireless services, one of the fundamental challenges we have is the amount of spectrum needed to provide the service. Frequency spectrum is very limited resources and we have shortage of it. We have to look for cheaper alternative which involves allocating additional spectrum. Unfortunately, we do not have spectrum that is why we have come to the ITU to ask for more allocation of spectrum that would help us bridge the digital divide.

“So, we have put in a paper calling for more studies. We have put in a draft proposal for additional allocation of spectrum; all of these are skewed towards achieving the objective of getting additional spectrum. On the much anticipated global switch over from analogue to digital broadcasting, Gwandu said much is yet to be done in Nigeria.“Some states have already digitized their transmission, others have not. Digitisation should have been done prior to 2010 but every country has its own challenges.

“Some of the challenges we have are issues revolving around getting the right policy in place to ensure that digitisation takes place. It is very important for us to digitise as soon as possible. Presently, it is difficult to get spectrum licenses for telecoms services. Meanwhile, we have spectrum that is currently not efficiently utilised by analogue TV systems. It has become paramount for us to quickly move towards digital services so that we can free up spectrum for IMT and equally more efficient broadcast services.”

Only recently, the NCC commissioner had reiterated the need for the federal government to request for more spectrum allocation on the 700MHz, which is a befitting spectrum being used for analogue TV. “We said let's digitise our television so that we can have the spectra for telephony services and we are pushing for spectra 690-790 MHz. “At the last conference of ITU (World Radio Conference), we said Africans haven't got Digital Dividend because we have already licensed CDMAs, what is left for us is just 790-806MHz which is 16MHz, which is not going to take us anywhere.

“We said let's extend it to 698MHz that would last for three major operators or an existing operator can buy part of the spectrum and expand their network and still accommodate more people and have better quality service and indeed accommodate the data growth that will come overtime. “This is what we are pushing for at ITU, we are leading Africa in this fight for the next WRC next year and we are going to tell ITU that we want it now, we can't wait any more, the whole of Africa wants it as soon as possible.”

First published on Business Day, Tuesday 24 January, 2012.

More broadband infrastructure, less Internet accessibility hurdles

As the nation’s Internet accessibility problems increase by the day, investment in broadband infrastructure across the country is the long-awaited solution that policymakers should by no means overlook, writes BEN UZOR JR

No doubt, the jet age is an era that has been greeted by enormous inventions and display of human ingenuity which has gone a long way in revolutionising the global society and the economy of many countries across the globe. Interestingly, human ingenuity in the area of technological developments have made the world a global village as it has brought people from different parts of the world closer with little or no difficulty.

The internet, which has continued to be an integrating force, has melded the technology of communications and computing to provide instant connectivity and global information services to all its users. This has invariably created significant impact in the business world with applications such as e-commerce, online banking and e-payments, e-health, e-learning and e-government is carried out even as technology keeps evolving rapidly.

While the aging population struggles to embrace this emerging trend in information and communication Technology (ICT), the younger generation can’t even imagine life without it. As Nigeria continues its quest to become one of the 20 leading economies by 2020, stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector are concerned about the current level of internet connectivity and penetration in the country.

This is against the backdrop that increased broadband penetration, according to experts has the power to spur economic growth by creating efficiency for society, businesses and consumers. According to them, broadband is critical in nation building. To further buttress this view, Ericsson and Arthur D. Little in a study carried out specifically to quantify the impact of broadband speed on GDP. It was concluded that for every 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration GDP increases by 1 percent.

This growth however stems from a combination of direct, indirect and induced effects. Direct and indirect effects provide a short to medium term stimulus to the economy. The induced effect, which includes the creation of new services and businesses, is the most sustainable dimension and could represent as much as one third of the mentioned GDP growth.

While some stakeholders in the telecom sector believe that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecom industry regulator, may not be doing enough to encourage providers of fibre optic backbones that have since landed their submarine cables at the country’s shores, the commission some schools of thought are of the view that the commission’s new broadband strategy based on an open access model if implemented properly may go a long way in increasing internet access in the country.

They maintained that inadequate fibre transmission backbone required to aid nationwide distribution of the enormous bandwidth emanating from emerging underwater cable infrastructure remains a major stumbling block to wider broadband internet access in Nigeria.

Poor internet service persists

Commenting on this issue, Funke Opeke, chief executive officer, Main One Cable Company which has laid a 7,000 km fibre optic cable linking West Africa to Europe, noted the absence of robust national backbone that has increased the cost of moving capacity around the country. According to her, “the price of moving capacity from Victoria Island to Ikeja in Lagos is higher was in most cases higher than the cost of moving capacity from Lagos to London.”

BusinessDay learnt that it cost $600 per megabyte to get connected from Lagos to London compared with $1, 100 between Lagos and Abuja. Industry experts who spoke with BusinessDay criticised governments’ inability to encourage investment geared towards strengthening backbone transmission networks, labeling it as counterproductive to economic development as majority of the populace especially rural areas would be denied access to reasonably priced broadband services.

Opeke revealed that the major challenge of delivering broadband in Nigeria is distribution. According to the Main One CEO, “the federal government must conduct a review of the national backbone infrastructure, effectively manage the country national frequency spectrum resource as well as encourage infrastructure sharing amongst telecoms operators in order to improve internet penetration in the country. Industry watchers have earlier argued that terrestrial fibre backbone networks are proving slower to bring the benefits of the cables.”

Though several operators own in-land fibre networks, Opeke opined that coverage is limited, even as there is too much duplication. She stated that telcos are unwilling to share infrastructure and in cases where they do agree to share infrastructure, they charge very high prices, often for strategic reasons.

“We brought of a big cable into the market and reduced the wholesale internet price points significantly. What we find is that the infrastructure on ground to distribute is limited and in areas where national backbone network, metro fibre networks exist, it is controlled in a proprietary nature unlike an open access infrastructure where anybody can connect at a uniformly low price.

“The prices for accepting such capacity are prohibitive and so it limits how close to the consumers we can get with the capacity we have brought into the region without building the networks ourselves”. She noted that $250 million had been invested so far in building the underwater cable and constructing distribution networks,” the Main One CEO revealed.

Telecommunication companies like MTN, Globacom, and Airtel are optimistic that Nigeria’s low internet penetration which stands at 28.6 percent, according to internetworldstats would before long change. This is even as telcos continue to invest huge financial resources in construction of fibre backbone and as competition intensifies in the submarine cable market.

These operators have so far deployed 22, 600 km of fibre transmission backbone, according to data derived from the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), a global body representing the interest of mobile operators.

According to the GSMA, MTN and Globacom have deployed 8, 000 km and 10, 000 km of fibre backbone respectively. Airtel Nigeria formerly Zain has deployed 4, 600 km of fibre transmission backbone.




Poor spectrum management

Proper allocation of spectrum bands, according to the analyst would enable telecommunications companies roll out innovative mobile broadband services. Analysts say the Federal Government has remained passive to the incidence of poor spectrum management, even in the light of the importance of broadband to economic development. According to them, federal government’s inability to effectively manage its national spectrum resources is causing the nation significant economic losses in terms of lost revenue generation and foreign direct investment opportunities.

According to them, an increase in broadband penetration from 1 percent to 10 percent would invariably raise the country’s annual gross domestic product by 1.22 percent by 2015. The GSMA, a global body representing the interest of mobile operators has also predicted that Nigeria’s wireless broadband market will have a direct revenue impact of N598 billion in the next three years. “Nigeria’s low internet penetration can be attributed to poor spectrum management. We are aware that broadband is a driver of all sectors, it makes all the sectors to be more productive. From education, energy, health etc.

Spectrum is required for broadband services but these frequencies are not readily available.
“The 3.5GHz spectrum is very suitable for broadband but it’s under the control of the Nigerian Broadcast Corporation (NBC). Even spectrum within the purview of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is still not properly allocated. The cost of spectrum is still very high for local operators and that explains why foreign operators dominate the market. “There should be a deliberate policy to encourage local operators”, Lanre Ajayi, past president, Nigeria Internet Group, said in an interview. It was reported recently that the NCC may award four spectrum licences before the end of 2011.

Omobola Johnson, minister of communications technology, said in an interview recently, that the ministry would pay keen attention to spectrum management as well as accelerate the deployment of broadband infrastructure to increase penetration by 2015. “Spectrum is paramount for us in the ICT ministry. It is a limited national resource and as such we should manage it much more efficiently.

“There is a National Frequency Management Council (NFMC) within the ICT ministry. What we are doing in this regard is actually strengthening that council. We intend to make the council much stronger than it is today in terms of research into the different spectrum available and what they can be used for. “What we are looking at is the different spectrum bands that we have today and ensuring that we are making the best use of these spectrum bands. For instance, the Digital Dividend band, we will make sure that we allocate it to the right telecoms operators in no distant time. There is also the 2.5GHz right now.

“We will make sure that frequency spectrum is allocated to the right industry in order to ensure that we get the benefits of efficient broadband internet services. So, spectrum management is indeed an issue. “But it is an issue that we have recognised and it’s something that we are working towards ensuring that we manage our spectrum much better than we have managed it in the past,” Johnson posited.

Addressing internet access problem

Nigeria’s internet access problem characterised by slow and exasperating access to the cyberspace even with the growing number of underwater cable systems on the country’s coast line would soon become a thing of the past. Interestingly, the Federal Government has opened its doors to the global investment community through the adoption of an open access model strategically designed to strengthen investment in the area of deploying in-land fibre networks needed to move available bandwidth capacity around the length and breadth of the country.

Tony Ojobo, director, public affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), disclosed that the adoption of the model is to basically preclude existing challenges posed by some operational drawbacks arising from functions of different government agencies, including urban and regional administrative setups which impinge on the right-of-way of facility deployments.

Analysts had earlier warned that Nigeria’s prospects of enjoying reasonably priced and efficient broadband services was been derailed by the indiscriminate and sometimes absurd levies charged by various agencies and state governments on right-of-way approvals for deployment of in-country fibre transmission links. Ojobo noted that significant capital investment was still required to distribute bandwidth capacity across the country. Nigeria boasts of four undersea fibre optic cables: SAT-3 managed exclusively by ailing Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), privately owned cable, Main One cable, operator –run Glo-1 cable and WACS initiated by a consortium of firm including MTN.

“Yes, the submarine cables have landed but we still require huge levels of investment in infrastructure for majority of the Nigerian populace to enjoy the benefits of broadband internet services. I hope that when the infrastructure providers are licensed in an open access model, we will have more investment in that area. There is a sense of urgency in the commission to catch up with the rest of the world in the area of broadband internet”, Ojobo disclosed,

Echoing the sentiments of Ojobo, Kenneth Omeruo, a telecoms analyst stated that the main hurdle has been the high cost of infrastructure investment required to extend the international capacity into the hinterlands. According to Omeruo, “the price war in mobile calling rates disrupted the pricing structure and revenue expectations in telecoms market. This has resulted in a re-evaluation by each operator of their capital expenditure costs.” The outcome, according to the telecom analyst, is that no operator is willing to stump up the extensive outlays necessary to make data work efficiently.

On the other hand, several operators own in-land fibre networks but coverage is limited and there is too much duplication. Lending his view, Kazeem Oladepo, head of legal, Main One Cable Company opined that telcos are unwilling to share infrastructure and in cases where they do agree to share infrastructure, they charge very high prices, often for strategic reasons. Meanwhile, Ojobo revealed that a major appeal of the strategy is that the federal government will offer subsidies to enable broadband services to the under-served and un-served areas of the country where it may not be economically viable to deploy fibre.

According to the NCC director, “the strategy will also ensure that investors make decent profit, adding that the federal government is highly supportive of the commission’s drive to encourage capital investment in broadband infrastructure deployment. The commission is in the process of accessing what’s on ground in terms of infrastructure and demand to determine the final framework. We will soon spell out in detail what we will do in this regard.”

Eugene Juwah, NCC’s CEO had earlier disclosed that the implementation of this model would bridge the gaps in broadband deployment, eliminate last mile issues, reduce the price of bandwidth for end users and unlock the market for massive broadband usage in the country. During the implementation, the commission will issue licenses in the passive and active layers respectively while price caps will be implemented in these layers using cost based pricing.
Recasting government’s objectives as recently indicated by the Communications Technology Omobola Johnson, the NCC has indicated that Nigeria’s expectations by 2015 is to achieve 12percent broadband penetration, 80 percent mobile penetration, 2 percent fixed line growth, 34 percent internet growth and 12 percent PC penetration. Commenting on the issue of poor quality of service prevalent in Nigeria’s highly competitive telecoms industry, Ojobo noted that after the 30-day deadline, the NCC would conduct another independent monitoring to ascertain if there is significant service improvements based on four key performance indicators (KPIs) as indicated by the commission.

For Emmanuel Ekuwem, Immediate Past President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the nation will achieve speedy development in 2012 if the country embrace broadband internet to its fullest. According to him, broadband internet access would enhance efforts at job creation, wealth creation and poverty alleviation. “ICT will accelerate our meeting of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It will engender an overall national economic growth and development. We will all gladly experience an ICT-based increase in our GDP.

“Who will not be happy to see a creative explosion of a feeling of national rebirth and well-being among the citizens of Nigeria? All these good things can only be possible when we have a ubiquitous availability of broadband services in Nigeria,” Ekuwem disclosed. It would be recalled that NCC had threatened to stop the three major mobile operators, MTN, Glo and Airtel from further sale of SIM cards from December, this year, if they fail to meet the target set by the Commission to improve on quality of service.

MTN targets data market, Multilinks backbone network

Ben Uzor Jr

Fresh information has emerged that Nigeria’s dominant telecommunications operator, MTN is bidding for beleaguered CDMA operator, Multilinks’ backbone transmission network. Analyst told Business Day yesterday that MTN was keen on maintaining market leadership in the data segment of the country’s highly competitive telecoms market. As at March this year, official subscriber statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that MTN had 40.2 million subscribers, while Globacom had 19.9 million; Airtel had 16.1 million and Etisalat had 7.2 million, in the voice segment.

A senior executive at MTN told Business Day that the company ‘was unable to comment at this time’. Industry players are all agreed however, that market focus is shifting from voice to internet and data services, which are of high value for business, education, social and entertainment purposes. Industry watchers also maintain that MTN’s purported bid for Multilink’s fibre transmission backbone is particularly an ardent struggle for the data and internet services market, as well as for the bulk (carriers-carrier) market. Business Day had earlier reported that Helios Towers Nigeria plans to sell the mobile phone business it legitimately inherited as part of an acquisition of Multilinks.

Helios Nigeria which builds, buys and rents towers used by telecoms operators acquired Multilinks assets from Telkom after the South African mobile operator attempted to offload its shareholdings in the loss-making venture to a third party earlier. Informed sources however told Business Day yesterday that Stanbic Bank was managing the process of the sale. According to our source, Multilink’s ‘crown jewel’ is its robust terrestrial fibre optic network connecting 21 of Nigeria’s 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with an estimated construction cost of over $150 million.

On the other hand, MTN owns the largest transmission network in Nigeria and there are concerns amongst stakeholders that the acquisition of Multilinks backbone, will mean that the company will own substantially more than 50 percent of long distance transmission networks in Nigeria. Industry watchers say the limited availability and exorbitant price of long distance national transmission capacity needed to move available bandwidth capacity emanating from the underwater cables on the country’s coastline is the fundamental drawback to access to efficient and reasonably priced broadband internet services.

It has been discovered that the price of moving internet capacity from Lagos to Abuja is much higher than the cost of moving capacity from Lagos to London, due to the dearth of transmission backbone network. According to analysts, the development of the broadband market in Nigeria and the availability of internet access to as wide a population as possible, at a lower cost was largely dependent on the reduction of transmission costs. There is concern among telecoms officials about a concentration of market power and the negative impact this might have on competition and pricing.

Vodacom re-enters telecoms market, vows to reduce internet transmission costs

Ben Uzor Jr & Loveth Anazodo-Udeh

Following the successful acquisition of the carrier services and business network solutions subsidiaries of Gateway Telecommunications SA for $700 million, Vodacom Group, yesterday declared its re-entry into Nigeria’s highly competitive telecommunications market. The firm has also promised to significantly reduce the cost of moving bandwidth capacity emanating from the underwater cables specifically for corporates by virtue of its robust national terrestrial network covering 26 states in the country. Vodacom said it had discovered that the price of moving internet capacity from Lagos to Abuja is much higher than the cost of moving capacity from Lagos to London due to poor transmission backbone.

Speaking at a press briefing held in Lagos yesterday, Guy Clark, managing director, Vodacom Business Nigeria disclosed that the telecoms company was not operating as a GSM player but has aligned its infrastructure deployment strategy with that of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the new ministry of communications technology’s broadband strategy. The strategy, according to Vodacom, under an open access model will strengthen investment in the area of deploying in-land distribution fibre networks needed to move available bandwidth capacity around the length and breadth of the country. “In 2009, we acquired a company called Gateway Business which was called GS telecom.

“We have spent the last 18 months investing in people, infrastructure and our partners. We have deployed MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) network in Nigeria today which covers 26 states. By the end of our financial year, we will be in all 36 states of the federation. We are not in Nigeria as a GSM company but we anticipated the coming of the submarine cables. The ministry of communications technology and the NCC are earnestly looking for how to take the available bandwidth on the country’s shores to the consumer. We have invested significantly in our MPLS network across Nigeria. We have aligned our infrastructure with the broadband strategy of NCC and the ministry of ICT”, he stated.

Industry analysts told Business Day yesterday that the Vodacom Group still rues its decision to pull out of Nigeria which the company blamed on ‘inappropriate level of risk in the environment’ and other issues bordering on ‘corporate governance and trust’. According to them, Vodacom may be looking to play a fundamental role in NCC’s broadband strategy. However, Clark did not indicate Vodacom’s intention to acquire any licence under a new regime aimed at improving Nigeria’s internet penetration. Commenting on the re-brand, Clark said: “The introduction of Vodacom Business to the Nigerian market is far more than just a new name, logo and colour. We have shifted the way we do things in Nigeria.

“We have made significant investment in our staff together with facilities upgrades and the deployment of our national terrestrial MPLS network. This network roll-out is further supported by our carrier grade Broadband Wireless Access Network allowing Vodacom Business to deliver services end-to-end.” In the same vein, Louisa Van Beek, chief executive officer, Vodacom Business Africa noted, “The rebrand is expected to accelerate Vodacom Business’ operations with customers in the banking and finance, insurance, education and hospitality industries –key markets earmarked for expansion. Its widespread terrestrial MPLS network that spans over 40 African countries is key to delivering upon this objective.

“As new fibre cables arrive into Nigeria, communications models and Enterprise service availability is changing at a rapid pace. We are taking the lead to provide our customers with a diversified portfolio of services that they tailor for their respective businesses. It is an exciting prospect to have the privilege of a new brand at our disposal to arm our efforts going forward and we look forward to watching the growth and development of our business into the future”, she concluded.

FG targets new stream of telecom investment seen in broadband

Ben Uzor Jr

Nigeria’s internet access problem characterised by slow and exasperating access to the cyberspace even with the growing number of underwater cable systems on the country’s coast line, would soon become a thing of the past. The federal government has opened its doors to the global investment community through the adoption of an open access model, strategically designed to strengthen investment in the area of deploying in-land fibre networks needed to move available bandwidth capacity around the length and breadth of the country. Tony Ojobo, director, public affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), made this known during a courtesy visit to BusinessDay’s head office in Lagos.

The adoption of the model, according to him, is to basically preclude existing challenges posed by some operational drawbacks arising from functions of different government agencies, including urban and regional administrative setups which impinge on the right-of-way of facility deployments. Analysts had earlier warned that Nigeria’s prospects of enjoying reasonably priced and efficient broadband services was been derailed by the indiscriminate and sometimes absurd levies charged by various agencies and state governments on right-of-way approvals for deployment of in-country fibre transmission links. He said significant capital investment was still required to distribute bandwidth capacity across the country.

Nigeria boasts of four undersea fibre optic cables: SAT-3 managed exclusively by ailing Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), privately owned cable Main One cable, operator –run Glo-1 cable and WACS initiated by a consortium of firm including MTN. “Yes, the submarine cables have landed but we still require huge levels of investment in infrastructure for majority of the Nigerian populace to enjoy the benefits of broadband internet services. I hope that when the infrastructure providers are licensed in an open access model, we will have more investment in that area. There is a sense of urgency in the commission to catch up with the rest of the world in the area of broadband internet”, Ojobo said.

Kenneth Omeruo, a telecoms analyst agrees with Ojobo, saying the main hurdle has been the high cost of infrastructure investment required to extend the international capacity into the hinterland. According to him, “the price war in mobile calling rates disrupted the pricing structure and revenue expectations in the telecoms market. This, he further explained has resulted “in a re-evaluation by each operator ,of their capital expenditure costs.” The outcome, according to him, is that no operator is willing to stump up the extensive outlays necessary to make data work efficiently. On the other hand, several operators own in-land fibre networks but coverage is limited and there is too much duplication.

Kazeem Oladepo, head of legal, Main One Cable Company said telcos are unwilling to share infrastructure and in cases where they do agree to share, they charge very high prices, often for strategic reasons. Ojobo said a major appeal of the strategy is that the federal government will offer subsidies to enable broadband services to the under-served and un-served areas of the country where it may not be economically viable to deploy fibre. According to the NCC director, the strategy will also ensure that investors make decent profit, adding that the federal government is highly supportive of the commission’s drive to encourage capital investment in broadband infrastructure deployment.

Why Nokia, Samsung, LG can’t manufacture handsets in Nigeria

• Unfavourable business environment
Ben Uzor Jr


Nigeria’s poor business environment, manifest by absence of proper intellectual property (IP) protection controls and dearth of public infrastructure, remains the critical drawback discouraging foreign investments in the area of establishing mobile phone factories in the country, global handset makers have said. If Nigeria does not swiftly address these impediments to enterprise growth and development, phone makers such as Samsung, LG and Nokia have warned, investments in mobile phone factories will remain an illusion, inspite of the country’s enormous mobile device market.

This is coming on the heels of a recent proclamation by the minister of Communication Technology, Omobola Johnson, at a presidential retreat with the private sector recently, that Nigeria’s competitive telecommunications landscape and its attendant potentials were enough incentive for global phone manufacturers and SIM (Subscriber Information Module) card manufacturers, to set up factories in the country. Prospective financiers and investors, according the phone makers, are more often than not, apprehensive that their investments could be negated by these barriers.

The delicate process of making phones, especially smart phones, they say, requires a high degree of technological advancement, which Nigeria currently lacks. “Assembling of phones is a delicate industry and smart phone manufacturing is even more delicate. “In my opinion, countries that lack requisite labour laws, IP protection controls, basic infrastructure such electricity, and have a high operational costs, are least considered when decisions are being made, with regard to investments in local factories”, Fady Khatib, regional director, hand held phones; Samsung West Africa, told Business Day in an interview.

Lanre Ajayi, past president, Nigerian Internet Group (NIG) agrees with Khatib that poor business environment remains a fundamental challenge hindering investment, not just in the telecoms markets but in other sectors of the economy. “In countries like China, Thailand, governments of these countries build industrial and technology parks with requisite infrastructure such as power, broadband internet etc. All an investor needs to do, is come with a good idea and technology and start business. They have a one stop shop, where issues relating to land use, registering the business are all addressed.

“If an investor sees a country with this type of business environment, do you think that investor will want to come to Nigeria? Our government must strive to create a conducive business environment that would be attractive to investors. I support the minister’s call for these phone firms to invest in factories in Nigeria, going by the enormous profits they make here. They should be able to plough back some of their profits into the country. This market is huge and if they set up plants here, chances are that they will make more revenue. The government is working tirelessly to address these challenges.

“Our government needs to find ways of making the country attractive to foreign investors, such as granting tax rebates and so on”, Ajayi said in an interview with Business Day. Osagie Ogunbor, communications manager for Nokia West Africa told Business Day yesterday that such decisions (establishment of phone factories) are taken as a matter of business expediency. “I believe that phone makers can still grow the Nigerian economy without establishing a phone factory here. We are employing many Nigerians directly and indirectly. We have a platform that encourages indigenous applications developers.”