Government needs to get digital infrastructure right, which will in turn benefit Nigeria’s ICT, telecommunication sectors and government’s digital economic agenda.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) stated this at the 2022 ICTEL expo themed: ‘Ensuring Efficient Digital Infrastructure in Nigeria.’
President of the chamber, Dr Michael Olawale-Cole, said the 2022 ICTEL EXPO is giving deserved focus to digital infrastructure because, over the decades, next to corruption, poor infrastructure is Nigeria’s greatest socio-economic development challenge.
“The ones commonly focused on are power, roads, water. We dare say however that, as critical as the listed ones and indeed others not listed are, if Nigeria gets digital infrastructure right, the benefits to the nation’s ICT and telecommunication sectors and on government’s digital economy agenda would be enormous. Indeed, the multiplier effects of an effective and efficient digital infrastructure in our country on national development cannot be overemphasised,” he said.
He pointed out that, “this is clearly because virtually everything is now done electronically, thereby making issues like access, internet of things, right of way, broadband penetration, policies, regulation, cyber security, among others matters of great concern.”
The LCCI president said, the theme of this year’s edition of the ICTEL EXPO was intentionally chosen to reflect the chamber’s determination to follow it through and ensure follow-up initiatives that would make the communique from the event’s robust interaction a working manual for relevant stakeholders.
He said, this was so in view of the federal government’s set target of $40 billion private capital investment in digital infrastructure by 2025, besides facilitating about $1 billion in private equity.
“Just last week, the federal government inaugurated the National Council on Infrastructure, with a plan of doubling Nigeria’s infrastructure stock of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the prevailing 35 per cent to about 70 per cent.
“The issue has always not been with good initiatives, but in their implementation. That remains a big concern to us as a Chamber, hence the desire to make a difference with the 2022 ICTEL EXPO,” Olawale-Cole said.
Also speaking, the managing director/ chief executive officer (CEO) of Unitellas Edge Cloud, Mr. Smith Osemeke, said the challenge of online learning in Nigeria still boils down to digital infrastructure hence, the need to interrogate what government is doing to ensure the required infrastructure are available locally.
“There is need to create more awareness about our local capabilities. The infrastructure is here to drive Nigeria’s digital transformation. We must encourage local content to create jobs and conserve foreign exchange,” Osemeke said.
