NIGERIA Invest in 2012-13 - Newsdesk Media

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INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
One of NIgeria’s priorities is to encourage
private operators to roll out a nationwide
high-speed internet infrastructure
internet infrastructure, using fibre-optic networks, along
with microwave wireless and satellite broadband services, to
reach otherwise hard-to-serve rural areas. Existing government
buildings, including post offices, schools and libraries, would
be used as platforms for extending ICT to rural communities.
The aim, the Ministry of Communication Technology says,
is to increase the number of internet users in the country
from 33 million to 70 million.
At the unveiling of the new policy, Johnson said that for
Nigeria to participate properly in the information age the
numerous challenges plaguing the country’s ICT development
– including inadequate infrastructure, an inadequate legal and
regulatory framework, a lack of universal access to ICT, and
insufficient local content – “must be effectively addressed”.
Addressing those challenges, of course, will be made
much easier with the help of foreign investors, which is
exactly why the Youth Empowerment and ICT Foundation
programme includes companies such as Google, Microsoft
and IBM among its sponsors. Back in September 2011,
Nigeria announced as one of the strands of its ICT policy
the creation of frameworks for establishing collaboration
and partnerships between Nigeria and countries with
developed IT industries. The Nigerian government also
wants to see multinationals increase the priority of the
Nigerian market within their organisations, and deepen
the experience of their Nigerian subsidiaries.
One pioneer in this area is Samsung Electronics, the
Korean IT giant, whose Nigerian subsidiary is in talks with the
INvEST IN NIGERIA 2012-13
government of Osun state in the southwest of the country for a
partnership that will see, among other initiatives, nine of
Samsung’s Life Academies in the state, and training schemes
for young people to learn how to repair high-tech devices.
Nigeria has a number of strengths as a target for foreign
direct investment (FDI), as proclaimed by a conference on
attracting more FDI into the country, organised by the Ministry
of Communication Technology in November 2011. These
include the existence of a large and attractive domestic market
with high unmet demand for basic goods and services; an
increasingly sophisticated and growing middle class; good
labour market efficiency, with a high degree of flexibility;
increasing business sophistication and plenty of local suppliers
engaged in a range of activities along value chains.
The problems, however, include the continuing existence
of trade barriers such as high tariffs and burdensome customs
procedures; a sometimes inefficient use of labour and a need
not only for improvements in the quality of goods and services
from local suppliers, but also in the basics of the quality of
education and the quality of entrants into the workforce.
Other difficulties that officials and politicians admit to
include problems in enforcing property rights and intellectual
property; the need for more efficient government spending,
improved accountability and auditing and reporting standards;
and the need to arrest a declining security situation. Significant
improvements in the availability and quality of physical
infrastructure are also required, not just in the ICT area but
also in basics such as transportation, power and ports. If it
wants to attract more FDI, the ministry said, Nigeria also
needs big improvements in its healthcare set-up; the impact of
health issues on businesses is “significant”, it revealed.
There is no doubt that Nigeria has the talent to become
a power in the world of ICT: sadly, at the moment, much of
that talent is going abroad. According to the United States
census, in the US alone there are 174,000 IT specialists
of Nigerian descent, working in telecommunications,
programming, software project management and application
development. One hope of the Nigerian government is that
by making Nigeria’s own IT industry more vibrant and
attractive, with the help of FDI, at least some of that
“brain drain” can be reversed, and the native-born IT talent
can be encouraged to come back home. ■
Martyn Cornell is a business journalist whose work has featured
in The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Observer and Daily
Telegraph, The National in the UAE and the South China Morning
Post in Hong Kong