The ICT sector has no doubt contributed immensely to the sustainability of the Nigerian economy, serving as a key catalyst in driving productivity in all sectors of the economy, including Agriculture, Education, Manufacturing, and Healthcare.
This has enables the ICT sector to contribute 18.44 per cent to Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2022, surpassing the contribution of the fourth quarter in 2021 which was 15.21 per cent.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, said Nigeria’s ICT industry has recorded incredible growth, leading to socio-economic development not just in the country but also across Africa.
Pantami, however, attributed this growth to the implementation of vigorous financial inclusion initiatives riding on robust digital infrastructure and with the deployment of 5G, the sector is expected to experience tremendous growth.
Deployment of 5G
The telecommunications industry has played a vital role in extending connectivity to practically all areas of the country. Over the years, cellular data coverage has moved from 1G to 2G to 3G to 4G, and now 5G.
MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, being one of the few network providers to be awarded the spectrum in Nigeria, became the first to launch the 5G network in August 2022. The 5G network is intended to change the dynamics of life.
With MTN’s roll-out, Nigeria joins Botswana, Egypt, Gabon, Lesotho, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Kenya, and Ethiopia in the quest for mainstream 5G adoption. The 5G network is 50 times faster than the 4G network, has a lower latency of fewer than five milliseconds, and enables advanced healthcare (telemedicine), more realistic gaming (AR and VR), real-life collaboration, and speed.
Group CEO/president of MTN Group, Ralph Mupita, said: “the catalyst for Africa’s growth is using 5G for B2B applications/margination. We will find in five years, maybe even sooner, that on the African continent, 5G enabled economies to accelerate their industrial development across all sectors. We will look back and say that the investment in 5G is what has catapulted the continent to meet its potential fully, and this is for Nigeria as well.”
While fibre deployment in Nigeria is still low and would hinder smooth 5G connectivity, the Lagos state government has taken the initiative to deepen internet penetration, the deputy governor of Lagos state, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat has stated, adding that, the state has concluded over 2,900km of optic fibre deployment, connecting about 100 schools.“
„We have partnered with some telcos that are using our installed fibre optic ducts to power their 5G based stations. As you well know MTN launched its 5G service this year. The ducts we have installed has further enabled significant de-risking of this telco infrastructure market,” he added.
Start-ups
Over the years, Nigeria has dominated the start-up scene in Africa, due to internet ecosystem and its talented youthful population.
For instance, the West African Start-up Decade Report by technology company Techpoint Africa, revealed that, Nigeria accounted for 86.3 per cent of the $1.8 billion raised by 51 start-ups in the region between 2010 and 2019, with Lagos state gulfing $1.5 billion out of the national figure of $1.8 billion.
The special advisor on Innovation and Technology, Lagos state, Olatubosun Alake, said about 107 technology Start-ups have raised funding in Lagos to the tune of $750 million in 2022, adding that, between 20,000 and 50,000 people are employed by different Start-ups across the innovation sector.
The special advisor attributed this success to the hub and co-working spaces that have been put in place by the state government to incubate and accelerate the Start-ups in the sector. “We also have the university initiatives, local and foreign investment which have been driving growth in the ecosystem,” he added.
In the same vein, the deputy governor of Lagos state, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, disclosed that the state recorded over 2000 Start-ups creating and contributing value across Fintech, Agritech, Construction and Health among others, adding that all these point to an open and enabling environment for the growth and proliferation of entrepreneurial activity within the technology ecosystem.
Brain Drain
With these achievements also came the challenges, of which the most prominent in 2022 was brain drain. The mass resignation of software engineers in most commercial banks across the country for greener pastures abroad, threatened the digitisation in the banking sector.
It was learnt that more than 500 software engineers secured better offers abroad in 2022, majorly in Canada and European countries where the emolument far outweighs what they were paid in the Nigerian banking sector as they are paid in foreign currency at a time the nation’s Naira has seriously depreciated.
Managing director and chief executive of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Sulieman, in April 2022, said stakeholders extensively discussed the impact of the great resignation, where with so many of varied experience talent, especially in the areas of software engineering, either leaving the industry or leaving the country.
Thus, he said, the banks had committed to using industry platform, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), to drive the process of training more skills in the areas where there has been evident deficit.
In the same vein, the president of CIBN, Mr. Ken Opara noted that, the industry is currently suffering from talent drain. According to him, “this year alone, there is a whole lot of resignations and people leaving the industry particularly the younger ones. The figure is quite high.”
For the ICT sector, the story is not so different as a lot of tech developers are either leaving Nigeria in search of ICT job that pays better or working remotely.
Recruiting in the tech industry was on the rise in 2022, with foreign companies reporting they are hiring “at or beyond pre-pandemic levels,” the Robert Half Technology’s 2022 IT salary report revealed.
The most in-demand tech jobs for 2022 were Information security analyst, security analysts, Software developer, Network and computer systems administrator, Computer programmer, web developer, Computer and information systems manager and system analyst, among others, said CIO.
The managing director and CEO, eStream Network, Martins Akingba, told LEADERSHIP that, brain drain is a major challenge in the ICT sector, as a lot of developers have migrated to other countries in search of greener pastures.
However, the CEO said, majority of business owners have decided to go into automation. “We implement processes on systems that automate our operations, such that even when people go, it will not disrupt our business,” he explained.
Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, (ALTON) Engr. Gbenga Adebayo added his voice when he said, it will be difficult to talk about a better Nigeria without considering the negative impact of mass migration of youthful population on the economy and its future.
Adebayo said migration may impose high human capital cost for the country by leaving the country without the human capital necessary to achieve long-term economic growth.
He revealed that the migration problem is due to lack of employment and social guarantees on the young population and not due to any political persecution.
“The most negative impact on our country is the fact that young graduates (and our highly skilled professionals) leave the country for better opportunities. Today many of our engineers, IT specialists, doctors, nurses, engineers, and very brilliant professionals are lost to other countries,” he added.
Adebayo said, Nigeria has great potentials, adding that, “we are blessed with many natural resources, we are free of many natural disasters, a large proportion of our population are young people, an age bracket that most of you in this hall belong to, if you ‚japa‘ the country will rely on foreigners for needed skills in the future.
