The Federal Government’s plan to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables across the country will face several obstacles, especially from state governments, that might truncate the project.
This was the submission of the Stakeholders in the telecommunications industry who spoke during the sixth edition of the Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFO) in Lagos on Wednesday. The Forum was focused on Nigeria’s renewed strategic agenda for the digital economy.
According to the stakeholders, without solving the existing problem of priority charges, high taxes and tariffs controlled by different state governments in the country, the project will have to be implemented through a special purpose vehicle (SPV), for it not to be a futile exercise.
They emphasized the need to implement the project recently announced by the Federal Government to complement the existing infrastructure to provide internet access to everyone in Nigeria and provide the Nigerian technology economy with the backbone infrastructure it needs.
In an article on ‘Harmonizing Nigeria’s Fibre Deployment Strategies for Effective Implementation’, MChidi Ibisi, CEO of Broadbased Communications, said the government’s SPV initiative is a good initiative that integrates modern technological technologies in the country. It can help with infrastructure. The government must find solutions to current problems.
“The issues of high Right of Way (RoW) costs, destruction of fibre by road construction companies and vandals all need to be addressed for this new SPV program to be successful,” Ibisi said
Chidi Ajuzie, Group Managing Director of WTES Projects Limited, said telecommunications operators are having challenges in rolling out infrastructure, adding that the biggest difficulty in rolling out fibre optic cable in Nigeria is the lack of right of access and social housing.
“A common right of way has been established for the state and some states adopted it, but the informal side of the right of way is where it is difficult today.
“When I try to lay fibre in some communities in Lagos, the first thing that happens is the so-called landowners (omo onile) show up and a few people keep moving from one street to another and demanding fees. How can we create a large enough infrastructure like this?” he said.
According to the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Engr. Gbenga Adebayo said that for the 90,000 km fibre optic project to be completed, national governments must own the project.
“I think that for the project to be successful, the governments at sub-nationals should take ownership. The state government’s problem of finding a good route of generating income like the IGR should be a thing of the past. We cannot be talking about the digital economy, and the government sees service providers as a source of revenue.
“The government has always come up with good policies, but the implantation, particularly when they are tested far afield, is the biggest problem. Governors will go to Abuja and say ‘in my state, I will give the right of way free of charge.’
“When you go to such a state, they may give you the right of way for zero or one Naira, but they will give you developmental levy, education levy, state impact levy, ecosystem levy. When you add all of these together, it is more than the right of way charges. So, who is playing who?” he said.
Making vital contributions at the forum, Dr. Ayotunde Coker, the Chief Executive Officer of Open Access Data Centre (OADC) stressed the need for the fibre project to be executed by the private sector even as the World Bank is expected to fund it with up to $3 billion.
He said: “the World Bank can put money into the government but it needs private sector partnerships as the execution engine and that’s what we’ve been pushing in Africa.
“The key thing is that when the World Bank puts the money in, it should engage the private sector, figure out the policies that it needs to do and enable the private sector to execute them effectively and make it as open as possible. With that, they can achieve what they are trying to achieve.”
He further stressed that for the success of the project, Nigeria should learn lessons of what didn’t work in the past, to achieve the new broadband penetration targets with the fibre range that is required.
“Meaningful broadband is what we need, rather than just a huge set of megabits per second implementation. We need superhighway fibres. We need the distribution of these backbone that allows us then to fan out.”
He further urged state governors to be part of the project by providing an enabling environment for infrastructure roll-out, adding: “if you are a state governor and didn’t participate in it, the state won’t grow and it’s going to impact your state.”
Earlier in his opening address, the convener of PIAFo, Omobayo Azeez, said the conference was to create a midpoint dialogue platform for digital economy stakeholders across both the public and private divides to brainstorm, exchange perspectives, clear grey areas, harmonize thoughts and create a sense of collective responsibility towards accelerating our collective prosperity through technical efficiency.
The event focused on Nigeria’s renewed strategic agenda for digital economy. According to him, the new digital economy blueprint of the federal government does not only sustain existing policy directions and targets, “it also challenges us on the possibilities of attaining new frontiers with a view to “Accelerating Our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency” which is the theme of the summit.
