CURRENT STATUS OF ICT IN
NIGERIA
• “Economic, Social and Legal Aspects
of The Internet”
February 16 – 26, 2005; Seoul, Korea.
Chinedu C. Okpaleke
Nigeria Development Gateway
cokpaleke@yahoo.com
Content
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General Country Information
Structure of ICT Sector
ICT Policy & Legislation
Law on Information Technology
- Nigerian National IT Policy
- National Computer Security and Protection Bill
Telecommunications Sector
- Fixed Telephony Network
- Cellular and GSM Network
- GSM Operators (Market Share)
Internet and Data communication
- Internet Usage Statistics
- National Internet Spread
Local Computer Manufacture/Assembly
Broadcasting: TV, Radio, Cable TV
Current Status of ICT Development in Nigeria 2004
Conclusions
General Country Information
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Land Area: 923,768 sq. km
Population: 133,881,703 (July 2001 Estimate)
Administrative Divisions: 36 States and I Federal Territory (Capital)
and about 740 Local Government Councils
GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $114.8 billion USD (2004 Est.)
GDP Growth: 7.1%
Inflation Rate: 6.5%
Literacy Rate: 68%
Industries: Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Coal, Tin, Zinc, Columbite, Palm
Oil, Peanuts, Cotton, Rubber, Wood, Hides & Skins, Textiles, Cement &
other Construction materials, Steel etc.
Export Commodities: Petroleum & Petroleum Products (95%), Cocoa,
Rubber
Internet Users: 750,000 (2003 Est.)
Telecommunications sub-sector liberalisation: Domestic - 1992; GSM
Licensing – 2001/2002; Domestic long distance & international - 2002.
Nigeria
Structure of ICT Sector
Authorities:
- Federal Ministry of Science and Technology
- Federal Ministry of Communications
- National Information Technology Development Agency
- Nigerian Communications Commission
Associations and NGOs:
- Nigeria Development Gateway
- Nigeria Internet Group
- Nigeria Computer Society
- Association Of Telecom Companies Of Nigeria
- Nigeria Information Technology Professionals in the Americas (NITPA)
- Computer Professionals Registration Council
- Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria;
Among several others.
ICT POLICY & LEGISLATION
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Nigeria Communications Act 2003
Wireless Telegraphy Act 1990
National IT Policy, Nigeria 2001
Computer Security & Protection Bill
(Still in review and Yet to be passed
into Law)
• Electronic Media Deregulation Act 1992
Nigerian National Policy for
Information Technology
http://www.nitda.org/docs/policy/ngitpolicy.pdf
Chapters:
 Human Resource Development
 Infrastructure
 Governance
 Research & Development
 Health
 Agriculture
 Urban & Rural Development
 Trade & Commerce
 Fiscal Measures
 Government & Private Sector Partnerships
 Arts, Culture & Tourism
 National Security & Law
 Legislation
 Global Consideration
 IT Popularization & Awareness
 Policy Implementation
National Computer Security and
Protection Bill
• Covers a wide range of issues including:
- Computer Contamination (SPAM),
- Illegal Communications,
- Computer Vandalism,
- Cyber-squatting,
- Cyber-terrorism,
- 0nline Intellectual Property Rights
Infringement
- Cyber-pornography etc.
Telecommunications Sector
• This sector has recorded more than 206.5%
growth between 2002 and 2004, making
Nigeria Africa’s and one of the world’s fastest
growing telecommunications market, at
present.
• Number of Telecoms licensees: 445
• Active Operators (mobile, fixed, value-added
services – VAS): 99 (or 22.25%).
• New/Additional mobile phone licenses will be
granted by the government through the NCC
this year, 2005.
Fixed Telephony Network
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Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd. (NITEL) - Pioneer and Government owned.
Has a limited Fixed Line infrastructure. It has a present capacity of about
700,000 lines (about 450,000 currently functioning).
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Private Telecommunications Operators (PTOs) include Intercellular, MultiLinks, Reliance (Reltel), Starcomms, Cellcom, among others. These operators
provide Fixed Wireless Access and account for about 250,000 telephone
subscribers.
Total Telephony Density: 10 MILLION LINES (December 2004 Est.). Nigerian
Communications Commission projects that the figure will rise to 20 Million in
2005.
Telephony density/Percentage penetration per 100 people: 7.08 (Increase of
about 206% from 2003 teledensity of 2.31). Teledensity and telephony
infrastructure are concentrated mainly in the urban and metropolitan areas.
Limited Fixed Line infrastructure and slow pace of growth in the Fixed Line
sector are presently inhibiting Internet access growth.
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RURAL TELEPHONY efforts have been commenced by NITEL, using CDMA 450
technology in purely rural areas. NITEL has also commenced building new
networks using wireless CDMA 1900 technology in some urban and
metropolitan areas, in partnership with HUAWEI Technologies Co. Ltd. Of China.
Cellular, WLL and GSM Network
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About 4 Operators provide GSM cellular telephone services
- MTEL
- MTN
- VMobile (formerly Econet Nigeria)
- Globacomm
Data services such as SMS and WAP are offered by these GSM networks, while
Globacomm also offers General Packet Radio Services (GPRS). Some of these
GSM networks have roaming agreements with other international networks.
The PTOs such as Starcomm, Reliance Telecoms (Reltel), Intercellular etc. also
provide limited mobility telephones.
Percentage mobile phone growth between December 2001 and December 2002
was 593 and mobile subscribers increased from a mere 25,000 in 1999 to
3.1million in 2003, making Nigeria one of the world’s fastest growing mobile
(GSM) market.
Cellular telephony density has risen to about 7 million lines and is expected to
further increase with the grant of new licenses this year and increased
competition among the telecom companies .
More than 80% of the subscribers are in the urban and metropolitan areas.
(ii) GSM Operators
(Market Share)
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Source NITDA IT Baseline Studies – March 2004; NSL Consulting)
12.1
12.1
30.3
45.5
MTN
ECONET
M-Tel
GLOBACOM
Growth of fixed and cellular phone
subscribers
Years 1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Fixed
553,000 600,000 702,000 853,000 N/A
473,000
Cellul
ar
25,000
30,000
266,000
1,608,000
3,149,000
7,000,000
Internet and Data-communication
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 40
• Service types:
Wireless, Dedicated line, VSAT, Dial-up
- email, Web, VoIP, Fax
• Registration of “.ng” domain name: Since
March 1995
• Internet/Cyber cafes: No available data
Internet Usage Statistics
(Source: NITDA IT Baseline Studies – March, 2004, NSL Consulting).
• Proportion of Internet Utilization By Age Groups
5%
14%
17%
45%
11-20
Years
21-30
Years
31-40
Years
41+
NATIONAL INTERNET SPREAD
• Internet Access
Points (IAPs)
IAP Density: 5 IAP per
1000 people
(Assuming 130million
– conservative
estimatepopulation)
Organizati 530,720
ons
77%
Homes
122,431
18%
Cybercafes
32,060
5%
TOTAL
685,211
100%
Local Computer
Manufacture/Assembly
• Four local PC assembly plants have been endorsed by the
Nigerian government for assembly and manufacture of PCs and
computer hardware. They have a combined capacity to produce
about 1,050 PCs a day.
• 2 major players in this sub-sector are ZINOX Technologies and
OMATEK Computers.
• There is a thriving informal market which mainly produce
clones.
• A survey of the quantity of branded Computers produced
indicate as follows:
Personal Computers: 20,000 per month
Laptops: 4,450 per month
UPS: 18,140 per month.
Government support and further incentives will facilitate growth of
the this sub-sector, as well as increased local patronage of
these products.
Broadcasting: TV, Radio, Cable TV
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The national TV and radio broadcasts are transmitted via
satellite. There is a domestic communications satellite system with 19
earth stations.
• Television Broadcast Stations:
- Public/Federal Government Owned TV: 39 Stations all under the
Nigeria Television Authority
- Private TV Stations: 16
• Radio Stations:
- Public/Federal Government owned: 2 (FRCN and Voice of Nigeria,
which broadcasts external news bulletins and programmes in 6
different languages including English, French, Arabic, Hausa, Fulfulde
and Swahili).
- Private Radio Stations: 32
- State Government owned TV and Radio Stations: 46
AM Radio Stations : 83
FM: 36
Shortwave:11 (2001 Est.)
These broadcasting stations (radio and TV) are mostly located
in urban/metropolitan areas (mostly state capitals), but several are
received clearly in rural areas.
Current Status of ICT IN Nigeria
• A study conducted by the Nigeria
Development Gateway collaborative.
• The study provides an in-depth analysis and
examination of the current status of the
Nigerian ICT sector. It covers statistics on
Internet use in Nigeria (presently restricted to
the urban areas and not available in rural
areas). It also gives a fair idea of Nigeria’s
readiness to fully participate in the global
network, in this era of globalization.
Conclusions
• The Nigerian market for basic telecommunication network
based services has been witnessing outstanding growth since
its liberalisation and roll-out of GSM licensees’ services from
2001.
• There is growing and wide-spread availability of mobile
telephones, but the growth in the fixed/main line telephone subsector is still relatively slow.
• There is broad availability of telephones, value added services,
Internet access in the urban areas and capital cities (with the
highest concentration in the commercial capital, Lagos,
followed by other big urban centers like Portharcort, Abuja,
etc.), but access in rural areas remains limited and virtually
non-existent in some rural areas, thus contributing to an intracountry digital-divide.
Conclusions (contd.)
• Internet services charges are still relatively
high among the ISPs but the existence of
Internet/Cyber cafes makes access readily
available to the mass-market. Value added
and cheaper Internet services offered by the
Private Telecommunications Operators have
further eaten into the ISPs niche market but
have made Internet services more readily
accessible to a wider range of subscribers.
Conclusions (Contd.)
• ISP companies have concentrated their
services mostly within major metropolitan
cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Portharcort,
Kaduna, Enugu, Owerri and Kano, to mention
a few.
• There is urgent need for government
incentives for service providers, aimed at
encouraging them to improve availability of
their services to rural areas and the smaller
urban areas, thereby reducing the
technological gap between the urban and
rural areas.
Conclusions (contd.)
• The government should hasten the process for the
enactment of a cyber-crime law; in particular the
process for the passing of the National Computer
Security and Protection Bill into law should be
hastened in order to sanitize the Nigerian
cyberspace and encourage e-Commerce and the
growth of e-Banking.
• In spite of growing computerization and the growth
of local computer manufacture and assembly, 80% of
small businesses do not own a single PC and about
95% of public educational institutions do not own or
have access to modern PCs.
Conclusions (contd.)
• Research institutions do not have adequate
number of computers and the number
available are not suited to the particular
purpose.
• There is a yearning thirst for new
technologies among the general populace as
evidenced by the fast and unprecedented
growth in the telecommunication mobile
(GSM) phone sub-sector and the slow but
steady growth of the local computer
manufacture/assembly market, as well as the
growing interest in cyber-cafes.
Conclusions (contd.)
• More incentives should be given by the
government to local manufacturers of PCs by
way of increased patronage and tax/duty
waivers in order to engender the type of
growth witnessed in the telecommunications
sector, in this vital sector.
• The NCC should address in a more concrete
and effective manner, interconnectivity
problems and issues among the GSM
operators, as well as the national fixed line
operator, NITEL to further reduce incidents of
dropped calls and poor access.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION.
(End)