As eNNOVATE prepares Nigerians for change

By Adewole Ojo

This year’s edition of eNNOVATE which held from August 16 to 18 at the MUSON Center in Lagos, would rank as perhaps the most phenomenal in recent time, not only on account of the ideas proffered but also for the early warning signs it proffers to the country on the coming revolution in the technology industry. eNNOVATE is an annual technology and value added services expo and conference series and entered its third edition in the just concluded event.

Clearly, it is no longer a question of “if”, it is now a question of “when” change, massive change will come. The key question implicit in the robust presentations by a crop of diverse experts in the ICT industry was: when that time comes, how prepared would our country and our people be to tap into and optimize the opportunities laden in this change and in so doing, creating value for ourselves and fast-tracking our country’s economic development.

The conference began with an evaluation of Internet penetration across the country. A country-wide research carried out by International Data Corporation, IDC and sponsored by global information and communications technology company, Cisco, was unveiled and presented at the opening event. Broadband penetration, it has been shown, has a definite correlation with economic development. Indeed the most developed countries across the world, also have the highest broadband penetration.

The reason is that the Internet has emerged as perhaps the world’s biggest driver of economic development. It has become an all-pervasive denominator of all facets of life from governance to work; from relationships to even play and relaxation. In all these areas, it facilitates efficiencies, productivity and naturally cost reduction. Those nations that are optimizing the benefits of the new global Internet regime are witnessing manifold impact on development.

Nigeria’s the broadband barometer revealed the very comparatively low household Internet penetration in Nigeria, not only with respect to countries like South Africa and Egypt, but indeed in comparison with the rest of the world. Only in very few homes are Nigerians privileged to use the Internet and even then the report says, cost of Internet service in

Nigeria is extremely high. This is not unconnected with the fact that internet service as provided to Nigerians is predominantly via the route of satellite (i.e by VSAT technology). Incidentally, satellite is both expensive and not-too-reliable, being susceptible to weather fluctuations and distortions. In most of the developed world, the report reveals, users are having to pay a fraction of what we pay in Nigeria for multiples of the bandwidth we contend with in Nigeria and at faster speeds too.

The Nigeria’s Broadband Barometer report is part of efforts by Cisco to draw sustained attention to the broadband situation in Nigeria as a forerunner to efforts by all stakeholders including government at shoring up the penetration of the Internet that has proven to be a potent tonic of economic development around the world.

Thereafter the program examined the issue of skills and capacity building. For if Nigeria is to take a place among the other nations of the world in optimizing benefit from ICT, then of course, it must also have an adequate pool of people who have been schooled as such and equipped with the skills to derive optimum value from information and communications technology.

Again, Cisco shed light on its Network Academy as an intervention in this regard. In the Cisco Network Academy Scheme, which is a corporate social responsibility spin-off of the company, it strives to grow and hone ICT skills in people, working through a global network of training academies. Network academies are structured to operate in a manner that is sustainable.

Courses taught include fundamentals of ICT and systematically evolve to include advanced certification programs in networking among other internationally recognized certifications. Up to 100 such academies exist across Nigeria, said Julius Ayuktabe, the company’s Network Academy Manager. The numbers, he added are growing steadily and the academies are available to be used by people seeking to imbibe ICT skills which will enable them become better prepared to face the challenges which will be unearthed in tomorrow’s world.

Subsequently, the focus of the conference shifted to technology convergence. Technology convergence in a nutshell, refers to a situation in which technology tools and phenomena which used to function in separate and disparate spaces, now find themselves all operating under a single canopy. For instance, whereas the mobile phone was once essentially a tool for voice communications alone, it is now increasingly a work tool as it has metamorphosed into a hand-held computer; and is at the same time, emerging as a mobile television. It is therefore, at once a voice channel, a data channel, an internet channel and a broadcast channel. The imperative of recognizing well ahead of time, the potential industry shake-ups of such developments and preparing to take advantage of the benefits which they must unravel, formed a key peg for discussion.

Chika Nwobi, chief executive of the content provider company called Mtech gave further insight into the convergence phenomenon, admonishing that service providers would have to modify their business models in the time to come in response to the challenges. This battle-cry of sorts would reverberate in all the other presentations for the duration of the eNNOVATE Expo/Conference. Industry operatives, said Nwobi, would for instance, need to decide which services are to be paid for via direct usage fees or via advertising. But in each situation carefully appraising the pros and cons and ensuring that customers are not confused or irritated. Opportunities, he argued, exist in such segments as offering multiplay, enabling multiplay and leveraging multiplay. (Multiplay, being a catch-all marketing phrase for an ability of a single technology device to combine sundry functionality such as voice communication, broadband and television among others.)

In the light of the emergence and growing worldwide popularity of the blog and against the backdrop of the convergence being witnessed in the technology world, is the world on the cusp of another revolution? This was the basis of a paper by Jeremy Weate, a famous blogger and DFID Project Manager with the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in Abuja. The blog is essentially a digital diary of sorts on which a user, known as “blogger” may chronicle on a periodic basis, daily weekly or whenever he deems fit, his thoughts or opinions or comments on any issue whatsoever.

One of its biggest distinctions is that it is instantaneously, in an interactive manner, accessible to a global audience. Any reader of the information published on the blog may wish to make a comment on the entries posted, given that the functionality for comments has not been disabled.

The world, is indeed on the cusp of another revolution affirmed Weate in his presentation. The growing evolution of the world wide web towards more and more consumer interactivity is at the heart of the change which is forthcoming. Whereas, said Weate, radio used to be defined as a “hot” medium for the fact that it had great potential to rouse people to action and television as a “cold” medium, probably on account of the fact that it lacks such mass arousal power as radio, such distinctions are now fast disappearing. This is especially in the light of the recognition of the power of the web as a tool for instantaneous and interactive communication with the rest of the world.

Television, radio and print media, said Weate all tend to generally converge online, such that each can be accessed quite readily on the Internet. So vital is the implication which this has for the broadcast industry especially in the light of the cheap broadband access in the developed world that terrestrial television is to be switched off in 2012 in the UK.

In addition, he said, the economics of setting up television houses, radio broadcast stations or print media is such that often requires corporate sponsorship or full-fledged government ownership. But the web with its increasing interactivity and user-friendliness is increasingly democratizing media ownership. Blogging and user-generated content of the likes of YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia and others, is fast challenging corporate-generated content, especially given the growing popular distrust of corporate media.

What used to be the gap between “virtual” and “real”, he said, is fast closing up and increasingly, communities are no longer tied to a place just as interest groups are now global. A community may span all the continents of the world with all its members being able to interact with each other instantaneously. Online media, therefore, portend huge potential and are fast challenging the traditional media, said Weate.

He advocated cheap broadband for Nigeria. Much of the change taking place across the world in respect of online media has largely been on the basis of widespread availability of cheap broadband. All efforts, he advocated, should be made to ensure that SAT3, the underground fibre-optic cable which links Nigeria to Europe, works correctly. The country also needs to clearly define a strategic vision and implement accordingly, if it is not to lag even further in the new world which an increasingly interactive web opens up.

Evans Woherem, Executive Director for Operations and Services at Unity Bank also examined the subject of technology convergence explaining that while the phone is driving the trend on the one hand by increasingly amassing computing ability, the PC is also driving the trend on the other by increasing miniaturization and portability. In consequence, new business models that take cognizance of the mobile nature of business are emerging.

Woherem made an example of the BlackBerry which is a phone, a computer, a personal digital organizer, a camera and much more as a converged device. BlackBerry is a smartphone which combines voice and data capabilities with immense computing ability. It was first launched in Nigeria in 2006, by a mobile network but limited to contract customers on that network. Its scope was broadened in 2007 when it was launched by MTN on the pre-paid and the contract platforms simultaneously, making it accessible to pre-paid customers as well as contract customers.

Ojo is the project manager of eNNOVATE.