http://www.safe-sat3.co.za/HomePage/SAT3_WASC_SAFE_Home.asp
Two weeks ago while looking for some information for a project I was working on at I work I decided to digress a little bit and search for some news on Nigeria.
The pages of some sites I visited took ages to load and in many cases did not load at all. I also noticed that most of my friends and colleagues from back home only had access to the internet while at work but never at home.
The exorbitant cost of provisioning broadband services in Nigeria where they exists means that basic services such as internet access are affordable only by the rich.
Everyone is familiar with the ITT scandal where a famous Nigerian imported substandard and antiquated equipment which effectively put NITEL and IT services in the comatose state that it is in today.
Moving forward, the Nigerian government has to realise sooner than later the importance of deploying an IT development strategy that will make use of existing technologies such as SAT 3 and ADSL 2+ (Asynchronous Sigital Subscriber Line better known as broadband) to accelerate economic development and growth.
The advantages of an IT based economy is evident when you look at countries like Korea and other East Asian Tigers (Malayasia, Thailand etc). Korea has been able to build an IT infrastructure thats second to none which has helped transform its economy making it one of the biggest in the world.
The benefits of IT are well known and the technologies are ubiquitous and simple to deploy. Nigerian Engineers and IT specialists are plentiful and a lack of expertise is not an issue. It is time for NCC, the Government and the Senate to set up a panel that will draw up a blueprint to transform and speed up IT infrastructure development and deployment.
Anyone who has any idea of telecoms/networking would know that the fact that we do not have digital telephone exchanges (essential for ADSL deployment) in every part of the country should not be an issue in developing out IT infrastructure as there are other access methods. Laws should be passed by the house of reps that would regulate the industry and provide a fair and competitive playing field for would be investors.
Nigerias GDP would rise substantially with a good IT infrastruture in place by attracting direct foreign investments such as outsourcing and call centres while lowering the operating costs of providing a communication backbone needed to link global corporations. It would also improve our academic instituitions by giving good students the much needed access to educational material and a wealth of knowledge that is needed to drive any economy.
However Nigeria's IT phobic ruling class complete with technological ignorance would fail to see this link between rapid economic growth and the enabling IT environment.
A real shame but I guess like John Mayer said in his song "I am waiting for the world to change". For these generation of leaders to go and be replaced by a more dynamic set of young and bright technocrats who understand the fundamentals and challenges of the modern world we live in today. My 2 pence....
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