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Column: Market Commentary
The forecast early in the year didn’t particularly look robust; unlike the previous year (2010) the Nigerian mobile market recorded a 19.4 per cent growth, coming into 2012 with a misery 9 per cent growth in the last quarter of 2011 looked rather bleak.
The challenges faced by the the largest mobile market (by subscription) in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region could melt the faint hearted investor.
No doubt these are not the best of times for Plateau state, and for its governor, the main priority would be restoring the famed peace on the plateau, but that wasn’t what Governor Jonah Jang bargained when he made an unexpected faux pas on MTN Nigeria over a call centre manager’s decision to vacate the state for reasons of insecurity and safety of staff.
“Business is ‘just business’: a scramble for profit,” wrote Richard Branson, the British international entrepreneur in his 2008 book, Business Stripped Bare (Virgin Books).
Although Branson talks about corporate social investment projects of his businesses in their operational environments, it is evident that even for him; ‘profit’ comes before social investments.
Technology continues to improve the way mankind does business in the 21st century and one of the best tools that have enhanced our living standards is mobile device which continues to astound even the innovators to push beyond limits
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Before the turn of the century, analogue fixed wired telephone ruled but all that seem gone with the advent of digital mobile phone. Now, other mobile devices like the android, iPhone and tablet makes the famed George Orwells’ 1984 stone age.
So Internet services are expected to go off today…well, that’s what the experts warned us about last week about an impending Malware that would take over PCs and other connected devices.
According to Microsoft’s safety and security centre, “Malware is short for ‘malicious software.’
Malware is any kind of unwanted software that is installed without your adequate consent. Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are examples of malicious software that are often grouped together and referred to as malware.”
The recent feud between MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat – , Nigeria’s big four mobile operators and the Nigeria Communications Communication (NCC), the industry regulator leading to a hefty cumulative fine of N1.17 billion threw up several mindboggling questions.
One of such on the minds of the subscribers: did NCC act on behalf of the customers and if so, why are the funds going to the regulator, rather than the subscriber?
Again, the question arises: who loses if the NCC asks non-cooperating operators to leave in ‘national interest’?
Nigeria moved from 66th in 2011 to 59th in the Symantec global internet security threat report volume 17, indicating that the country is becoming more prone to cyber attacks.
Also, last week Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU), urged nations to seek “peaceful resolution” in cyberspace to prevent a possible threat of global cyber war.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s ‘Democracy Day’ speech last week left little to ponder concerning his roadmap on the ICT industry as his one paragraph take on the sector simply identified his establishment of the Ministry of Communications Technology (MCT) and its mission. It was a long thesis on his one-year scorecard.
“Plenty water for Africa…water for ordinary man to drink nko o…e nor dey.”
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the late Afrobeat music legend was apt in his hit track: ‘water nor get enemy’. There is so much water around us in Nigeria, yet there is not a single city in the country that boast of sufficient drinkable water for the citizens.
