General News
Engineers Are Key Actors – Omo-Ettu
Titi Omo-Ettu has been variously described in many kind words but the fact remains that he is an exemplary telecommunications engineer and consultant.
He believes in the power of ICT education at all levels prompting him to set up Telecom Answers Associates Ltd since 1991 and The Executive Cyberschuul, Nigeria’s Premier Institute for executive training in Telecommunications Management and Information Technology in 2001.
Omo-Ettu is a member of many professional associations and well sought after speaker in many international fora. He spoke to Emeka Okafor
Manpower Shortage in Telecoms Sector
Well, to the extent that I have been instrumental to many of the methods we have used, I think government still needs to look at it again. Don’t forget that our original recommendation in the telecommunications policy of 1998 was that government should establish training institutes. Later on, I changed my mind and felt government should create a condition under which private people will establish training institutes because I know that government establishing institutes would not help us; government may not just do it right. I know Nigerians are vibrant and whenever there is opportunity for them to invest in, they will do that but government has to try to create the enabling environment for them to do it very well. The aspect I have canvassed for which I have also participated in is the aspect of retraining the existing personnel that our universities are producing. We are not lacking numbers but relevance of our graduates to the field. Our graduates are not dunces. They are brilliant and we are good at learning but it is just that the content of our training needs re-orientation to make it relevant to the field so that immediately they leave school, they are relevant. It is the responsibility of government to train the minds of industry workers and not the responsibility of employers to train their employees. The minds of the industry workers contribute to the development of the country. Their employers are interested in their profits. An employer trains his staff specifically for what he wants him to do for him so that he makes profit, which is his goal. He is not a patriot. He is not living because of Nigeria but he is making his money in Nigeria. Now that government has set up an institution: Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), they will know the difficulty they have gone through in getting the institute in place. Industry people have their own way of training their staff but some of us have found out that those ways may not be good for the country even though they may be good for them as companies. Government must be interested in what they do for the country. I give you an example, a man trains his own staff to be able to do his own job but when it comes to developing the technology of what he is using, he does not think the people here deserve to go to that level. He now goes overseas to produce the technology and brings it down here for Nigerians to oil the machine and I say, no country will ever grow by just oiling the machine. We also should be part of development and government should show some interest in that.
Cyberschuul & Training
What Cyberschuul does is to retrain those that have gone to school. We are retraining people but we try to confine it to engineers and allied professionals; computerists, physicists – those who studied sciences in school because they are easy for us to manage. Those who did not study sciences in school also participate and they do some of the things these engineers do. Some of them work in customer service centers which engineers also work in but there is a point where everybody stops and the engineer continues. In our training, we try to concentrate on engineers. But that does not mean that only engineers are needed in telecoms. They are the principal actors in the field of telecoms but there is nobody who is not needed in the industry as far as the duty of that person is relevant. I believe retraining should continue. We participate in some little training of non-engineers. If other people take so many other aspects, I think we will see improvement but government have to be involved too. I am interested in the developmental and not in the growth aspect of telecoms. Growth is when you have number of lines increasing but there is another aspect of it that Nigerians do not know. The most critical things are being done by Nigerians. I am interested in that and I want Nigerians to do that.
ICT Policy Direction
Do not forget that the rate at which technology is changing is making nonsense of forecasts. Some of the things that are happening now were never forecasted. They have been beating us. The only thing we can forecast rightly is change. The existing ICT policy has to be less windy. What I see in our policy is that we talk too much. We try to think that we can forecast everything that will happen whereas it is more difficult to forecast under IT; so it is better for us to just leave our imagination wide and appreciate that we cannot say everything. We try to say everything in policymaking but it is wrong. We should assume that those who are going to operate the policy also have the intellectual capability to take decisions. We tend to be taking decisions inside policy but decisions are never taken inside policies. It is the future that describes policies but we try to describe what will happen and that is what makes our policy very large and too slow because having been prescribed, anything one does outside of that prescription is considered anti-policy whereas we need to do it to move forward. So those are the things I would like to see changed. The strategy we use in writing policy should be changed. It is not much of content default but strategy default.
Quality of Service by Telecom Operators
If what you call quality of service is to use telephone to get another person, yes there has been an improvement. But as an engineer, I look at quality of service beyond that. Quality of service is actually an engineering quantity. The quality is still not good but it is better than the time when we were crying. We started crying about first quarter of 2007. Some of us had seen the issue in the last quarter of 2006. We had seen some parameters that indicated that things were bad but those we saw were not measured because we were not in a position to measure them. But because we are engineers, even if you do not measure them, we can feel them. There are some things as an engineer I can appreciate which an ordinary person may not be able to appreciate because he is not one. But because I am not on duty I cannot measure or say those things are actual. If I want to say QoS is good or not, I have to go to the switch of an operating company and take measurement to know whether it is good or bad. An ordinary person may not know if quality of service of an operating company is bad as he may be making uninterrupted calls even when the quality is 42 percent against 65 percent which may be the acceptable standard and even at that, I may say the quality is bad. The regulator will need to take critical measurements from time to time which I know they have started doing. I commend NCC for doing something about it.
High Tariff Charged by Operators
When you go to any economy, you make your tariff to reflect the earnings of people in that economy. The tariff in Nigeria does not reflect the true earnings of Nigerians. Somebody is earning N7, 500 a month, he cannot use telephone. He must be deceiving himself if he is using a telephone. All of them are carrying telephones about but they are not using them; they are not communicating. There is the law of economy of number. We should have been paying less than other people because of our population, but we are paying more than other telephone users in other countries. My position is that the tariff charged here is too high and I think it is unfair. What may be happening is that they are ripping us off and I think somebody should be interested. They are ripping us off even in labour relations. Workers for some of these telecom companies are not well compensated the way the companies are compensating themselves as investors. However, Nigerians are happy because it is better than the way it was before.
Vandalization of Telecoms Equipment
It is not only telecom equipment that are being vandalized, it is just that Nigerians are frustrated and this frustration manifests through various means. The people up there are stealing things they do not need. When you hear the money some of them are stealing, you will wonder what they want to do with it. Somebody who is a civil servant is stealing N300 million; you wonder what he is doing with that amount and why he still remains in the civil service. He is stealing money that he does not need because there is nowhere he will spend that money as a civil servant. So when they are stealing what they do not need up there, the people out there will also want to do same. Some of the things they steal, do you think they need them? Somebody going to cut optic fibre cable, what do you think he wants to do with it? It is because he is angry. He is at the society. I think the leadership needs to be restructured and operators should not use that as a reason to begin to continue to rip us off. Anybody who is ripping off will find a reason to justify his action. I do not want to take those reasons. People come to my house to vandalize and I do not tell it to anybody. So they should stop telling us stories about vandalization. When something goes wrong, we should find solution to it and not allow people to occupy us with baseless assignments while they are ripping us off. Those stealing those generators may be some of their workers who were frustrated out of the system.
e–Learning Programme in Nigeria
First of all, I want people to get the definition of e-learning. I see a lot of deceit going on particularly on the platform of government. We started campaigning for IT awareness and did a lot of work on that. I did a lot on the platform as a Nitel engineer and also as a private person on my own business. The mistake we made was not being clear on what we wanted. For example, we said people should be made IT literate but our own children do not know how to type. That is where IT literacy should start. People should know how to type even from primary school. You do not start learning programming before you know how to type. The way to resolve this is to build structures that we can sustain. In any society, society is not looking for good people but good system. A good system is one in which bad people cannot operate. So, when the international society is looking at us, they are looking at our structures and system. When they say we are corrupt, it is because we do not have structures that are contesting corruption. The structures to arrest and deal with corruption are not there. There is corruption everywhere even in the United States but over there, there are structures to arrest even the biggest crooks. I think the way to improve e-learning just as many other things, is to build structures of IT systems that make our trainees functional. This is in the sense that if you are trained in computer or telecommunications, you should know your scruples within the system.
Jumia Nigeria has launched its highly anticipated December Holiday Sale, unlocking a wide range of festive deals and savings for shoppers across the country from December 2 to December 28.
This year’s campaign goes beyond seasonal discounts, introducing a special sub-series titled “Celebrate Naija / Naija is Game,” running from December 15 to January 18. The initiative spotlights uniquely Nigerian themes and experiences, infusing the holiday season with cultural relevance and local inspiration.
The December Holiday Sale delivers a compelling mix of value, quality, and discovery, featuring the popular 12 Days of Christmas promotions, exclusive Brand Days, and deep-discount Anchor Deals across multiple product categories.
Speaking on the campaign, Temidayo Ojo, Chief Executive Officer, Jumia Nigeria, said the sale reflects the platform’s commitment to meeting the evolving needs of Nigerian consumers.
“The December Holiday Sale is our way of helping Nigerians celebrate the season without compromise. Today’s shoppers are value-driven, they want quality, convenience, and affordability. This campaign brings all three together with festive deals that address real household needs and aspirations,” Ojo said.
He added that strong Black Friday momentum continues on the platform, offering customers extended savings opportunities throughout the festive period.
On the creative direction behind the campaign, Lere Awokoya, Chief Marketing Officer, Jumia Nigeria, noted that the 2025 holiday sale is rooted in everyday moments that matter to customers.
“This year’s campaign is built around the joy of giving and daily value. ‘Celebrate Naija’ brings that spirit to life through culturally relevant themes and surprises that resonate across regions and lifestyles. We’re excited for Nigerians to discover everything we’ve curated—from gifts and essentials to dream purchases,” Awokoya said.
Shoppers can access deals across key categories including electronics, home and kitchen, fashion, beauty and personal care, and everyday essentials, with seamless online price discovery supported by Jumia’s nationwide logistics network.
Extending beyond major urban centres, Jumia’s fulfilment and pick-up infrastructure ensures customers in secondary cities and peri-urban communities enjoy the same festive prices without additional travel costs, turning convenience into tangible value.
With thousands of deals going live throughout the season, customers can expect faster deliveries, extensive pick-up options, and transparent pricing, making holiday shopping simpler and more affordable nationwide.
By Blaise Udunze
Nigeria’s refining crisis is one of the country’s most enduring economic contradictions. Africa’s largest crude oil producer, strategically located on the Atlantic coast and home to over 200 million people, has for decades depended on imported refined petroleum products. This illogicality has drained foreign exchange, weakened the naira, distorted investment incentives, and hollowed out state institutions. Instead of catalysing industrialisation, Nigeria’s oil wealth became a mechanism for capital flight, rent-seeking, and institutional decay.
Dangote
With the challenges surrounding the refining of crude oil, the establishment of Dangote Refinery signifies an important historic moment. The refinery promises to reduce fuel imports to a bare minimum, sustain foreign exchange growth, ensure there is constant fuel domestically, and strategically position Nigeria as a regional exporter of refined oil products if functioned at full capacity. Dangote Refinery symbolises what private capital, technology, and ambition can achieve in Africa following years of fuel queues, subsidy scandals, and global embarrassment.
Nigerians must have a rethink in the cause of celebration. Nigeria’s refining problem is not simply about capacity; it is about systems. Without addressing the policy failures and institutional weaknesses that made Dangote an exception rather than the rule, the country risks replacing one failure with another, this time cloaked in private-sector success.
For a fact, Nigeria desperately needs the emergence of Dangote refinery, and its success is in the national interest. Hence, this is not an argument against the Dangote Refinery. But history warns that structural failures are not solved by scale alone. Over the year, situations have shown that without competition and strong institutions, concentrated market power, whether public or private, can undermine price stability, energy security, and consumer welfare.
The Long Silence of Refinery Investments
Perhaps the most troubling question in Nigeria’s oil history is why none of the global oil majors like Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, or Agip has built a major refinery in Nigeria for over four decades. These companies operated profitably in Nigeria, extracted their crude, and sold refined products back to the country, yet never committed capital to domestic refining.
Over the period, it has been shown that policy incoherence has been the cause, not a matter of technical incapacity, such as price controls, resistant licensing processes, subsidy arrears, frequent regulatory changes, and political interference, which made refining an unattractive investment. Importation, by contrast, offered quick returns, lower political risk, and guaranteed margins, often backed by government subsidies.
Nigeria carelessly designed a system that rather rewarded importers and punished refiners. Dangote did not succeed because the system improved; he succeeded despite it. His refinery exists largely because of the concessions from the government, exceptional financial capacity, political access, and a willingness to absorb risks that institutions should ordinarily mitigate. This raises a deeper concern; when institutions fail, progress becomes dependent on extraordinary individuals rather than predictable systems.
The Tragedy of NNPC Refineries
If private investors stayed away, Nigeria’s state-owned refineries should have filled the gap. Instead, the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries became monuments to mismanagement. Records have shown that between 2010 and 2025, Nigeria reportedly wasted between $18 billion and $25 billion, over N11 trillion, just for Turn Around Maintenance and rehabilitation. Kaduna Refinery alone is estimated to have consumed over N2.2 trillion in a decade.
Despite these expenditures, output remained negligible. This was not merely a technical failure but a governance one. Contracts were poorly monitored, accountability was absent, and consequences were nonexistent. In functional systems, such outcomes trigger investigations, sanctions, and reforms. In Nigeria, the cycle simply repeated itself, eroding public trust and deepening dependence on imports.
Where Is BUA?
Dangote is not the only Nigerian conglomerate to announce refinery ambitions. In 2020, BUA Group unveiled plans for a 200,000-barrels-per-day refinery. Years later, progress remains unclear, timelines have shifted, and execution appears stalled.
This pattern is revealing. When multiple large investors struggle to translate plans into reality, the issue is not ambition but environment. Refinery projects in Nigeria appear viable only at a massive scale and with extraordinary political leverage. Smaller or mid-sized players are effectively crowded out, not by market forces, but by systemic dysfunction.
Policy Failure and the Singapore Comparison
Nigeria often aspires to emulate Singapore’s refining and petrochemical success. The comparison is instructive. Singapore has no crude oil, yet built one of the world’s most sophisticated refining hubs through consistent policy, investor protection, infrastructure planning, and regulatory certainty.
Nigeria chose a different path: price controls, subsidies, weak contract enforcement, and politically motivated policy reversals. Refineries became tools of patronage rather than productivity. Capital exited, infrastructure decayed, and import dependence deepened. The outcome was predictable.
The Cost of Import Dependence
For years, Nigeria spent billions of dollars annually importing petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel. This placed constant pressure on foreign reserves and the naira. Petrol subsidies alone were estimated at N4-N6 trillion per year, often exceeding national spending on health, education, or infrastructure.
Even after subsidy removal, legacy costs remain: distorted consumption patterns, weakened public finances, and entrenched interests built around importation. These interests did not disappear quietly.
Who Really Benefited from the Subsidy?
Although framed as pro-poor, fuel subsidies disproportionately benefited importers, traders, shipping firms, depot owners, financiers, and politically connected intermediaries. Smuggling across borders meant Nigerians subsidised fuel consumption in neighbouring countries.
Ordinary citizens received marginal relief at the pump but paid far more through inflation, deteriorating infrastructure, and underfunded public services. The subsidy system functioned less as social protection and more as elite redistribution.
The Traders’ Dilemma
Why did major fuel marketers like Oando invest in refineries abroad but not in Nigeria? Again, incentives explain behaviour. Importation offered faster returns, lower capital requirements, and political insulation. Domestic refining demanded long-term investment under unstable rules.
In an irrational system, rational actors optimise accordingly. Importation thrived not because it was efficient, but because policy made it so.
FDI and the Confidence Problem
Sustainable Foreign Direct Investment follows domestic confidence. When local investors, who best understand political and regulatory risks, avoid long-term industrial projects, foreign investors take note. Capital flows to environments with predictable pricing, rule of law, and policy consistency.
Nigeria’s challenge is not attracting speculative capital, but building conditions for patient, productive investment.
Dangote and the Monopoly Question
Dangote Refinery deserves credit. But scale brings power, and power demands oversight. If importers exit and no competing refineries emerge, Dangote could dominate refining, pricing, and supply. Nigeria’s experience with cement, where domestic production rose but prices soared due to limited competition, offers a cautionary tale.
Markets function best with competition. Without it, price manipulation, supply risks, and weakened energy security become real dangers, especially in countries with fragile regulatory institutions.
The Way Forward: Competition, Not Replacement
Nigeria does not need to weaken Dangote; it needs to multiply Dangotes. The goal should be a competitive refining ecosystem, not a replacement of a public monopoly with a private monopoly.
This requires transparent crude allocation, open access to pipelines and storage, fair pricing mechanisms, and strong antitrust enforcement. State refineries must either be professionally concessional or decisively restructured. Stalled projects like BUA’s should be unblocked, and modular refineries should be supported.
The Litmus Test
Nigeria’s refining crisis was decades in the making and cannot be solved by one refinery, however large. Dangote Refinery is a turning point, but only if embedded within systemic reform. Otherwise, Nigeria risks trading one form of dependency for another.
The true test is not whether Nigeria can refine fuel, but whether it can build fair, open, and resilient institutions that serve the public interest. In refining, as in democracy, excessive concentration of power is dangerous. Competition remains the strongest safeguard.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional, writes from Lagos and can be reached via: [email protected]
Mr. Tim Akano, renowned entrepreneur, technologist, and philanthropist, has been honoured with two Distinguished Alumnus Awards by Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and Baptist Day School, Oluponna, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to education, mentorship, technology, innovation, and community development at large.
Both awards were conferred in November 2025, and this mark a significant milestone in Mr. Akano’s lifelong commitment to human capital development and social impact.
Mr. Akano, a 1983 graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, was recognized by the university for his global impact in entrepreneurship, technology and innovation, as well as his sustained mentorship of students.
In 2023, he awarded 1,000 scholarships that was worth ₦60 million to OAU students for them to study Artificial Intelligence. Since then, he has consistently adopted five students from the Department of International Relations annually under his structured mentorship initiative.
In the same vein, at Baptist Day School, Oluponna, Mr. Akano received a historic honour as the first alumnus ever to be decorated with a Distinguished Alumnus Award since the school was established in the 1930s. During a recent visit to the school, Mr. Akano inspected several infrastructural projects financed by him through the Tim Akano Foundation three years ago.
These include the construction of a borehole, modern toilet facilities for teachers and pupils, and the erection of a perimeter fence and gate around the school which has prevented incessant disturbance of pupils by Fulani Herdsmen who previously engaged in reckless grazing within the school premises, polluted the environment with cow waste, and exposed the children to security risk. All these challenges have since become a thing of the past following the erection of the perimeter fence.
In addition, the School Principal recounted a tragic incident that occurred before the fence was built, when a nine-year-old pupil was kidnapped within the school premises and was never found. According to the Principal, the pupil had gone into a nearby bush to answer the call of nature, unaware that kidnappers were hiding there. Since the completion of the fence three years ago, no case of pupil kidnapping has been recorded in the school.
The principal further disclosed that the school has experienced a geometric increase in enrolment since Mr. Akano’s intervention. In 2025 alone, over 30 new pupils were enrolled. This is a trend that has been consistent over the past three years.
To further enhance safety and learning conditions, the Tim Akano Foundation pledged to provide a grass-cutting machine to maintain the expansive school compound, noting that the pupils are fragile and overgrown vegetation could expose them to snake bites. The Foundation also announced the adoption of 10 best graduating pupils, committing to sponsor their secondary school education.
Furthermore, in a move to motivate and support teachers, the Foundation introduced a monthly cash incentive for all teachers, aimed at complementing the modest government salaries. The November incentive was paid immediately, with assurances that the initiative would continue in perpetuity.
In a symbolic and emotional moment, Mr. Akano presented the pupils with the glazed copy of his Primary School Leaving Certificate, issued by Baptist Day School in 1975. All pupils were invited to hold the certificate as a powerful reminder that “if I can do it, you can do even more.” In appreciation, the school management presented Mr. Akano with the Distinguished Alumnus Award, celebrating his transformative impact on the institution and its pupils.
Similarly, at Obafemi Awolowo University, Mr. Akano was honoured with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for his sustained mentorship of students and his contributions to entrepreneurship development, technology, and innovation within Nigeria and the global community.
The double recognition underscores Mr. Tim Akano’s enduring legacy as a bridge between education, opportunity, and societal transformation.
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