The concept of a digital economy is essentially a new economy stream that brings with it new momentum.

As ICT technologies develop rapidly and become integrated into more and more verticals, the digital economy is becoming the fastest growing, most innovative, and widest-reaching economy.

Unleashing the potential of economic development, it drives the transformation of traditional industries, fuels sustainable economic development, improves social management and services, and fosters innovation.

Accenture forecast that optimizing the use of digital skills and technologies could generate US$2 trillion of additional global economic output by 2020.

The study also revealed the vast role digital technologies play in economic activity, with more than one-fifth of the world’s GDP attributable to digital skills, capital, goods, and services.

According to Tencent’s 2017 report China’s Internet + Digital Economy, China’s digital economy created about 2.8 million jobs in 2016, accounting for 21% of the total new jobs.

Nigeria is undoubtedly one of Africa’s most promising nations with over 190million people, this country remains the largest mobile market on the continent.

Over the past years the country has witnessed a surge and growth of e-commerce businesses, an increase in small to large scale enterprise and not to mention a ton of mobile based services that meet a wide range of needs for people every day.

A majority of these innovations and establishment are riding on the back of Technology and Connectivity.

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) predicted that the e-commerce sector is expected to contribute about 10 per cent, a projected N10trillion, to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2018.

The e-Commerce market in Nigeria is currently worth around $13billion (about N4.01trillion), according to a report by London based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Nigeria’s e-commerce market value could rise to $50billion (N15.45trillion) over the next decade.

However Africa and specifically in Nigeria face challenges stemming from insufficient ICT infrastructure, to the lack of unskilled human capital and most importantly firm government push on ICT and digital transformation.

Specifically Nigeria as a country needs to focus on its infrastructure establishment. Reliable and affordable broadband for businesses and individuals are critical for future stages of ICT use.

While it is evident that there has been some considerable level of development and adoption of technology and telecommunication, however to build and sustain a viably digital economy in Nigeria and to fully reap the benefit from it, there are critical areas that need attending to.

Connecting the Unconnected

The relevance of the connectivity cannot be over emphasized. Taking communication sites for instance, Indonesia, a country with similar population with Nigeria, has more network base station sites than Nigeria.

According to ICT development Index 2017 by ITU, there is a need to increase network sites in Nigeria like the one in Indonesia, both urban and rural areas, not to mention that more than half of Nigeria’s 180 million population living in rural areas have much poorer mobile signal coverage.

It is important to note that with the increasing rate of mobile internet penetration in Nigeria, 23million of the Nigerian population still have no telecommunication access largely in the rural communities.

Is some rural villages in Ogun State bordering with the Republic of Benin, residents would have to go over the border to Benin Republic just make a phone call, which would be International call as the telecommunication provider was not Nigerian based. Worse case they would need to commute to the next village to make local calls via local operators.

Huawei has started a series of rural telecommunication access initiatives with some of operators across Africa, leveraging our Rural Star solution.

The solution is specifically designed for remote parts of the country that do not currently have mobile network coverage, our goal is to bridge the digital divide in remote parts of Africa, especially in Nigeria.

The solution leverages cutting edge technology innovation by reducing the total cost of building and running a mobile network site by up to 70 per cent.

There is an increase in the MBB subscription rate with affordability being improved over the year. However, there are limited metro and access fiber network in Nigeria 11% proportion is far lower than other Africa countries Affecting user experience and broadband development.

The growth in internet/mobile adoption amongst Nigerians present huge opportunities for businesses that take advantage of new technologies such as social media and e-commerce.

The annual research project called the Global Connectivity Index (GCI). Nigeria ranks 70th in GCI 2018. The report shows that as an early starter (countries in the early stage of ICT infrastructure build-out), Nigeria needs to focus on increasing ICT infrastructure and policies to give more people access to the digital world.

The report finds that a 1 point increase in GCI score is equivalent to 1) a 2.1% increase in competitiveness 2) 2.2% increase in national innovation, and 3) a 2.3% increase in productivity.

Reaping the benefits of a digital economy starts with having reliable mobile networks and internet access to connect the unconnected. Internet access itself is not enough though.

Huawei believes that in Africa connectivity brought by the network of communication towers and fiber is like the “soil”, which provides the fertile ground for important value-adding crops, which in this case are services including Safe City, E-government, E-education, E-health, E-agriculture etc. that enhance public social services delivery and better allocation of resources.

Public sector as an Enabler and Private Sector as an Innovator

To achieve digital economy, we need joint efforts from both private and public sectors, with the right programs and policies the Nigerian governments can make digital transformation a reality much seamless for citizens and businesses.

According to OECD’s Digital Economy Outlook 2016, by the end of 2015, 80% of OECD member states had developed national strategies or departmental policies and built strategic frameworks for the digital economy. Nigeria is not left behind in building a framework to boost its digital transformation;

“SMART Digital Nigeria” has been proposed as the required panacea to bridge the uneven growth presently dominating the ICT sector. The plan observed that Nigeria’s longstanding focus mostly over the last seventeen years on Information Technology infrastructure development and also other areas in the industry including promotion of ICT local content, ICT deployment in Government and expansion of ICT access to Nigerians by deepening the penetration of broadband to ensure that information and knowledge is not only secured but enhances national security and creating of more jobs for as well as unleash the creativity of our teeming youth for overall national development.

To make a lasting impact with this program, there are three levels that should be looked into: Public investment and support for private investment in ICT infrastructure, particularly data centers and broadband connectivity, through Infrastructure sharing, investment-friendly regulations, Taxation Policies that fosters investment, spectrum policies that aims to improve coverage, and cutting of red tap to ease the investment e.g. in approval of Right of Ways. Policies that support the advancement of digital transformation of industries.

Support for online services, including ecommerce, internet banking, e-government, e-health, and e-learning. These steps will not only enhance the availability and accessibility of internet and other serviced based on ICT infrastructure, but also can be interpreted directly into affordability of those services to bridge the digital gap and achieve digital inclusiveness.

Take Infrastructure sharing for an instance, research shows that Infrastructure sharing can impact the reduction of capital investment substantially with on-going operating cost reductions between 50% and 80% depending on market structure and the sharing model implemented. Opening up public infrastructure such as lamppost, Electric Pole, government buildings, billboards has an important role to play in limiting the cost and increasing speed and smoothness of network expansion projects.

These efforts will enable private sectors deploy and scale network access much faster and seamless across and the country and ultimately increasing connectivity access and reach to more citizens much faster.

A look ahead

Information technology is not the ultimate solution for economic growth, however ICT serves as a tool that enables digital transformation and provides newer and smarter way of communicating and transacting.

For Nigeria Unlocking the dividends of digital economy becomes imperative in the face of dwindling oil revenue with increasingly pressure on the economy.

An effective blend of broadband access coupled with effective and reliable internet connectivity will also go a long way in fast tracking business productivity and thereby promote digitalized business behavior which in reality is the bone of future economy.