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Google is Committed to Nigeria’s Technological Advancement – Ehimuan
Juliet Ehimuan, is the country manager, Google Nigeria, the global Internet-software Corporation; with specialisation in internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Ms. Ehimuan is a woman of diverse background having worked in Nigeria and abroad mostly in the technology and new media space. She also worked in other industries like Oil & Gas, and has been very involved in a lot of industry fora and events. She is very keen in keeping abreast of global news and events.
She spoke to Correspondent, funmi ilesanmi on her passion to see more Nigerians get online.
Google in Nigeria
Google is very committed to Nigeria and we have seen that there has been a year-on-year growth in the number of Nigerians getting online and based on ITU statistics; this is about 28 per cent.
There is still a lot of room for growth and so all our effort at the moment is investing in building the online ecosystem.
What that means is, we are investing in getting more people online, getting students online and other professionals.
To be very specific, our strategy is focused on three things: first is access which is really looking at how we remove the barrier to internet access so that more people can get online.
We have a programme called Google Apps Supporting Programme for Nigerian universities.
What we do with this programme is that we provide technical expertise to the universities to support them in building their campus network infrastructure.
We provide last mile grants where necessary and then we pay for international bandwidth for a period of three years.
During that period we stay in touch with the school, we provide a lot of support, advice and we want to see them use it.
What we are doing is helping them to get started.
Once they get started they see the benefits and they really optimize usage, then they find it a lot easier keeping that connection alive beyond the time.
We are in constant conversation with them so we can also look at what more we can do if the university actually embraces technology and they are using it, then we are able to see what more support we can give.
We also provide free software and a lot of training for the university staff and students.
We have an Ambassador Programme with university where we nominate students who can become technology evangelists for the university community and we train them and provide resources to enable them organize events that can create the right awareness and training for other students on campus.
We have done this successfully in seven universities in Nigeria, we have five more in the pipeline and our commitment is to do this for all universities in Nigeria.
That is on the access. That is the first category of our strategy.
The second category focus is relevance. It is very important for local contents to be online so that when people get online they will find it relevant to them.
For example if I am looking for a plumber in Abuja; I want to be able to go to the internet and find plumbers that are in Abuja, maybe plumbers in central areas and so on.
If I am looking for hotels in Lagos Island, I want to be able to go to the internet, search and find them.
So we have been deploying products to support the creation of local contents.
One example is Get Nigerian Businesses Online.
This is a project that we launched September last year and through this project we provided a platform that any Small and Medium Business (SMB-s) owner can use to create a professional website within a short time. When I say short time I mean in minutes, in less than one hour.
We have heard some amazing success stories, we have had examples where people said ‘my business grew by just creating a website, more people could contact me and I went from one truck to eight trucks’ or ‘my turnover went from N100,000 to N15 million and so on.
Another example is YouTube. YouTube is a platform for video sharing and we have a lot of interests among Nigerians putting contents on YouTube.
Contents like Nollywood movies, music, music, arts, fashion shows, educational contents, news, sports and much more are uploaded more regularly. We launched YouTube in Nigeria last September to promote Nigeria local content.
The third rocket is sustainability which is really looking at building capacity in Nigeria so that we can have a sustainable ecosystem and we have a lot of programmes where we train people.
We train developers, students, entrepreneurs on how they can get the best out of the internet. A classic example, last month we did GNigeria which is an event we run every year for absolutely free.
We had almost 2,000 people attend – developers and business and it was just really about educating people on the different tools that are available on the internet and how they can exploit them.
Online Businesses
The response has been great and we have had tens of thousands of businesses.
We launched in September last year and we already have some interesting success stories. We are going to be doing more work this year.
To promote the project, we have an SMB Web Fair in Lagos towards the end of April for two days. We are inviting SMBs to come and they will get hands-on support there to create websites.
We are using different techniques.
We are using broadcast technologies to create awareness.
We are communicating with people online; we are using radio and others to create awareness around getting online.
We find some people even when the tool is very easy to apply, still want support; and that is why we created the Web Fair so that people can come and get hands on support.
Involvement with Women in Technology in Nigeria (Witin)
We have various involvements with different groups, including Women-In-Technology-In-Nigeria. During the International Women’s Day, we did a Google+ Hangout with leading professional women organizations and we did that across sub Saharan Africa.
We did that in Kenya, Ghana and Uganda and these are women discussing their experiences and sharing ideas using Google+ Hangout technology. This is a technology that makes it easy for you to do video conferencing or video communication with people in multiple locations.
During GNigeria, we had a Women-In-Technology panel so women attendees at the event were able to hear from successful women and get a lot of advice and tools to work with.
For the Get Nigerian Businesses Online we reached out to Women-In-Management and Business group (Wimbiz), we reached out to Women-In-Technology-In-Nigeria (Witin) and with Witin, we were able to provide support for creating several websites for members of Witin.
We are constantly engaging with different groups and providing support where required.
Google+
Google+ is social networking and more.
It is not just another social networking platform, it has all the benefits of existing platforms but more than that it is putting a social layer across all your interactions on the internet.
It is a way to help you organize your social interactions on the internet, totally based on how you want them to be like you do in real life. I will give you specific examples. Nigerians are naturally quite social, they like to interact and they like to share information.
Google+ makes all these possible and if you think about it in real life I have different communities of people, different groups.
I have my work friends, I have my church people, I have my core family and I have my extended family. It is not the same thing I want to share with everybody so in Google+ you have Circles. Circles are ways of organising your interactions so I can have a circle that I call Church Bothers and Sisters.
I can have Family Circle, I can have Colleagues Circle and when I share information I can imply whether it is public, for everybody or whether I need to share it with a specific Circle.
That is one benefit which is very much the way we interact in real life.
Google+ also shares media contents. If for example I am watching a video on YouTube and I want to share it with my friends; I can easily click on a button on YouTube that allows me to pause that video and share it with my friends on Google+ without leaving that platform. So right from YouTube I can share something with people on Google+.
Hangout is another example. It is like a video chat where I can have video interaction with people from around the world online.
Another important feature is that it is integrated with search such that if I search for face on Google+ in addition to the normal search results, I will see personal results which will be results from my communities on Google+. Say I want to find out about the fuel subsidy and I search for fuel subsidy, I will see a link that says what people in my Circles have said about fuel subsidy.
This is very great because not only do I get all the normal results, I also know what people in my life think about that subject.
Those are some of the examples and then I can have people follow me on Google+, I can follow people, so you can see that it allows social networking and even more, it is just a way to organize your experience on the internet and put yourself at the centre and in control.
Google Maps in Nigeria
We have Google maps coverage for Nigeria.
You will be interested to know that there are lots of Nigerians that actually look for directions on Google maps and we are doing a lot of work to constantly update Google maps for Nigeria and ensure that we improve the quality of the mapping information and that is ongoing work.
We already have map coverage for Nigeria and with Get Nigerian Businesses Online initiative that I mentioned; one of the features of the tool that we made available for SMBs is using the tool to create a website, they automatically get listed on Google maps so that your business is on Google maps and people can easily get direction and see a map of your location and all that.
We have quite a lot of coverage, we are still expanding that but there is a good base already.
Relationship with IXPN
We are connected to the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria and our services are available at the exchange.
We would like to encourage more ISPs to connect to the exchange so that we can create sustainability by keeping local traffic local.
We offer support to the exchange for example with our university programme we donated a router to the exchange for universities to be able to connect and interact.
We have sponsored different personnel for trainings.
Vision for Nigeria
I believe in the potentials that exist in Nigeria. I also believe in the talents that exist within Nigerians.
My vision is to create enough awareness to help individuals and businesses take advantage of technology, especially Google products to make them more effective; make their businesses more effective.
There are lots of opportunities for businesses to grow by getting online for example and so I want to see more SMBs getting online and been found increasing their reach and growing.
Students by getting online can get access to a richer online library of information which can enhance the quality of their learning and so I am very passionate about getting students online, getting businesses online.
My vision is for more Nigerians to be able to take advantage of the internet and my goal is for Google to play a very strong role in making that possible.
Dufil Prima Foods, makers of Indomie instant noodles, in partnership with the Human Rights and Grassroots Development Society, extended its goodwill to the shores of Abeokuta, Ogun state, at a product distribution event on Tuesday 24 April, where cartons of Indomie noodles were distributed to the underprivileged, as part of its ongoing efforts to support families worst hit by the ongoing economic hardship.
The event which saw a thousand vulnerable families go home with a carton of Indomie each, individuals present were also provided with cooked noodles to help relieve their immediate hunger.
The outreach had in attendance members of the disabled community, orphans, widows, the elderly, pregnant women, and vulnerable families.
The outreach is in alignment with the brand’s goal to feed two million consumers across various cities and communities in Nigeria, by collaborating closely with recognized NGOs to ensure that only the most vulnerable persons in the various cities and communities are invited and given a carton of Indomie and a fresh bowl of the nourishing tasty noodles.
The event was graced with the presence of notable dignitaries including the representative of the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development in Ogun State, Mrs. Wonuola Kassim; the Ogun State Chapter Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Hammeed-Bello Aderinola; a representative of the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Superintendent Adeoye Adejoke Asake; the Chairman of the Ogun State Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), Venerable (Dr.) Samson Kunle Popoola, Chairman of the Peace Initiative Network, Dr. Femi Sodipo , and Trace PRO, CDR. Babatunde Akinbiyi, amongst others.
Mrs. Wonuola Kassim in her keynote address, commended the efforts of Dufil Prima Foods Ltd, and acknowledged that this was not the company’s first CSR initiative as she recalled that it had embarked on a similar venture in 2020.
“This program cannot be more timely than a time like this, when to feed becomes very difficult for most people. This is the kind of gesture which would linger for ages in the hearts of the beneficiaries. The objective of the palliative distribution is to alleviate the hardship faced by the citizens due to the recent removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government”, she said.
Speaking in the same vein, Popoola of the PCRC said: “We believe in PCRC that food security and eradication of hunger will go a long way in reducing the level of criminality in our society. What we have seen today is a conscious effort on the part of the organisers to see to the eradication of poverty, eradication of hunger and to support the food security initiative of the Government”.
Other dignitaries present also expressed their gratitude for Indomie and the organisers of the event, the Human Rights and Grassroots Development Society. They commended their efforts for taking the right steps to ensure that families across the country are catered for in these challenging times.
Indomie Instant Noodles remains steadfast in its quest to provide satisfaction and put smiles on the faces of families across Nigeria.
By Engr. Gbenga Adebayo
In 2001, when the first GSM call was made in Nigeria how many of us would have envisaged the digital world that we live in today? The pace of growth and the rate of adoption of telecoms solutions in Nigeria has been revolutionary. It is a globally acknowledged case study that we should be proud of and a clear demonstration of what can be achieved.
Almost all of us today are reliant on the network connectivity that it has enabled in different shapes and forms. From the simple need to communicate with loved ones, to the digital platforms that enable our access to and consumption of entertainment, financial products and other critical services. Our reliance on these systems is becoming more and more acute, whether it is citizens, governments, or corporations. System downtime is increasingly disruptive and offline manual redundancies are often in the advanced stages of being phased out. The pace of this transition is not slowing down. With the core infrastructure in place, innovation is driving the exponential growth of services that ride on it. From the fully adopted social media that has changed the way we interact, to the emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution.
While this innovation is enabling exciting new possibilities, there is a tendency to focus on those opportunities, to the detriment of the core infrastructure on which it rides. It is imperative that we retain a focus on the optimisation of that infrastructure and enable continued investment in its development. We have seen how the transition from 2G, through to 3G, 4G and 5G have each enabled the development of more and more sophisticated solutions.
The continued development of core infrastructure has to be sustainable, and over the last few months we have begun to see the challenges that the operators that provide it are facing. Both MTN and Airtel have declared significant foreign exchange (FX) losses in Nigeria, and the stress is not linked to them alone. The entire ecosystem is battling with a range of challenges that must be addressed. If we fail to do so, the downstream impact on innovation will be severe. Telecoms infrastructure requires a base level of investment to maintain its current capabilities, and significant additional investment to expand and grow. It is capital intensive and that capital has to be generated through sustainable business models.
At the heart of the challenge the industry faces is the issue of rising costs. Recent financial losses are directly linked to the cost of operating towers that rely on inputs like diesel, which have increased significantly as the Naira has depreciated. The provisions large telecom companies have had to make, and the consequent losses and impact on their reserves is a red flag. It tells us that business as usual is not sustainable. If we continue as we are, then those companies will struggle to continue to invest in and maintain existing services.
But those costs are not the only challenge. General cost inflation, multiple taxation, regular and damaging vandalisation of infrastructure and the costs associated with regulatory compliance all help contribute to the high cost of operations. We cannot continue to follow a path that asks those companies to simply accept those rising costs. It is no longer sustainable, and we have reached an inflection point.
This is a critical moment for the industry. How we approach and resolve it will define the future of Nigeria’s digital economy. If you want to be able to enjoy the benefits that digitisation brings. If we want the infrastructure that enables AI and helps us drive growth, then we must take action now.
Cost-reflective tariffs, like it or not, are simply non-negotiable. We have seen the impact of price controls in other segments of the economy, like power. If providers cannot operate sustainable business models, then they stop investing. When that happens, the existing infrastructure starts to crumble. For power, a consumer can choose to take ownership of the solution by buying a generator, or a solar panel. For fuel, the government can step in as the provider of last resort and manage a subsidy regime that mitigates the impact on the population. Those options are not available in the telecoms sector. There is no self-help solution.
We fully understand and appreciate the financial stress that Nigerians are experiencing today. The cost of living is the single most significant factor in most people’s daily lives. But those people are still able to enjoy the benefits that connectivity brings, at the price they paid before these challenges became so acute. Imagine a future in which the gains of the last twenty years are reversed. Nigeria, and Nigerians simply cannot afford it. The pain that we would feel under those circumstances would be exponentially worse.
We need to find a long-term, sustainable and manageable solution to this problem. Prices will need to rise, but action needs to be taken in a measured way, through sustainable conversations and partnership with the government. It is time to address this head on.
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo is the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON)
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said that the government needs to simplify and harmonize trade procedures and address bottlenecks in order to boost economic growth in the country.
President of LCCI, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa, gave the charge at a Quarterly media briefing on the State of the Economy yesterday in Lagos.
He said that the government has to create an atmosphere that promotes export growth and competitiveness, which is projected to boost export earnings, raise domestic revenue, improve citizens’ welfare, and increase business productivity.
“We recommend that reforms must include simplifying and harmonizing trade procedures as well as addressing bottlenecks such as port logistics, congestion, and transportation costs. This is expected to position the country as the commercial centre of the region and a springboard into regional value chains,” he stated.
On managing the persistent high inflation, the LCCI president said both monetary and fiscal authorities should focus on the factors driving the inflation rates by tackling the supply-side deficiencies instead of focusing too much attention on the demand-side management.
“We urge the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to continue with its foreign exchange (forex) market reforms with intense discipline, as the high exchange rate against the naira is a major driver of the skyrocketing inflation rates.”
Idahosa acknowledged the improvement in the naira exchange rate in the last few days, moving towards the level of N1000 per dollar or lower.
“CBN needs to sustain its policy and regulatory reforms in the FX market, adopt policies that would attract more FX inflow into the economy as well as build market confidence in the performance of the FX market,” he added.
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