Telecom
Only Technology will Change the Nigeria Story – Ekeh, Zinox Boss
Leo Stan Ekeh, chairman, Zinox Group, has boldly declared that technology will disrupt several spheres of the Nigerian economy in the next 10 years, claiming that no one has the capacity to stop the coming wave of positive technological disruption.
Consequently, he has urged Nigerians and mostly the youths to take advantage of this positive digital disruption and add impetus to the brand Nigeria on the global map.
“It is now between our competence, our commitment and God to lead other nations of the world.
“This is a century of quality wealth driven with knowledge and conscience and powered by technology. We have no reason not to scale with over 200m ambitious people from birth,” he declared.
Ekeh gave this charge in a world-class tech speech delivered at the 2019 Annual Lecture Series of foremost advisory and corporate commercial entity, Alliance Law Firm.
The classy event with the theme – Leveraging Technology to develop and rebrand Nigeria – was held at the prestigious Four Points by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos on Tuesday, November 26th 2019.
In attendance was Chairman of MTN Nigeria, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe who chaired the occasion.
Also in attendance was foremost blogger and media entrepreneur, Linda Ikeji; MD/CEO, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwutan; former DG/CEO, NOTAP, Engr. Umar Bindir; GMD, Mojec International Holdings, Chantelle Abdul; Deputy CEO, Payment Tokens, Interswitch, Mike Ogbalu, and many CEOs and Senior Management executives from the financial, shipping, technology, legal, entertainment and educational sector, to mention a few.
Ekeh, arguably Africa’s most renowned technology guru, was the Lead Speaker. He described the event as one of the best ever organised in Nigeria in recent times because of the quality and content of the event.
Continuing Ekeh said,alreadyevery sector of our economy is experiencing the impact of technology, be it the electoral system, health care delivery, agriculture, banking, transport, education, hospitality,governance, entertainment, housing and including the way businesses are run in Nigeria.
“Today, Nigeria is moving closer to e-voting. Also, you will observe that post-election litigations have dropped considerably.
“In fact, we are down by about 41 per cent today. Once we migrate to e-voting fully, anyone who loses an election will have no need to go and contest it in court.
“This is the power of technology. Technology does not lie. This is why I chose to go into it as a profession, he disclosed.
The serial digital entrepreneur, who spoke extempore, drew extensively from his personal experiences in a speech which attracted a standing ovation.
He argued that rebranding Nigeria must begin with critical investments in the nation’s human capital.
Ekeh urged Nigeria to borrow a leaf from a country like India which presently accounts for some of the leading brains driving the world’s major tech conglomerates.
“When I studied for my first degree in India many years ago, I had written a paper titled – India: An economy waiting to happen.
“I have been proved right today. Although the country experienced serious economic hardship, it did not prevent them from investing in education.
“You will find that the average Indian holds a Ph.D. in about three different disciplines and maybe a Master’s degree in four disciplines.
“So, when you employ him, you are getting maybe a Medical Doctor who is sound in Engineering, Agric-Economics, Business Management and more.
“While they were incubating, they kept on upgrading their citizens knowledge base by reducing school fees affordable even to the poorest citizens, waiting for an opportunity.
“When the ICT opportunity emerged, they took it. If the Indian President recalls all Indian nationals today for a two-week break, the entire world will feel the pain. Indians are at the helms of affairs of the world’s most valuable companies including Microsoft, Google, Apple and many others today.”
Ekeh, himself a global advisor to Microsoft, went on to encourage the audience not to lose faith in Nigeria. He affirmed that things are changing for good.
‘Today, we have a Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy,’ he noted.
Further, he counselled the Federal and state governments to take that decision now to invest about $10bn to provide quality digital infrastructure in Nigerian schools at all levels and finance school fees for indigent students nationwide.
“When I encounter people who say things are worse today, I just laugh. You must remain positive.
“Entrepreneurs are known to be positive people. I am an example of the Nigerian miracle but I disciplined myself from day one as someone born in a trust economy.
“When I returned to this country over 30 years ago, I was worth less than $10,000.
“Within three months of returning to Nigeria, I was privileged to have met people like General Theophilus Danjuma, the Awolowo family and others who patronised me and in the first six months, I hit over $4.5m balance sheet size.
“I wouldn’t have achieved this if I had decided to remain in the UK, as I was being advised then by those who saw no future for Nigeria in technology.
“It is important to note that though my customers did not really understand what they were buying, I did not betray them. This century is a century of trust and those that cannot be trusted have no financial capacity to scale.
“Things are even better today. The current generation of kids are knowledge-driven and technology-powered. They will delete many of the so-called billionaires in Nigeria today within the next few years. That is the era we are currently in.
“A very good example of this is Konga which is run by my son and his colleagues. A few months after we acquired Konga, Naspers – the previous owners – which invested $32m in TenCent sold off two per cent of its stake for $9.8bn.
“Today, Naspers’ remaining 28 per cent stake in TenCent is worth $133bn. If the whizkids at Konga choose to put Konga up for sale today, we have an idea how much it will attract. Nigeria with our growing quality population is headed for greatness,’ he submitted.
Ekeh, who disclosed that Nigeria’s wealthy class must re-distribute their wealth or stand the risk of using it to destroy their children, also called for the empowerment of indigent children.
According to him, children of poor parents are imbued with a mindset of disruption and greater discipline and fear of God, even as he affirmed that these are the ones that will place Nigeria on the map of globally recognised nations in the very near future. We can not continue to manipulate them for too long,’ he concluded.
The event also witnessed the launch of the Doing Business in Nigeria manual.
Chief Host of the event and Managing Partner, Alliance Law Firm, Uche Val Obi (SAN) affirmed that the publication drew on the firm’s vast advisory experience and their status as notable contributors in the IMF/World Bank Doing Business publications.
Dimension Data has said that the proceeds from its Series 1 corporate bond, will support the expansion of the company’s fibre infrastructure to meet Nigeria’s growing demand for digital connectivity.
This followed the successful subscription of the corporate bond.
Recall that Dimension Data Limited said that it has completed the signing ceremony for the issuance of N4.05 billion (approximately US$2.9 million).
This sum marks the first tranche of a N20 billion (US$14.7 million) bond programme announced earlier this year.
The bond programme was raised under Dimension Data SPV Funding Plc, following approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria.
The company says the proceeds will support the expansion of the company’s fibre infrastructure to meet Nigeria’s growing demand for digital connectivity.
Speaking at the ceremony, Olugbenga Olabiyi, managing director of Dimension Data Limited, said the investment reflects the company’s long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital economy.
The planned investments will fund the continued expansion of Dimension Data’s fibre network, supporting increasing demand from financial institutions, fintechs, enterprise customers and other technology-driven sectors.
Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Johannesburg, the company has grown its footprint across the Middle East and Africa.
Today Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Ltd Group, one of the world’s leading technology companies.
As cloud adoption, digital financial services and data-intensive applications continue to grow, the company believes resilient fibre infrastructure will remain a critical enabler of Nigeria’s digital economy.
The Federal Government has announced that work will commence within weeks on a 90,000-kilometre fibre optic network expected to connect every state, local government area and ward in Nigeria, marking what officials describe as one of the country’s most ambitious digital infrastructure projects.
Dr Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, disclosed this on Tuesday after briefing President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, on the progress of three flagship digital transformation initiatives being implemented by his ministry.
According to the minister, all resource mobilisation and contractual processes for the nationwide fibre project have been completed, paving the way for physical deployment.
“We’re now at the point where, in a few weeks’ time, we should start to lay those fibre, so people will start seeing us around the country deploying the fibre. This is going to transform Nigeria for good,” Tijani said.
He explained that the project would deliver fibre optic infrastructure to every geopolitical zone, state, local government area and ward, significantly expanding broadband access and improving the quality of internet connectivity across the country.
“This is a project where every state, every geopolitical zone, every local government and every ward in this country will be covered with fibre optic cables, which will transform the quality of connectivity,” he added.
Bosun Tijani attributed the progress in the digital economy to a series of reforms approved by President Tinubu, including the designation of digital infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure, tariff adjustments and tax harmonisation measures sought by industry operators.
“I think our sector has been extremely fortunate. Mr. President has given us quite a number of things that the sector has been demanding for a long time. Whether it’s the Critical National Infrastructure designation for all digital infrastructure, the slight adjustment in tariff, or the tax harmonisation, these are reforms the industry has long requested.
“I think it’s probably the sector that is most appreciative of this government because when we came in, the sector was contributing between 16 and 18 per cent to our GDP, but today it is tracking close to 21 per cent. That represents significant growth,” he said.
The minister noted that the reforms had also improved the financial performance of major operators in the telecommunications sector.
On efforts to bridge the digital divide, Tijani disclosed that the government would begin deploying about 3,700 telecommunications towers from October to provide network coverage for more than 20 million Nigerians currently living in underserved communities without access to telecom services.
He said the President had approved the project after months of capital mobilisation and planning.
“Today we’re at a point where, before the end of the year, we’ll also start to deploy close to 3,700 towers. It’s taken a lot to put this project together and raise the required capital, but we are now ready to begin deployment around October,” he said.
The minister also announced that Nigeria would officially launch an alphanumeric postcode system on October 1, a move he said would place the country among a select group of nations operating an advanced digital addressing system.
“Nigeria will be amongst maybe 10 or 15 countries in the world with an alphanumeric postcode. It’s the latest design in postcode systems, where we can identify every property in this country. We’re hoping to launch that on the 1st of October,” he said.
Tijani explained that the new system would assign a unique address to every property nationwide, enhancing logistics, accelerating e-commerce, improving emergency response and strengthening public service delivery.
“Inability to locate places comes at a cost. You can imagine what this will do for e-commerce. It means goods can now be delivered in record time,” he said.
He added that integrating the postcode system with existing government identity databases would improve security and make public services more efficient.
“Our alphanumeric postcode is unique because it allows us to assign a unique address to every property. In many countries, such as the UK, postcodes cover clusters of buildings. What we are introducing will uniquely identify every building, and that will be a game changer for Nigeria in terms of security, commerce and public service delivery,” the minister stated.
In a bold move to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and the digital economy, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has formally unveiled the National Sovereignty Cloud Initiative (NSCI) Regulatory Instruments, thereby setting a new benchmark for the country’s digital future.
NITDA
The NSCI is a strategic programme of the federal government coordinated by NITDA. It is designed to bolster Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and accelerate the country’s adoption of reliable cloud infrastructure. The initiative consists of the National Computing Guideline, the National Cloud Technical Guideline, the National Digital Infrastructure Assurance Framework, and the National Cloud Investment Strategy.
Speaking during the ceremony in Abuja, the Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi CCIE, described the NSCI as a strategic move to safeguard Nigeria’s digital future. He noted that the instruments will stimulate innovation, encourage investment in local cloud services, and enhance digital resilience.
“These instruments provide the regulatory certainty, technical standards, and assurance framework required to build a trusted cloud ecosystem that safeguards Nigeria’s digital sovereignty while creating new opportunities for investment, innovation, and sustainable economic growth.
“We should position ourselves not to serve Nigeria alone, but to serve West and Central Africa. Nigeria is already the digital gateway to West Africa and can extend to every part of Africa. But we can only realise that goal when we build our infrastructure. So, today’s event is the first step in that direction,” he stated.
Abdullahi appreciated the support of relevant stakeholders and the efforts of the NSCI Technical Working Group, which culminated in the successful development of the regulatory instruments. He emphasised that collective action of regulatory agencies is necessary for a seamless implementation of the initiative.
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Engr. Nadungu Gagare, declared that the launch of the NSCI underscores the federal government’s commitment to safeguarding Nigeria’s data borders and digital economy.
“By ensuring that government data remains strictly within national jurisdiction and under local operational control, we are guaranteeing data sovereignty and regulatory compliance. It will catalyse local cloud capacity, foster local job creation, and empower indigenous investors and innovators to build solutions on a secure, locally hosted foundation,” Gagare said.
The Permanent Secretary commended the management team of NITDA, the NSCI Technical Working Group, and other stakeholders for their collaborative spirit in driving the initiative. He promised that the Ministry would ensure that the strategic objectives of the NSCI are fully realised across all ministries, departments, and agencies.
In a message, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Olayemi Cardoso, congratulated NITDA for promoting a collaborative approach, adding that modern digital regulation succeeds through coordinated regulatory actions for common national objectives.
Cardoso, who was represented by Dr. Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, the Director of the Payment System Supervision Department, acknowledged that the launch testifies to the robust collaboration existing between the apex bank and other government institutions.
“CBN regulates the financial ecosystem. NITDA provides the national framework for digital infrastructure, cloud governance and assurance. These responsibilities are complementary, not competing. Together, they create a coherent national architecture.
“Together with NITDA, and with the continued cooperation of industry, we will continue to build an ecosystem that protects Nigeria’s financial system today and positions our nation as Africa’s trusted hub for digital finance and cloud innovation.
One of the most encouraging aspects of today’s event is the strong institutional collaboration between NITDA, the CBN, and other relevant government institutions. This collaboration demonstrates an important principle.”
Cardoso reiterated that as a responsive regulator, the CBN remains committed to providing clear expectations, firm principles, proportionate implementation, and constructive engagement with all stakeholders to position Nigeria as Africa’s trusted hub for digital finance and cloud innovation.
Also, the Managing Director/CEO of Galaxy Backbone Limited, Prof. Ibrahim Adeyanju, noted that the NSCI couldn’t have come at a better time than now, especially considering CBN’s recent directive mandating banks and financial institutions to localise their data.
Adeyanju expressed confidence that the initiative would push the ecosystem to greater heights by encouraging investment, developing indigenous talent, and creating employment opportunities akin to the gains brought by the deregulation of the telecoms sector.
NITDA will constitute the Sovereign Cloud Governance Committee (SovGov) within the next two weeks to oversee the implementation of the NSCI. The committee would comprise representatives from relevant Government institutions, sector regulators, industry, and the private sector, with NITDA serving as the Secretariat
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