From southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk Sun Jul 9 12:06:15 2000
Date: Wed, Jul 5, 2000 10:48 AM -0000
From: Russell Southwood
Reply-To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
Subject: [GKD] News Update 16 - ICTs in Nigeria
NEWS UPDATE 16 - WHY ISN'T NIGERIA ONE OF AFRICA'S BIG INTERNET PLAYERS?
Outside of South Africa, there are a number of African countries where
the size of their population and the wealth of their economies should
make them ideal places for rapid internet growth. Nigeria is an obvious
candidate to become a large internet market but barely seems to have
started down this road. John Dada looks for the reasons why this has not
occurred and how change may be in the offing.
If our correspondent is "off the mark" or you have factual amendments,
mail them to us and we will include them in subsequent News Updates. If
you'd like to contribute, write and let us know.
If you need information about a particular place or issue, just send
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^À WHY ISN'T NIGERIA ONE OF AFRICA'S BIG INTERNET PLAYERS?
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For six days now, I have been trying to send an email to a friend in a
Nigerian university some 500km from where I live, but so far, no luck.
This scenario probably sums up the current state of the Nigerian
Internet.
NITEL (Nigerian Telecommunications Limited) has a 1MB link to Global One
in the US and is working with the UNDP to establish an internet
backbone. Nigeria¹s population of 110 million has 450,000 telephone
lines. There is only one national mobile system, Mobitel, an affiliate
of NITEL. It has a capacity for 22,000 but has over 40,000 customers.
This situation compares unfavorably with a much smaller African country
like Guinea. It has a population of 7.6 million who are provided with
two GSM and one analogue operator. Cote D¹Ivoire has three GSM operators
for a population of 15.2 million, while Ghana has two GSM and two
analogue operators.
A new body, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has the duty to
regulate and restructure telecommunications in Nigeria. The state-owned
NITEL has been the monopoly telecoms operator and has been blamed for
the slow pace of telecommunications development in the country. It was
to break this monopoly that six potential licenses were shortlisted:
Motophone Limited, Mobile Telecommunication Services MTS), Reliance
Telecom Limited, Communications Investment Limited (CIL) and United
Networks Limited.
NITEL has a POP in Lagos and there were plans to establish three more in
other cities. Bandwidth is restricted to 9.6Kbps on many routes and
payment of the official and unofficial fees of about US$1,500 does not
usually guarantee installation of a phone line. A 64Kbps international
9.6Kbps leased line costs about US$138,000 annually. This is part of the
reason why Nigeria has one of the lowest teledensities in the world
Of the 38 ISPs that were licensed to sell internet services, 12 are
active and they are required to pay US$100 per month for each incoming
line. Inevitably, these costs are passed to the internet users. Most of
these ISPs are located in Lagos: Cyberspace, Telnet, Hyperia, Microcom,
Linkserve, Infoweb, Ross Clayton, Plnet (Informatics.com.ng). Only
Skannet has a POP in Ibadan.
The National Universities Commission has spent over USD20,000 for its
National Universities Network which was to connect all the Nigerian
universities in an academic network has cost over US$20,000 but the
scheme has been neither effective nor efficient.
Ross Clayton, Lixy Information Services and Global Access operate a
store and forward internet service.
The following developments may signal a significant improvement in the
Nigerian Internet landscape:
* The National Board for Technical Education,responsible for the 30
polytechnics and 20 colleges of education recently announced that
internet facilities were being provided.
* STM Wireless, Trends Communication, Supernet300 have arrangements at
an advanced stage to provide Wireless Internet Services Communications.
These organisations are based in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and
Enugu.Intercellular Nigeria Ltd and Starcomms Limited both operate the
fixed wireless local loop (WLL).
* NITEL has signed a major interconnectivity contract with three Private
Telephone Operators to provide private network links .
* Rural urban telephone scheme will be introduced using the WLL.
* 1.4 million cellular lines are to be provided within the next two
years ? A reorganisation of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited
leading to the retirement of four executive directors and 17 general
managers.
* The Committee on Communications of the House of Representatives is set
to break the monopoly enjoyed by Siemens as the sole equioment supplier
for NITEL, and the gross under-utilisation of the US$100 million telcom
network of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is being
investigated.
* The state owned NITEL is to be privateised to give a fillip to
development of the telcom industry.
However, it is not yet Uhuru because only 0.1% of Nigerians having
access to the internet. This elite group are urban dwellers, and the 70%
Nigerians who live in rural areas are yet to be connected. With the high
pricing of services, VAT, import restrictions, and the conflicting
policy signals from the NCC, Nigeria is yet to cover that first mile of
connectivity that will launch the country into the information age.
John Dada runs the Fantsuam Foundation - Nigeria
Temp URL: http://www.bfranklin.edu/gld3/nigeria.html
http://www.bfranklin.edu/gld3/fantsuam01.html
http://www.mediation.co.uk/fantsuam1/options.html
Fantsuamfoundation@fantsuam.com
Sources:
Mike Jensen http://www2.sn.apc.org/africa/
African Development Forum, 1999 Discussion.
aisi-htd-l@lyris.bellanet.org
Telecom/GDP stats source:ITU/World Bank
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AFRICAN INTERNET GROWTH - AN OVERVIEW
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Below we publish a summary of an article taken from Business Africa. It
provides a useful reminder that although internet growth in Africa is
rapid, it starts from an incredibly low baseline:
* The number of dial-up accounts reached 1.5m by mid-1999. On average,
three people are thought to use each account.
* Internet host growth in Africa is nearly twice the world average of
18% a year, albeit from a tiny base.
* Six states -- Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and
Zimbabwe -- have more than ten internet service providers.
* The number of countries with internet access rose from just five in
1995 to 54 last year, while the number of internet hosts rose from 316
to almost 11,000 over the same period.
* Twenty African states still have only one ISP, usually operated by the
public utility.
* Access remains largely confined to the major cities and national
capitals, and to South Africa particularly. The country accounts for
two- thirds of the entire continent's internet users.
* The cost of internet access remains a serious barrier, with charges
ranging from $10 to $100 a month. The average monthly cost of using a
dial- up account is $240 for 20 hours of access, compared with $29 or
less in the US.
* Excluding South Africa, the continent had 12,000-15,000 computers
permanently connected to the internet in mid-1999 -- roughly equivalent
to the number of internet hosts in Panama or Lithuania. To put this in
context, Panama and Lithuania each have populations of 3m- 4m; Africa's
total population is around 750m.
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SNIPPETS
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* AFRICA IN DANGER OF MISSING OUIT ON E-COMMERCE
Business-to- consumer e-commerce may have been worth $450m in South
Africa last year, but the general state of development of e-business is
poor in the rest of the continent, and all told Africa has only 0.6% of
the globe's internet users.
There are a number of factors holding back the IT industry. The most
obvious is the lack of access to the telecommunications network.
According to the World Bank, Africa is at the bottom of the global
league table with just 2% of the world's telephones and fewer than two
telephones per 100 people. What is worse, maintenance and repair remain
serious problems: in Africa there are 116 faults per 100 lines each
year, compared with just seven faults in high-income states and a world
average of 22. However, mobile cellular telephony is growing fast: from
six countries with mobile systems in the early 1990s, 42 countries now
serve more than 250,000 customers (while there are 2m customers in South
Africa alone). Cellphones are expensive but they are the only
alternative to long queues for fixed-line telephones.
Beyond telecoms, the quality of other types of infrastructure is also an
inhibiting factor.If e- business is going to take off in Africa,
transport systems must be upgraded, while well-functioning ports and
postal systems, and better and more reliable banks are required.
The overall information/communications technology literacy of the
population is also a factor. E-business is viable only where the
population is educated, but less than two-thirds (59%) of Sub-Saharan
Africa's adult population is literate, compared with 95% in OECD
countries. In South Africa, for example, the typical internet user is a
male aged 26 to 30, who speaks English and earns $24,000-45,000 a year,
while working in the computer industry. Nearly 90% of users in Zambia
are university graduates, and the proportion rises to 98% in Ethiopia.
This clearly limits the reach of business-to-consumer operations. More
schools and colleges need greater access to computer technologies and
training if public use of the internet is to be broadened and e-business
take off.
In addition, public policy must be right. In those African countries
where the internet service provider (ISP) market is competitive, the
costs of internet access have fallen below $30 a month. However,
policies specifically targeting e-business are useless on their own.
More general measures designed to improve the overall business climate
are also required. These must include measures to reduce political risk,
increase openness to foreign investment, facilitate currency
convertibility, and liberalise trade and capital flows. Africa is
unquestionably moving -- slowly -- in the right direction in terms of
developing an information technology industry, but further progress is
necessary if the region is to exploit the e- business economy
effectively. (Source: Business Africa)
* NO PROGRESS FOR AFRICA IN THE TOWER OF BABEL?
Japanese company NEC has released new Web site translation technology
which automatically translates Web sites in nine different languages,
including Chinese, German, Russian, and English, into Japanese on the
fly, as the Web surfer is viewing the site. Starting in late July, NEC
will provide the technology to a number of ISPs. Although there are
similar products available, NEC says its version has superior
performance. No sign yet of translation software for any African
language. (Source: CJNN extract from Yomiuri, June 21, 2000)
* SOUTH AFRICA'S E-COMMERCE POLICY DELAYED
Publication of the Green Paper detailing South Africa's draft e-commerce
policy will be delayed, says the Department ofCommunications, mainly due
to a widespread lack of e-commerce awareness. See also Useful Web Sites
section below. (source:
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2000/0006301200.asp)
* CAMEROON TO PRIVATISE CAMTEL
A consortium including South Africa's Eskom Enterprises and Econet
Wireless of Zimbabwe has been shortlisted as one of the three final
bidders for the privatisation of telecoms utility Camtel. Recently the
same consortium was the sole bidder for a majority stake in the Lesotho
Telecommunications Corporation. (Source: Business Africa)
* US COMPANY BUYS INTO IVOIRE TELECOM
US-based Titan Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding to
buy a majority interest in Ivoire Telecom, which provides
voice/data-transmission services to corporate customers in Benin, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal.
The takeover will give Titan a new hub in Paris and a gateway in Abidjan
from which it can expand its long-distance operations. (Source: Business
Africa)
* NORTEL NETWORKS WINS BROADBAND WIRELESS CONTRACT IN GHAMA
Nortel Networks of the US has won a four-year, $180m-plus contract to
provide a broadband wireless access network in Ghana's major cities.
United Communications, which awarded the contract, plans to target the
banking industry as well as small and medium- sized businesses. (Source:
Business Africa)
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USEFUL WEB SITES
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* For those interested in discussions about the legislative framework
for e-commerce in Africa, a good starting point is South Africa's
e-Commerce debate page (http://www.ecomm-debate.co.za/). The site has a
discussion paper with a foreword by Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Minister of
Communications and also has an excellent links section that offers
similar information from Australasia, Europe and North America. However
the discussion is largely from a governmental perspective.
* Fahamu is proposing to run an e-mail based training course on how to
write effective grant proposals for NGOs. This course is to be offered,
free of charge, to members of African not-for-profit organisations that
have their websites hosted on Kabissa. It will be spread over a period
of three (3) weeks and facilitated entirely by e-mail. Write to
firoze@fahamu.org with the subject 'course' if you are interested, or
visit http://www.fahamu.org/proposals
* WomenAction 2000 is a global coalition of women's information and
media organizations to ensure world access to the decisions made during
the UN special session of the General Assembly entitled 'Women 2000
Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century', from June
5-9. This meeting was a follow-up to the 4th UN World Conference on
Women held in Beijing in 1995, where a comprehensive Platform for
Action - guidelines - were established for governments to advance the
status of women. The gateway to the regional and global WomenAction 2000
sites is http://www.womenaction.org.
* Swazi News (http://www.swazinews.co.sz/) provides an excellent
summary of Swazi events including news, business (the impact of falling
sugar prices) and the Emalangeni exchange rates. Its latest issue also
contains the news that if you want to register a birth, death or
marriage at the relevant Government department in Malanzini that you
need to be there before 4 in the morning. We've heard of bureaucracy but
that's just ridiculous!
* The Talking Africa Open Directory
(httpo://talkingafrica.szs.net/directory/index.html) is an excellent
source for African web sites. Talking Africa is a one hour radio
programme broadcast from London. Details on the website.
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E-JOBS
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Africa Online (Uganda) has job vacancies for the following posts: Sales
and Marketing Manager, Network Engineer, Financial Accountant and
Customer Services Manager. Details on their website and applications to
jobs@africaonline.co.ug by 7 July. Shortlisted candidates will be
notified by 14 July.
For jobs at Oneworld.net check below: http://www.oneworld.net/jobs
For vacancies at the Communication Initiative visit their web site:
http://www.comminit.com/vacancies.html for details.
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DIGITAL TOOLBOX
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* MAKING YOUR WEB SITE POPULAR
You've got your web site up and you're breathing a sigh of relief that
most of the links seem to work...there's a steady trickle of users but
not that many...Everyone knows that the best way to generate traffic is
to get links submitted to the main search engines. In the next issue
we'll be looking at the pros and cons for using software packages to do
that...But while you're waiting, why not check out how many links your
site already has with the main search engines.
(http://www.linkpopularity.com) It'll either confirm what you already
knew or you'll be appalled by how much you've still got to do.
* REALJUKEBOX IS OUT
RealJukebox lays claim to being the world's favorite jukebox software.
To get RealJukebox 2 beta for free go to:
http://www.real.com/products/bestjukebox2b.html
RealJukebox is a digital media jukebox software that lets you record
your personal CD collection to your computer, download audio MP3 files
from the Internet, make your own personal audio CDs and much more.
* INFO ON SURFING THE WEB VIA E-MAIL
When the telephone system is too slow or unreliable to allow you to surf
the web directly, you can do so via e-mail. For full instructions for a
searching the web" tutorial page go to
http://www.teledyn.com/help/Internet/whatsnew.html, but the essential
information can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/gb/gboyd/wsintro.faq
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EVENTS
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* IT SECURITY AND FRAUD
IT Security and Fraud - Securing your IT Systems in preparation for
South Africa's Information Economy takes place 14-15 August 2000 at The
Park Hyatt, Rosebank, South Africa. Speakers include: Ian Melamed, CEO,
Secure Computing, Ismael Kajee, Senior Manager - Group Audit, Transnet
Group and Professor Alko Meijer, Chief Cryptologist, South African
Communications and Security Agency. Further details from Cheryl Eatock,
ICMSA (cheryl@icmsa.co.za).
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News Update is a free e-letter covering African internet content and
infrastructure developments published by Balancing Act. The latest issue
and all previous issues appear on the Kabissa.org web site
(www.kabissa.org), which is a Balancing Act pilot project. For further
information about Balancing Act and its pilot projects, contact Russell
Southwood on southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk. All material is copyright but
can be used if permission is sought.
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BACK NUMBERS
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Past issues have covered:
15. Liberia's first fully-fledged ISP
14. Speaking in Tongues? A Shona language web site
13.1 Education and ICT - What's the pay-off?
12. ICANN vs .ZA - Welcome to the parallel universe
11. Interviews with key Zambian ISPs
10. Benin - No telephone lines, no wired society?
9. South Africa - Growing pains in a highly regulated market
8. The All-African portal - A new contender enters the field
7. Sierre Leone's leading independent newspaper on the internet
6. Liberia
5. The state of the internet in Madagascar
4.1 The internet in four countries (Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and
Uganda)
You can read and download these at www.kabissa.org. If you have
difficulties accessing the web, mail us on southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk.
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FREE SMALL ADS
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News Update will be launching a free small ads section for its readers
in the near future. In the first instance, ads will be restricted to 50
words. Please send them to Russell Southwood, News Update
(southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk)
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COMING SOON: THE INTERNET IN ETHIOPIA AND A REVIEW OF AFRICAN WEB SITE
CONTENT