In what looks like the first major narrative of Nigeria’s telecoms journey from an author’s perspective, a former editor of the Punch Newspaper, Mr. Dayo Oketola over the weekend presented his latest book, ‘The Catalyst World Book Tour’ to the public in Abuja where he chronicles the nation’s telecoms journey from inception to date.
At an event where the author took his time to read chapters of the book to friends, well wishers, senior and former colleagues in the industry, he said, “This is the beginning of an international journey that would take me across the globe to engage readers and colleagues in order to discuss my experiences in covering the telecoms industry in Nigeria and I believe that I will take the gospel of this book to different parts of the country and the world.”
Recalling what has come to be known as a revolutionised telecoms industry, he paid glowing tributes to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Atiku Abubakar, for what he called their enduring legacies to the Nigerian people.
In what looks like a letter to the former president in the book’s introduction, he said, “Dear Chief Obasanjo, it is not an exaggeration to describe you as a preeminent colossal figure in Nigeria, a nation that owes so much to you. Indeed many Nigerians would read about your birthdays on their GSM devices which remain one of your legacies to the Nigerian people.”
According to Dayo, the Nigerian mobile telecommunications is a testament to technology transformative power and pivotal to key industry players.
Speaking further he said prior to 2001 when mobile telephony revolution started in Nigeria, telecommunications was a mirage due to few and nonfunctional lines operated by the defunct Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).
“Before 2001, Nigeria had only 450,000 telecoms lines managed by NITEL and few private licences operating regional networks. Therefore, 2001 marked a turning point with the unction of the first digital mobile licences to GSM operators. This shift attracted over 70 billion dollars worth of investment and created over 500,000 jobs.”
He noted that in a country of over 200m people, the development, no doubt, changed the landscape and has become the cornerstone of economic development driven by four telecommunications giants: MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9Mobile.
However, he noted that at the same period, there existed CDMAs like Starcoms, Multilinks, Vodafone etc contributing their own quota in a GSM-dominated market, but could not cope with the spreading phase of GSM operators because of many reasons ranging from lack of finances to match up with GSM operators, their inability to adapt to changing technological innovations that came with GSM (G3, G4 migration etc), the fact that Nigerians simply fell in love with GSM rather than CDMA and the fact that in many countries, the CDMA technology was being phased out.
The author revealed in the book that when MTN, for instance, launched in August 2001, its target was simply 100,000 subscribers within the first month, but this was surpasses within one week which impressed by this, the company rolled out more lines.
Despite this impressive market turnout, the author said MTN told the Nigerian subscribers that per second billing was simply impossible; therefore a big challenge for subscribers who were charged 50 naira per minute until Globacom came on and changed the narrative thereby forcing other operators like then ECONET (now Airtel) to join alongside MTN. The coming up of Glo, he said, became the game changer till what it is today.
A section of the book also dealt extensively about NIGCOMSAT which today has siphoned trillions of naira without commensurate income for the country. He said, “The expected e-revolution from NIGCOMSAT has failed Nigerians despite the humongous investment in it. The NIGCOMSAT is a satellite built to last for 15 years, so far 13 years have passed with only two years remaining, yet no impact on the economy of the nation despite the huge overhead cost especially in salaries and wages.”
Standing with telecoms operators in the face of the current economic situation, he said, “At the moment, TELCOS are operating in a very difficult environment affected by the effect of devaluation of the naira and contingent problems. Operators would therefore not survive the current trend if they are not allowed to charge cost reflective tariffs even though the consumers should be protected. This is because the telecoms sector has become an enabler in the economy of Nigeria.”
Author chronicles Nigeria’s telecoms journey from inception to date
