Broadband is key to ICT growth – Rufai

Managing Director, Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), Mr. Ahmed Rufai, has said that broadband availability rather than telephony is the key indicator of growth in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Mr. Rufai who made this assertion at a media chat at the weekend noted that telephone calls are essentially for social interactions, stressing that businesses are not done on the basis of being able to call and talk for hours.

“So the issue of people talking on phone and people making billions out of that is not an indication of development in ICT, what drives an economy is broadband,” he said.

According to him the emphasis should be on broadband penetration, which is what NigComSAT has come to champion.

Pointing out that Nigeria’s index in broadband penetration is just 16 per cent and is ranked 32 among 53 African nations.

Lamenting the broadband index of Nigeria, Mr. El-Rufai said it is a major challenge because the nation is nowhere when it comes to broadband penetration, adding that abroad any standard accommodation is internet ready.

“Luxemburg has a population of 450,000 people and they have a total bandwidth availability of 2.4 Giga bytes (GB), but what is available to Africa before the launch of NigComSat was just 1.4GB for the whole of the continent; a population of 960 million people,” he decried.

He also said if NigComSat is allowed to deploy broadband multimedia network which, as being proposed by the firm, it would serve as the backbone that will bring internet connectivity and all ancillary services to homes.

“It will boost the country’s capacity to be part of the information age and digital group,” he declared.

El-Rufai said the fear of the company by some stakeholders remained the greatest challenge that faces the NigComSAT, “because they believe that a fully functional NigComSat will lead to profit erosion, stating that that is reason they have been fought to a standstill.”

Presently, he disclosed that the total revenue from satellite services stands at 62 million dollars worldwide and that Africa is contributing about 1.2 billion dollars, emphasizing that if a country is buying bandwidth worth 100 million dollars for various governments requirements and various commercial connectivity like the banks, “it means that if you have a satellite that is less than 300 million dollars and has a lifespan of 15 years, in three years you will break even.”

He equally regretted the opposition against NigComSat, saying that the company has less than 10 per cent of the Nigerian market, and that this opposition is also coming from quarters that should have been more supportive of the dream.

On the ownership structures of the company, he said currently the company is wholly government-owned, adding that all satellites in the orbit today started as a government initiative before it was transferred to private operators.


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