The Director Public Affairs at the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Mr. Tony Ojobo has described technology innovation as bedrock
of digital economies, reports ITRealms.
Addressing the General Meeting of the Nigeria Computer Society
(NCS) Abuja branch as a special guest, Ojobo said that technology sets the pace
for human civilization, boosts development and creates wealth for those who
adopt it.
According to him, investments in technology and innovations are
the reasons why the top four most capitalized companies in the world are where
they are, namely Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook.
Ojobo rolled out statistics to justify his presentation. Narrowing
it down to Nigeria, Ojobo said telephone Subscription stood at 154.5 Million as
at December 2016 while teledensity is now 110.38 per cent.
Internet Subscription, he also said, is 92 Million as at December
2016, while Broadband Penetration is 21 Per cent as estimated by ITU/UNESCO
Broadband Commission. Broadband Target by 2018 as estimated in the
National Broadband Plan is 30%. Africa has an internet penetration of
28.7% of 3.7billion global internet users. Nigeria is at about 48% penetration
and about 92 million internet users. Facebook users stand at 16 million and
Facebook is now worth over $348 billion. It overtook Exxon Mobil as the 4th most
Capitalized Company in the world.
There has been a forecast that by 2020, 20.8 billion devices will
be connected and collating data. Digital technology is promoting astonishing
interaction among citizens and between citizens and the State. More political
debates are enabled thereby boosting the expression of civil liberties.
Politicians increasingly deploy social media to reach their constituents. Only
recently the Lagos State Government launched a portal to enhance interaction
between it and the citizens.
On the application of digital technology to expansion of
democracy, the Arab Spring, particularly the events at Tahrir Square in Egypt
readily comes to bear. The Nigerian elections of 2015 gave an insight to what
technology can do. The Referendum in the UK to decide the country’s fate in the
EU and the recently concluded American Presidential elections were all shaped
by the use of social media networks enabled by the Internet.
Ojobo explained how digital economy and opportunities for business
and economic growth come about. He said the internet has accounted for over 10%
GDP over a period of 15 years in the G8 countries (China, Brazil, India, Sweden
and South Korea) according to Mckinsey global institute.
Practically all brands Coca-Cola, Toyota, Cadbury, Exxon Mobil,
Adidas, Amazon, Jumia, Konga retail stores are online. Human brands
too…presidents, politicians, footballers, other sport icons etc. Jumia, Konga
etc. conduct online sales in millions. Black Friday sales turnover in
2015 conducted by online stores in Nigeria was in excess 600 million naira. The
availability of ATMs, POS and other online communication platforms have
redefined modern life.
Ojobo listed how the digital Economy has aided the detection of
‘ghost workers’ in the civil service which had drained public funds for years.
This was made possible by ICTs adding that because of ICTs, there is hardly any
banking transaction that has taken place in Nigeria in the last 15 years that
cannot be tracked. This enabled detection of illicit funds and transparency in
the public sector. These have been a check at least on some people’s tendencies
for graft and other financial crimes.
The introduction of technology in banking and e- commerce has put
to a very large extent control over financial crimes. For instance, the
introduction of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) has made banking a lot
easier.
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