Policy Statement
by
The Hon. Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed
Minister for Communication
Federal Republic of Nigeria

Tuesday,19 March 2002

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. I bring you warm greetings from the Federal Republic of Nigeria and thank the ITU for this opportunity to address this august gathering at the occasion of World Telecommunication Development Conference here in Istanbul.

I also wish to seize this opportunity to acknowledge the excellent job that Mr. Hamadoun Touré has been doing and his achievements since becoming the Director of BDT.

I also wish to acknowledge the excellent progress made by the newly restructured ITU under the able leadership of the Secretary General Mr. Yushio Utsumi.

Mr. Chairman, the issue of providing telecommunications and information technology resources to the developing world especially to the African continent is an issue that requires very serious and urgent attention. It is a well-known fact that Africa lags behind other continents/regions of the world as far as ICT penetration is concerned. Despite the fact that 12% of the world population lives in the African Continent, less than 2% of the world’s main telephone lines are in Africa. Internet penetration in Africa has also been slow, thus further widening the gap.

Africa is also unique in comparison with other regions of the world in that over 70% of the population who live in our rural areas have never seen a telephone let alone use it.

So while we speak of the digital divide between the developing and the developed countries, there is perhaps even a wider gap between the urban and rural areas within the African continent.

It is in recognition of this that Government of Nigeria in collaboration with some other countries in Africa are seeking ways to accelerate the growth of ICT in Africa. We believe in regional approach to the issue.

Our government has devoted a lot of resources in promoting this regional approach and our Head of State, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been one of the leading voices in the most recent African initiative – New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

Nigeria is also committed to other earlier initiatives including the African Connection and the ECOWAS Telecommunications integration initiatives.

Nigeria believes that through shared experiences, African countries can avoid wastages and duplication of resources.

In the West Africa sub-region, Nigeria is participating in the initiative of the ECWAS Telecommunications Unit to come up with common regulatory policies that will lead to grater investment in the sub region.

The present democratic government in Nigeria takes ICT development very seriously and a lot of effort has been devoted towards expanding the ICT infrastructure in the country. Nigerian Government believes that the private sector is the engine of economic growth and has therefore taken steps to liberalise the market. Government in its effort to encourage investment in this sector, has reduced import duty tariff from 25% to 5%.

A legal and regulatory framework has been created to attract private investors to participate in the development of the necessary infrastructure.

Government is also divesting from ownership of businesses that can better be run and managed by the private sector.

All these measures have generated the interest of multinational investors in our Telecommunications industry resulting in the award of three mobile licences in Jan 2001 through a process that was adjudged internationally as one of the most successful and transparent spectrum auction processes in Africa.

The National Carrier NITEL is currently being privatized and we are also in the process of licensing a Second National Operator. This is due to be finalized by June 2002.

Nigeria is also pursuing some initiatives aimed at extending telecommunications services to the rural areas of the country. It is hoped that by the end of 2002, all local governments in the country will have access to telecommunication facilities. We intend to eventually provide telephone access to every village in Nigeria such that no body will need to travel more than five kilometers to have access to a telecommunications facility.

For the future, Nigeria will continue to pursue efforts that will ensure that Nigeria takes full advantage of the emerging Information Society to bring better standards of living for her people.

Nigeria will also continue to encourage regional initiatives in Africa to ensure that ICT infrastructure spreads to all parts of Africa.

One area for which Africa requires the assistance and cooperation of the ITU will be in the area of human resources development. We need a high level of expertise in the area of legal and regulatory frameworks, policy formulation and spectrum planning and management. We also need a trained work force of young people able to adapt to new and evolving technologies.

Mr. Chairman, the Nigerian Government will continue to participate in the activities of the ITU and all other initiatives that target the use of Information and Communications Technologies as a way of bridging the digital divide between the developed and the developing world.

Finally, I will like to express our appreciation to the government of Turkey for the warm reception extended to us since our arrival in this historic city of Istanbul.