At a time Nigeria appears to be at a crossroads on where else to turn for revenue with no end in sight on falling oil prices, one sector holds promise far more than any other: Information and Communication Technology. Fortunately, already 15 years ago, the country had established an agency to develop, regulate and provide guidance on the all-important ICT sector; little knowing this would be the hope to turn to in these critical times. Like a good fortune that flows from a good omen, DR. VINCENT OLATUNJI, one of the pioneer staff of the agency, has risen through the ranks, and today with a most sharpened understanding, broadened international focus and skillset all that rank him most suitable for the tasks at hand, runs the agency as Acting Director-General. His knowledge of the industry and experience as well as foresight hinged on a well-balanced hindsight, give hope that NITDA stands ready to deliver ICT benefits that can stand Nigeria out as a country that no longer relies on oil as her major foreign exchange earner; but on ICT. DR. OLATUNJI, in this interview conducted by MKPE ABANG, while exuding confidence and the can-do spirit that Nigeria badly needs, speaks on how NITDA is positioning the country for the journey into the ICT promise land. It is surely the voice of the perfect man for the right job; the proverbial square peg in a square hole. Excerpts:
Question: We are in a season or time where revenue from the mainstay of the economy, oil, is dwindling fast. Is there any hope from ICT as alternative source of revenue for the country?
Answer: Thank you very much; yes, I will say there is immense hope. And, I think the problems we are having with the prices of oil now for me I see it as a blessing for us, because in a way, it will encourage us to look inwards; to look at credible alternatives to oil and gas. And that is available in ICT. This is an opportunity for us to really think and be strategic in our planning towards changing the country, changing our economy to a knowledge-driven economy. And that could be achieved through ICT. From the Asian Tigers we can cite several examples of countries with natural resources, of countries without oil; and they are really ahead of us now, and they are doing absolutely well. So, I see the fall in oil price in the international market as an opportunity instead of seeing it as a major problem or challenge. And already there are so many things that we’ve started doing to ensure that yes, the era of oil is gone, this is the era of knowledge; and we don’t have a choice than to key into that era of knowledge, which is being done globally. So it is an opportunity for us.
And, how is NITDA preparing the country to key into these opportunities?
Thank you very much for that very important question. In so many ways, indeed; but before you can really key in and actively participate in the global digital economy you have to be ready to develop home grown solutions; home grown solutions that will meet your needs, that will meet your requirements, that will meet your peculiarities. If you are able to serve your indigenous market with what you have, you can then take it to the international market. One thing that is really working for us here to good advantage is that we have the population that is technologically savvy and that is ready to embrace technology. So (even) if we produce for our population alone, we are doing very good; because given our large population, it is like putting five or six other countries together as one. And, practically everything is being driven by technology: health, education, agriculture, transportation, tourism and culture; everything! Even our natural resources, you can’t really develop that sector without ICT deployment.
So we are looking at this area to see, what do we have locally, what can we take to the market to serve us here and to serve us globally? And that is why the idea of local content in ICT came up; we’ve developed a full policy, guidelines to guide ICT local content development in Nigeria. We’ve gone further to establish a full-fledge office to drive the implementation of that local content guideline to assist in promoting brand Nigeria ICT products and services. In fact, we are getting to the level of criminalising non-patronage of home-made, that is, made-in-Nigeria ICT products and services by federal ministries, departments and agencies. We held a meeting with heads of ICT departments in ministries and parastatals a couple of months ago, and we made it clear to them that going forward, no ministry, no parastatals should put forward any request for foreign (ICT) products unless we don’t have such products in Nigeria. But at the same time, we need to also really prepare our local brands, the software developers, the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), to ensure that they scale up the standards of their products and services.
When you scale up the standard of your products and services to international standard nobody can fault what we are doing, because they all buy from the same market. For instance, to assemble a computer, there is no single company that will manufacture a computer from the beginning to the end. You have to buy some components from different parts of the world and assemble them. And our OEMs fortunately they go to the same markets with the likes of HP (Hewlett Packard), the likes of Sony and so on. So why can’t we produce something of that standard? And secondly these (foreign) organisations if their countries did not really promote and support them when they started they won’t be where they are today. So there is every need for us to promote what we have. But the standard must be good; global standard. Again apart from standard, what kind of programme, what kind of mechanism do you have for support service? If you buy thousands or millions of products from them, if there are issues or problems do they have enough capacity to support what you have purchased from them? To support the services you are rendering through their software? So, we’ve told them: put your house in order to make it possible for us to be able to support you, to drive the market.
And that is how we can really create jobs; because if they produce, there is available market for what they have produced. People will buy, they will tend to produce more; when they are producing more they will take more hands. By then we are creating jobs. How about the small businesses that will come up from software developers? The multiplier effect will continue to grow; and for every successful ICT business you create, you’re creating three to four additional jobs. So you can imagine, if you have like 5,000 SMEs in the area of ICT; multiply that by three or by four; you know what that means. And our target is to ensure that we use that sector to really create jobs and assist the Federal Government in the change mantra they are pursuing. There is a national innovation programme we are doing now with the office of the Vice President under the supervision of the Honourable Minister of Communications. The idea is to have innovation hubs in the six geopolitical zones, like two in each zone; and if we have such hubs, we want to bring ideas, bring people who have one solution or the other together, to incubate them, mentor them and prepare them for global market; and with that we will be creating jobs.
With the level of revenue Nigeria earns from oil in mind, cast your mind forward, if these programmes you are putting in place become successful, what level of revenue do you think we can earn from ICT in three to five years’ time?
From software alone, if we really put our house in order, we won’t do anything less than $20 billion from software alone per annum. India is doing over $30 billion from software alone. What of BPO (business process outsourcing)? What of hardware production, maintenance and repairs? What of web development, hosting and maintenance? There are several opportunities that are available. These are just the core areas of ICT. How about the services; that is the service sector, to drive other sectors? For instance telemedicine; what of the services that ICT can provide in that sector? What about agriculture, e-agriculture; what about the services that ICT can provide for that sector? What of tourism and culture, and the services that ICT can provide for that sector? The scope goes beyond core IT jobs when you look at the multiplier effects on the sectors. For instance, look at the medical line; you’re using ICT to run your hospital, look at it from record keeping to basic diagnosis, prescriptions, even sophisticated surgery; consider the services that can be provided by ICT experts to that sector.
So it’s a whole gamut of opportunities for us. And we really have to work towards ICT development to take advantage of these opportunities. And, I have been telling people, in the next few years, with the passion and the strategies we are putting in place, I see leading global brands similar to the likes of Facebook, Yahoo! coming out of this country. Already we’ve identified around 21 hubs and we’re working with them, apart from the ones that the government is creating. And we have a full-fledged office for ICT innovation and entrepreneurship development to work with the hubs, to identify potentials and solutions that we can incubate, mentor and prepare them for the global market. In fact, e-Nigeria this year the focus is on ICT innovation; we want to bring as many solutions as possible; as many local ideas as are available; bring them, bring money-bags, sit down in the same room for three days, preach to them, talk to them; who knows! Out of five to 10 rich people, can say ‘okay, I love this solution; I want to put this amount of money to support it.’ And we will then incubate them, put the, through; the business model is there and the plan is put together; and off they go. We did not look at this area before. It was all about oil; free money is coming. But it’s a lesson; and we all must work together in this new focus on ICT.
With NITDA mandates, coupled with many of these activities you have mentioned, many people must have been approaching you to guide them through the challenges they may be having as they grapple with delivering on ICT. Can you share with us some of those challenges they bring to you and how you have been helping them out?
Let me start from something as little as this: there was a lady that served here for her National Youth Service Corp; she served in the accounts department. She noticed that there was problem with general reconciliation of accounts, which most organisations do manually. This young lady developed a solution, software, to do electronic account reconciliation. After her service year when she was about leaving, she said she wanted to see me; and I have an open-door policy – even a gateman can come and say he wants to see me, driver, just anybody. So they said one youth corps member wanted to see me. So I said let her come in. She came and said this was what she had done; so, I said wow! You can’t just go like that. I called the head of accounts, and I said see what this lady has done; go and meet with her, run this software, identify challenges that are there and see how we can take this product to the next level. I called the head of our office for innovation and entrepreneurship development and I said please take this girl, incubate her and find out, what can we do to assist her. In fact, we already scheduled to give her an award. And we will give her some money to further perfect what she has done; and I have told her, we are going to incubate her and take that product further.
By the time we run that software program successfully here, we can now market to all MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) that this is available indigenously. That is just a practical experience. So, indeed we have been receiving requests for partnership, requests for sponsorship from so many organisations to say we have this or that solution; how do we move forward. And we have the mandate to support them. And I have been telling my people, I am not interested in big names; I want people that are just coming up, who have practical solutions, practical ideas that are even peculiar to our system and environment. In fact there was a young man that came, he has something almost the same as or very close to what Facebook is doing. In fact I was not acting Director-General then; I was still a director. I told him, we will support you; write and submit. We were on the verge of getting something done for him; but the guy is in the United States now. Microsoft has taken him! They don’t even want him to talk to us anymore. Those are the kinds of talents we have in this country. And each time I remember that I feel something is wrong, which we must correct.
You mentioned MDAs earlier; part of your mandate is also to ensure that all MDAs embrace ICT in their operations. How have they been responding or accepting ICT as integral part of their operations?
I would say we are making progress. For instance, we now have IT cadre in MDAs; you can now rise to become director in ministries and parastatals, which was never there before. As part of the awareness that we are creating, regular workshops, trainings and so on, we have that now. And, it is a major achievement. In fact, it was one of the major outcomes of our e-Nigeria conference, that we should have IT cadre and departments; in some instances we have ICT departments, where we don’t have we have ICT units under policy and planning, which is a major achievement; that shows that our people are really beginning to embrace ICT. We are doing something right now. We discovered that we are doing ICT deployment in rural areas; and we discovered that most of our people don’t even have access.
So our knowledge access venue, we’ve written to core ministries in Abuja to say this is what we are deploying in our rural areas; we want to deploy in your ministry. And as at today, about 18 ministries have responded. That goes to show the level of willingness to accept; if 18 out of 24 ministries have responded, that shows a lot of progress. We told them to provide space in their ministries and make provision for bandwidth; and they agreed. In fact 18 of them have responded to say yes, we want; that show the level of lack in terms of access. And we are going to do in rural areas; so they are really willing to accept. There is something we are doing with the Ministry of Agriculture, the National e-Agric Portal; we are meeting with the minister, to fully launch what we’ve done. We are working closely with the Federal Ministry of Health; there is something we did with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture last year, and federal ministry of transport.
So MDAs are willing to accept. Like the meeting we called to encourage them to procure made in Nigeria ICT products and services, so many ministries and parastatals came; and they said this is good. That way, we enhance services delivery driven by ICT; we are creating market for indigenous companies. We are creating employment for people that will work in these organisations. Even those MDAs by the time we deploy these infrastructures, they will definitely employment people that will work there, at least three or more people that will work in those centres that we will deploy in MDAs.
There is a worrisome trend in our universities and colleges of education, where computer science is offered as a course; but the students have never seen a computer. Is there any way that NITDA can bridge this gap?
I agree with you; in fact there was a study we carried out in 2012 or so, we discovered that most institutions that offer ICT related courses practical sessions; they don’t have access to practical tools. There was this job of some people that went to one of the state to create awareness on ICT and what we can achieve using ICT in some schools, an undergraduate of computer science was asking one of the people that went, if what a desktop can do a laptop can also do. You can see the level of ignorance. So when we carried out that study, we discovered that most of them did not have practical classrooms; so we started by deploying ICT lab; that is what we now call knowledge access venue (KAV) in schools, for them to have a feel of the practical tools. It was formerly IT infrastructure in schools; but now KAV, which is a computer lab, with about 25 computers, internet access, photocopying facilities and so on. Such that after their normal classes, they can go there, do some practical work; and they can even do research and learning; and also we are deploying e-libraries for some of these schools, for research, teaching and learning.
Maybe you are given an assignment, you want to do research, instead of going to the library to look for materials up and down you can go to the e-library. So these are the things we are trying to do. And we are even training their teachers; because we discovered that some of the teachers, the only computer languages they understand are COBOL, FORTRAN, all those old ones – old school! So we are teaching them new ways of computer programming, even in the area of web technology and we organise several training programmes for youths, unemployed youths, for physically challenged; in fact one is going on about now in Lagos, we are training 100 Nigerians under the Graduate Leadership Scheme. The training is to run for three months, to prepare them for ICT-related jobs, and government will pay them N30,000 per month, for the next nine months until they are able to be placed properly where they can get IT-related jobs. These are some of the things we are doing to energise the sector and the economy.
Looking at the NITDA Mandate, it is a talk list. And, with the huge population and size of the country, as you try to carry out and implement these mandates, there must be some challenges. Can you share with us some of these challenges, please?
In fact so many; so many challenges! Initially it was unwillingness to change; people saw IT as if it were one demon not to be touched or approached, that was coming to taunt them. But after several awareness programmes and workshops, they are beginning to realise that okay, it is something beneficial. So, like the corruption that the government is talking about, it is a way of curbing corruption. And that is why TSA (treasury single account) is saving government billions of Naira; no ghost workers, you can’t have two accounts; so people will want to resist. Then even internally as an agency, to recruit and retain highly skilled manpower is difficult; because our remuneration is poor. And that’s why in core ministries to get really highly skilled IT people is difficult; if you get them, for them to stay is difficult, because it is a very competitive market. If you’re paying N500,000 for instance, other companies are ready to pay N2 million for a young graduate; which one will he prefer? That is one.
Then, investment in ICT is capital intensive. And for you to spend money, what you are spending money on is intangible; that is the output. It’s not what people can see physically; it is not like roads or buildings, where you say you spent these billions, and you say oh, this is a magnificent edifice. But knowledge, you can’t see it; so people don’t see it, and they don’t understand. When you say you spent such an amount of money, they scream ah! On what? And they jump to conclusion: they’ve stolen money! So, it’s capital intensive. And what we are getting as an agency is so poor for us to fulfil 10 per cent of our mandate. So with the little that we have we are just trying to say okay, let’s at least do this or that and create the enabling environment for private sector to come in and drive the process; then development partners to see what we’ve done. Proof of concept in most cases, to say this is possible in Nigeria, this is doable in Nigeria is a huge challenge.
You can imagine what we want to do with innovation hubs, and by the time we do and we are successful, then we will invite private sector people who are really rich, and say please invest in this sector, this is what you can get in the new few years. So, proof of concept is one, to convince people to want to do it; because people don’t understand, they don’t know what you are talking about. And it is capital intensive; that is why we have to do so many things in so many areas to say this is possible.
Many young ones are eager to read courses related to banking or other sectors they may perceive as fast-to-riches. How is NITDA working to encourage young people to embrace and pursue ICT related courses in schools?
One major thing that we are doing that is really working is the scholarship scheme. As I said investment this sector is expensive; education in this sector too is expensive. So we’ve set up a scholarship scheme for Nigerians willing to go into the area of ICT, for Master’s or PhD programme. For Master’s we are doing two per state per annum; and for PhD, we are doing one per geopolitical zone per annum. So far, for PhD, we’ve done over 36; while for Master’s we’ve done over 300.
But now with the dollar rate that is going up every day, we want to localise our postgraduate programmes, to let them attend universities in Nigeria; they can just go for exchange programme abroad for maybe one month or thereabout; with that we will be able to do two or three Master’s per state, and at least one PhD per state. So instead of doing six PhDs per annum, we will be doing like 37 including Abuja for PhD holders in ICT. You can imagine what the impact will be in the next two to three years. Because there was a study carried out and it was discovered that in all the universities in Nigeria, we don’t have up to 40 per cent of PhD holders; that is the number of PhD holders, the percentage was less than 40 per cent. So how do you really now grow that sector? So this scheme is really helping, to say okay, we are ready to sponsor you; but you must stay in the university and work and contribute to the growth of the industry.
This is well gone past 9pm, you are still in the office. After this interview, you will still be in the office may for another one hour, as there are still some people waiting to see you. Meanwhile you’ve been busy working all day. You almost forgot that this interview was scheduled because of the tight schedule you have. Yet you’re taking all these questions from on top of your head with no stress. Tell me, how do you function so effortlessly?
Well, I’ve been in this sector for almost 16 years. I’m one of the pioneer staff with NITDA; I grew within this system to rise to this level, so I know the system inside out; I know the Agency inside out; I know what we’ve done and where we’ve made mistakes and where we will need to correct, and what we need to do to put the Agency on the right track for us to be able to deliver on our mandate. The experience I have gathered in public service for over 28 years and my interaction within the sector both within Nigeria and outside, I think I should be able to talk about what we do very well, and our plans for the future and what we think we can contribute to our economy.
For instance when we started ICT was doing less than four per cent contribution to GDP of Nigeria; now we are doing 10 per cent. With the plans we are putting in place now, we want to make sure that we do nothing less than 20 per cent as contribution of ICT to Nigeria’s GDP within the next five years and create jobs running into millions. Because I’ve been in the sector, I know what we need to do; and with my interactions with our foreign partners, and some countries that are really doing well in ICT, we can achieve it.
India, US and many countries; most of the leading billionaires are from the ICT industry. Do we foresee NITDA building such people from Nigeria?
Precisely; that is our aim; that is our ambition. And by the special Grace of God, I see us achieving it.
So, when you leave here perhaps at past 10pm, tomorrow very early you are back here; Saturday and Sunday most times you are travelling and so on, and on those trips you are working nonstop. What exactly do you do to relax your body, to refresh yourself, which ensures that this brain that has so much to deliver continues to remain ever active?
What I do, I don’t take any paper out of this office; the moment I leave this office, I forget about the office. When I get home, I play with my children and my wife. And then I also go swimming on weekends. Other than that, I don’t go out. So, my family and my work; that’s my life. So when I leave the office, I forget everything about the office; I go home and relax. And the moment I put my head on my pillow, I’m off, till the next morning. Though occasionally I go for socials; maybe there are weddings, or the likes.
The Man, Dr. Vincent Olatunji:
Appointed Acting Director-General in January 2016, Dr. Vincent O. Olatunji hails from Ikole Ekiti, Ekiti State. He holds a PhD in Geography and Planning from the University of Lagos and an Advance Diploma in Computer Science.
Dr. Olatunji joined NITDA in May, 2002 and rose to the position of Director, Corporate Strategy and Research before he was appointed Acting Director-General
Born on December 6, 1966 Dr. Olatunji has been working in the Nigerian public service 26 years which positions him as a seasoned professional with practical hands-on experience with a thorough understanding of government operations in Nigeria.
He has spearheaded and successfully delivered a considerable number of vital activities such as formulating strategic goals and plans for achieving NITDA’s mandate such activities include initiation and supervision of research initiatives; supervision of the development of ICT policy for states and effectively represented the Agency in major ICT forums within and outside the country.
He has demonstrated good ability in building result oriented relationship among stakeholders in the Information Technology industry in Nigeria and globally. Highly experienced in Team Building, Research activities, Policy/Strategic Planning, Project Planning/Management and Organisation of Conferences/ Workshops targeted towards sustainable development initiatives at the three tiers of Government in Nigeria.
He has served in many positions at various times which include:
Member, ECOWAS ICT Taskforce (2003 to 12);
Secretary, National Committee on World Summit on Information Society (2003-2005);
Secretary, National Committee on the development of Nigerian ICT4D Plan;
Secretary National Software Policy Committee (2012);
Member, National ICT Policy Committee (2012);
Member, National Broadband Roadmap Committee (2012);
Member, Governing Board, Incubation Development Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA)
Member, National Open Data Initiative Committee
He has attended various Training Programmes, Conferences and also presented papers at various forums and effectively represented NITDA in several capacities.
He was before his appointment, the Director, Corporate Strategy and Research of NITDA.
The NITDA’s Mandate
NITDA’s mandate is quite diverse and vast, focusing the responsibilities of the Agency on fostering the development and growth of IT in Nigeria. In an effort towards ensuring that the IT policy’s implementation proceeds with maximum effectiveness, NITDA regulates, monitors, evaluates, and verifies progress on an ongoing basis under the supervision and coordination of the Federal Ministry of Communications.
Its Mandate is encapsulated under the below listed broad areas:
To operate and implement the National IT policy and to give effect to the provisions of the National Information Technology Development Agency Act (NITDA Act) of 2007;
To ensure that the entire citizenry is empowered with Information Technologies through the development of a critical mass of IT proficient and globally competitive manpower;
To enter into strategic alliance with the private sector as well as international organizations for the actualisation of the IT vision;
To develop and regulate the Information Technology Sector in Nigeria;
To ensure that Information Technology resources are readily available to promote efficient national development;
To create IT awareness and ensure universal access in order to promote IT diffusion in all sectors of our national life;
To ensure Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent (SMART) governance, using the instrument of Information Technology;
To eliminate waste and ensure that governance and business are done in the global standard of using IT for easier, faster and cheaper delivery of services for the transformation of the Nigerian economy from a natural resource-based economy to that of a knowledge-driven one;
To encourage local production and manufacture of IT components in a competitive manner in order to generate foreign earnings and create jobs;
To create the necessary enabling environment and facilitate private sector and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the IT sector in Nigeria;
To improve food production and security;
To render advisory services to the public sector on IT programs and projects;
To propose relevant IT legislation for the development and regulation of the sector;
To serve as a clearing house for all IT procurement and services in the public sector;
To ensure that Information Technology resources are readily available to promote Nigerian development;
To ensure that Nigeria benefits maximally and also contributes meaningfully to the global solutions to overcome the challenges of the Information Age;
To empower Nigerians to participate in software and IT system development;
To improve access to public information for all citizens, bringing transparency to government processes;
To establish and develop IT infrastructure and maximize its use nationwide;
To stimulate the private sector to become the driving force for IT creativity and productivity and competitiveness;
To encourage government and private sector joint venture collaboration in IT development;
To enhance the national security and law enforcement;
To develop human capital with emphasis on creating and supporting a knowledge-based economy;
To ensure Internet governance and supervision of the management of the country code top-level domain (cctld.ng) on behalf of all Nigerians.