African Information Society Initiative [AISI] - Case Study

1. Every human society, from the most primitive to the most advanced, depends on some form of telecommunications network. It will be virtually impossible for any group of people to define their collective identities or make decisions about their common and binding interests, without communications. Communication networks make society a reality.It makes it possible for people to cooperate, to produce and exchange commodities, to share ideas and information and to assist one another in times of need.

2. Similarly, every facet of the basic rights is dependent on telecommunication. Such basic rights of the individual as the right to life, the right to personal liberty and dignity, the right to free expression and information and the right to free movement, all of which enhance the quality of life of the individual, are facilitated by telecommunications.

3. The geopolitical structure and policy phasing is well demarcated in Nigeria when we examine the functions and roles of which the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) was set up. NITEL was established to provide efficient telecommunications services to all parts of the Federation and to link Nigeria with all parts of the world with emphasis on those countries maintaining strong economic and political relations with Nigeria. In its external services, NITEL also gives priority to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sub-region and other independent African States as a reflection of Nigeria's foreign policy commitment.

4. On domestic telecommunications services and the implications of pursuing socio-political and economic policies on the operations of NITEL, evolving and implementing telecommunications policies and programmes in Nigeria became apparent when consideration is given to the large size and regional distribution of the country's population and the structure of the country's rural settlements. An effective coverage of all parts of the Federation in the supply of telecommunications services has always depended on resource availability and effective planning and co-ordination of the systems network as well as efficient management and technical operations.

5. Telecommunications, as a capital intensive industry with resource constraints and a phased approach to network expansion has always called for sound investment decisions, technological and management innovations, operational and financial efficiency and generation of profits sufficient enough to efficiently maintain and expand telecommunications services to all parts of the Federation.

6. Prior to 1985, the internal and external telecommunications services were provided and managed by two distinct organisations, namely the Posts and Telecommunications (P & T) Department, for internal services and the Nigerian External Telecommunications Ltd for external services. This situation was fraught with problems. The Posts and Telecommunications Department consisted of two dissimilar businesses with different operating objectives and environments. The Postal Service was essentially social in outlook. As telecommunications on the whole is a commercial operation, there were difficulties in the management of these two services to the detriment of the public interest of having good communications facilities. Further, the existence of separate organisations for the management of the internal and external telecommunications networks did not augur well for efficient national telecommunications network because of lack of co-ordination that existed between the two operating entities in development planning, project phasing, implementation, operation, maintenance and billing. This separate existence of the operating entities often resulted in duplication in investment with consequential heavy demand on scarce national financial and human resources for telecommunication development. It also affected the promotion of cross subsidisation from the more lucrative international sector to the not-so-lucrative domestic sector which was beset with problems arising from logistics and maintenance due to, among other things equipment spread.

7. In addition to the Arusha Declaration, it is pertinent to also recall the Lagos Plan of Action for the Economic Development of Africa which incorporated in its programme of action, the Transport and communications Decade for Africa which aimed at rapidly developing the transport and communications infrastructure of the continent to respond to the political, economic and social aspirations of the continent. Furthermore, an Africa Telecommunications Development Conference was also organised by ITU on behalf of the Panaftel Coordinating Committee, in Tunis, Tunisia, from January 12 to 16, 1987. This Conference, like the ones before dealt with various aspects of telecommunications development plans in Africa.

8. In Nigeria, with the creation of states as a means of bringing development nearer the populace, urban areas have continued to grow and telecommunication facilities are increasing at a tremendous rate; educational institutions are growing and attracting more and more young people to come into contact with one another. Associations and other professional bodies are recruiting membership on the basis of achievements. All these have augured well for a nation in the making and have been accelerating communication in one form or the other.

9. Economic development during the colonial era, under the British, supported the production of raw materials and tropical products like palm-oil, palm-kernel, rubber, cocoa, groundnut, groundnut oil, and timber, and also minerals for export. Since the discovery of oil in 1970, oil has come to dominate the whole economy and trade of Nigeria. In the Second Development Plan 1970-74, the role of the government was reviewed and stated explicitly. The rationale for the government role in the economy was stated as follows:

..."that progress would be faster, if the nation is motivated in its economic activity by a common sound purpose. Effective coordination ..... easier when they all subscribe to a common goal and operate under a common impetus.

10. For a long time, the influence of the Nigerian government in the economy has been all pervading, not restricted to the traditional areas of providing infrastructural support, law and order, but has made direct investments via its numerous publicly owned corporations, companies and joint ventures in the direct production of some goods.

11. Organisational problems were not the only one that once retarded telecommunication development efforts in Nigeria. Others including the following, deserve special mention:

The planned objective could not always be achieved due mainly to shortage of funds, inadequate executive technical manpower and uncoordinated project management.

Rapid advancement in technology is making the procurement of spare parts for maintenance of existing systems a costly undertaking as these were then obtainable from fewer sources than before.

Lack of equipment standardisation which created problems of spare parts stocking.

The inadequacy of the tariff, at times, has made generation of revenue to cater for recurrent capital expenditure and future development difficult.

Lack of future plan, information and needs from local government areas.

Lack of co-ordination of infrastructural planning.

Poorly defined and discontinuous policies on national development plans.

The net effect of these problems was constant failure to attain planned targets and poor performance of the telecommunications undertaking in the country. Most, if not all of these problems, have now been overcome. For example, plans have been completed to start the establishment of standards for equipment operation and architecture, while at the same time the tariff is always being reviewed to reflect the reality of the present-day operational costs as well as services to the nation.

12. The NITEL organisation is such that it is now very easy to contact local government areas for information about their development plans where these exist. Also, efforts are being put in place to follow up equipment standardisation with local manufacture of telecommunications equipment. The centralisation of the control of the international and domestic services has led to an improvement in the operation and maintenance of the national network and the situation is such that NITEL is now able to pay all staff salaries from its earnings.

13. Telecommunications is both dynamic and capital intensive and in view of its catalytic effect on the development of other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, health, tourism and education and its necessity for the commercial, industrial, socio-economic and political development of the country, the need for an orderly and efficient development of telecommunications infrastructure in Nigeria has now been found more urgent in order to keep pace with the development of the other sectors of the economy.

14. It is clear that the African countries are grossly underwired and their telecommunications facilities quite clearly underdeveloped. An analysis, showing the correlation between national GDP and telephone density revealed the link between economic affluence and the penetration of telecommunications. By treating telecommunications as an infrastructure, the notion is that wealth and affluence can thereby be enhanced, but a quick evaluation of the cost of the telephone line shows that it probably requires an affluent economy to pay for the minimum UN recommended telephone density, of one line per 100 inhabitants. Today, the Nigerian statistic is about 0.66 lines per 100 inhabitants.

15. On technological development, Nigeria is a developing country, yet on the threshold of industrialisation. The industrial and service sector is still heavily dependent on importation of machinery from overseas countries to keep the wheels of industry going. The maintenance of these machines, in most cases, is also provided by external experts. This situation is also very true for the telecommunications sector. Telecommunications development in Nigeria so far is wholly dependent on foreign technologies. In most cases, investment by multinationals has meant a mere relocation of facilities without the transfer of ability to innovate since all the elements of technology required to make telecommunication succeed are most often transferred in a package. The transfer of these facilities in a package has reverted Nigeria from utilising local resources for some of the facilities or developing new competence in other critical areas. Another constraint to telecommunications development in Nigeria is the inadequacy of science and technology infrastructure including S & T Manpower, S & T Information, engineering services, materials, instruments and apparatus for training scientists and technologists in telecommunications. Limited dissemination and utilization of research results in telecommunications practice in Nigeria has also been identified as a definite constraint to telecommunication development.

16. Results of research in engineering, electronics and solid state physics in the Universities and Research Institutes are not being fully utilised to develop local capability in telecommunication services and in maintenance, adaptation and integration of new equipment with existing ones.

Many of the existing exchanges and cable network are obsolete and therefore liable to frequent breakdowns. The demands on maintenance have been more tasking due to the technical limitations inherent in the design and difficulties in obtaining the spares of the equipment which are no longer in production.

17. The problem of maintenance and operation of telecommunications services was later aggravated by the proliferation of technologies and the lack of technical standards. Not less than five types of automatic switching equipment are currently in use in the country. Even within the same city, several types of switching equipment have been installed. This presents problems in respects of spare parts for maintenance.

18. Standardisation of network equipment in Nigeria has therefore not yet been totally achieved and this imposes additional strains by creating inflexibility in the use of manpower and spare parts.

19. Since Nigeria's independence on October 1, 1960, up till 1995, only four national development plans were executed under the Ministry of Communications supervision, and these plans provided about 400,000 installed direct exchange lines (DEL). In 1992, barely seven years after NITEL (Plc) was established, new technologies - electro-magnetic digital, satellite fibre optic, INMARSAT, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) -were introduced into the national networks. Up till 1989, all the exchanges and transmission facilities were of analogue system. Nitel has now successfully introduced the digital system into the network with a total of over 160,000 digital lines since this operation started a couple of years ago.

The network capacity of NITEL's 450,516 lines in 1991 was increased to 600,000 at the end of 1992 and to about 1,000,000 at the end of 1995 and it has continued to grow since. The first time that NITEL's services were going wire-less was when the mobile cellular telephone system services were introduced. The cellular systems introduction into Nigeria was the first of its kind in Africa, South of the Sahara. Across the country today, about a quarter of the total number of telephone lines is of the digital system.

20. Apart from providing a number of improved telecommunication facilities to the populace, Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) Plc, has been recently identified as housing the most suitable computer communications for the use of the South Investment Trade and Technology Exchange Centre (SITTDEC), a collaboration of the G15 countries working to facilitate South-South co-operation with its headquarters in Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia. The Centre's mission is principally to foster and promote investments, trade and technology in the South countries by providing relevant, authoritative and accessible information to governments, organisations, corporations and individuals in the south countries.

21. One of the NITEL's most significant achievements between 1990 and 1993 was that up to 60% of the total of about N12 billion invested in the provision of the digital exchanges, transmission links, gateways, and cellular telephone system, was from the company's internally generated revenue.

22. NITEL's Research and Development (R & D) which was put in place in 1992 to develop and improve system components to suit the environment and put NITEL in the fore-front of information technology, has continued to assist NITEL forge ahead in its operations. In line with this development, a joint venture agreement to provide data communications services known as DATANET was negotiated with SATCOM. Similarly, in 1992, a Rural Telecommunications programme which it intended to sustain as part of its contribution to overall national economic growth was also introduced.

23. More importantly, research and development in NITEL has ben strategically designed to identify and develop solutions to technical problems as the launching pad for technological self-reliance and the introduction of new services. The shift of its R&D efforts from purely theoretical to applied research has now enabled NITEL to design and fabricate systems that are tailored to Nigeria's environmental conditions. Collaborative arrangements were also made with Universities and other Research Institutions. These collaborative efforts led to the design, development and fabrication of devices and systems on up-to-date technology by NITEL, one of which is the Cable Theft Alarm Device.

24. During the first quarter of 1993, the voice mail, the paging system, trunked radio, and phone card were introduced by NITEL. 15,000 voice mail lines, 100,000 pagers and trunked radio were provided. The voice mail can be accessed from anywhere in Nigeria or other countries throughout the world by using the cellular telephone or touch-tone telephone. For now, there are three kinds of pagers available and only Lagos and Abuja are within the coverage areas of paging services. This means that messages can be sent to or from anywhere in the world within these areas. Some of the advantages of a pager include the freedom of users to go anywhere within the coverage area and be reached, i.e. a pager subscriber in Lagos and Abuja can receive messages from anywhere in the world at any time.

25. The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is another technological feat which made it possible to employ a range of services via one telephone line. The services included were electronic mail, video telephone [tele-conferencing], telefax, etc. NITEL Research and Development [R & D] efforts have now also supported the evolution of a maintenance philosophy which enabled NITEL to do away with the services of contractors in system maintenance. For instance, NITEL staff designed and fabricated loop converter modules, which used to be imported at higher costs, to meet the demand for private networks based on leased and Special circuits. The cellular is now being used by NITEL to provide celluphone telecommunications services to some local government areas in support of Federal Government efforts towards rural development. The network expansion which NITEL embarked upon recently was to add about 510,000 direct exchange lines between 1993 and 1996. This represented more than 100% increase in the network capacity within 4 years. To ensure that all local government headquarters in the country without telecommunication services are provided with services, for a start, a number of local government councils in parts of the nation are now being linked with celluphone by NITEL. The project called National Telecommunication Improvement Project (NTIP) was to provide additional 74,000 lines.

26. The Nigerian Telecommunications engineers and technicians have also enhanced adaptation of a number of equipment such as the old Pentomat T600 equipment.This has contributed positively to the increase in revenue generated and also enhanced the performance of this and other equipment.

27. Prior to May 1992, Nigeria's telephone services were restricted to conventional telephone and telex/telegram. With the NITEL now a fully commercialized autonomous company, there is now a tremendous restructuring of the telecommunications industry in the country and management rationalization for accelerated telecommunications.

28. Now, management of telecommunications development in Nigeria is organised at three hierarchical levels, namely:

Policy developments

Regulations (by Nigerian Communications Commission established by Decree No. 75 of December 31st, 1992) and

Carriers/operators by Nitel Plc.

29. NITEL currently provides a variety of other services which include the following:

Private Leased Telephone and Telex Services

Leased Telephone and Telegraph Services

Alternate Voice Data (AVD) Circuit

Data Switching System

Electronic Mail (National Service Only)

X.25 Switch

X.400 Electronic Messages

30. However, despite the above significant achievements, many users have always experienced some difficulties with NITEL's facilities, but it is quite evident that there has been a remarkable achievement.

31. The technologies involved in the operation of most of NITEL services are under two major systems: Terrestrial and Satellite. For terrestrial communication, the technologies involved include Wire-on-Pole, Co-axial Cable and Point to Point Microwave. The Wire-on-Pole system has been found to be very inadequate in meeting telecommunication needs of the country. Worse still, unscrupulous elements in the society sometimes disconnect the wire, for conversion to copper, which is of high market value. This system is also subjected to and destroyed by severe weather conditions. e.g. heavy rainfall or windstorm or occasionally during bush burning and felling of trees.

32. The co-axial cable system was initially used for the purpose of linking the South to the North of the country. During the rainy season the cables usually get soaked and performance level fell to less than 30 per cent. It was therefore discarded because of this inadequacy. Nigeria is now concentrating on the microwave link. The greatest disadvantage of this technology, however, is that it requires so many links because of the earth's curvature. Therefore, it requires so many repeater stations which are located in the bush usually in isolated areas and with isolated power generating units. These are very expensive and are also exposed to damage, thereby increasing the cost due to frequent changes.

33. The country started embracing Digital Technology since the 1980s with the introduction of Digital Switches and Transmission Systems (Radio and Optic fibre) into the telecommunications network. Since the beginning of the 90s, Mobile Telephone Services (Cellular), Paging and Electronic Mail have been part of the services offered by NITEL which, hitherto enjoyed the monopoly of Telecommunications services provisions, operations and maintenance until 1992, when a decree establishing the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), liberalised terminal ends equipment and value added services for competition and private sector participation.

The services currently existing in the country include:

INTELSAT leased global transborder channels.

INMARSAT Satellite Access.

34 Kbps NITEL wide and digital microwave

-Lagos - Ijebu-Ode - Benin - Abuja

-Lagos - Ijebu-Ode - Benin - Onitsha - Enugu

140 Kbps broad band NNPC optical cable and digital microwave

-Lagos - Benin - Warri

-Lagos - Benin - Lokoja - Kaduna

Extensive NITEL Analogue nationwide circuits. A lot of simple circuits that are currently being used by the Ministry of Communications are being adapted or developed by local institutions as has been done in most countries. All that is needed is to identify systems and set target dates by which Nigerian made units will be used in these systems. The institutions are then invited to meet these targets. This has served as a challenge that these institutions of higher learning are now bracing up to. If this line of approach continues to be followed, in a few years, a number of systems will be developed locally and in some cases improved versions will be produced. This has been done by other countries such as India, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, South Korea, etc., in recent years and Nigeria has just started to embrace this culture. There has never been a better opportunity than now that foreign exchange for purchase of systems abroad is scarce.

34. It is generally accepted that an accessible telecommunications capability is a prerequisite for national economic growth and, therefore, investment in the telecommunications infrastructure is paramount in any society. Those countries that developed their telecommunications services in the private domain of the economy, notably the U.S.A, have demonstrated that communication is big business and highly profitable. High net worth customers are naturally attractive to the telecommunications entrepreneur, but on account of the social benefits of communication, which are central for interpersonal relations and society's integrity, society has to protect and provide for low density and less affluent users also.

35. In Nigeria there have been at least four National Telecommunication Development Plans since 1960 in which efforts have been made to accord telecommunications some measure of priority at least in financial terms. However, objectives in one plan period were invariably unaccomplished during that period and hence have to spill-over to the next. In terms of achievements in relation to investment, results lagged behind expectations due to various reasons. Thus although telecommunication development in Nigeria has followed some pattern, its course was hitherto not in accordance with any definite telecommunications policy. It is in order to stem this tide that the present administration, like the previous ones, included among its policy objectives, the establishment of a national telecommunications policy for Nigeria. In 1992, the telecommunications industry in Nigeria received its own dosage of the deregulation elixir in two forms. The first was the commercialisation or corporatization of Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) while the second was the establishment of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecommunications industry regulator.

36. The motivating forces driving the deregulation of telecommunications services in Nigeria include:

Private consumer and business demand for good quality telecommunications services at affordable prices and competitiveness;

Need for reduced time for telephone installation and service delivery;

Diversification and complexity of user needs;

Advances in technology;

Demand for improved business efficiency in the face of tight budgets.

Economic development and job creation;

The trend worldwide.

37. In the light of the above, the Nigerian Government's decision to deregulate the telecommunications industry has had positive and far-reaching implications which are expected to provide the needed leverage and act as a catalyst for various forms of business, economic, social and organisational developments.

38. The strategic implication of the de-regulation factor is that the core areas of public switches and trunks and international services were reserved for the national operator, NITEL. This is to provide the necessary incentive and cross-subsidy for services to the rural communities and social services. That notwithstanding, and in order not to frustrate private sector participation, government, as a matter of policy, has maintained that the national career - NITEL is required to:

provide network access and interconnectivity to other licensed operators,

charge fair and competitive tariffs for such access and interconnectivity.

concentrate its efforts and resources on core infrastructure development, i.e. the provision of public switches and long distance trunk capacity.

This has enabled NITEL to benefit from increased traffic to be generated through its network by private operators and through enhanced revenue generation and collection.

39. The regulatory body, the Nigerian Communications Commission which was inaugurated on the 16th of July 1993, propelled mainly by current technological advances, the telecommunications arena in Nigeria has started to undergo profound structural changes, giving rise to cheaper and more reliable telecommunications equipment and services on the one hand,and on the other, a whole new range of services.

40. Public telecommunications is moving rapidly from protected national markets with huge cross-subsidies between certain services to global competitive markets. Public Telecommunications Operators (PTOs) are now responding to this liberalization challenge by becoming corporatized and in some cases also privatized.

41. In order to respond to global competition, joint ventures and other forms of alliances are increasingly being established between the major PTOs and equipment manufacturers. New operators are also being established focusing in particular on telecommunications growth areas such as integrated telecommunications services for multinational companies, international telephony and mobile telephony.

42. With the advent of the oil boom in the 70's, however, the economic situation changed and this was followed by a dramatic increase in demand for telephone service. As the installed telecommunication infrastructure could not cope with the rising demand, the quality of service began to deteriorate. To arrest the worsening situation, the Federal government took significant measures in the 3rd and 4th national development plans (1975-1985) by allocating a total of about 5.5 billion for the modernisation and expansion of public telecommunication service. These measures were designed to increase the number of installed telephone lines by more than ten-fold in the ten year period.

43. However, as the world we live in is a world of innovations in different facets of life, the technological giant leaps of this last decade of the twentieth century call for new and innovative approaches to modern management methods in the telecommunication industry. There is no way the traditional monopolistic system of the telecommunication industry can survive the 21st century in view of the rapidly changing telecommunication environment. The way out is for all countries to accept that changes must of necessity come and therefore find ways of addressing pertinent issues at a convenient and reasonable pace, relative to each nation's condition, so that when it eventually comes, no nation will be caught unawares.

44. Telecommunications has been described above as so vital to human existence: its very essence hinges on the basic fundamental rights of individuals, nonetheless there is a correlation between the state of a country's telecommunications infrastructure and its state of development, just as a relationship can be established between a country's gross domestic product and its relative position in an increasingly globalised economy and boarderless world.

45. At the current 0.66 telephone lines per 100 population, Nigeria's telecommunications industry can be said to be in the state of development. This is also evident in the quality of life of Nigerians and the nature of the business environment.

46. Given the capital intensive nature of the industry and the enormity of the shortfall in Nigeria there is no doubt that the development of telecommunications services in Nigeria is too heavy a burden to be borne by Government alone. Indeed many Government administrations are having to change their methods of operating, in response to declining resources and increasing demands for public services.

47. One evident outcome of the influence of the development in communication policy formulation in the Third World is the fact that for the past two decades, governments in these countries have been forced, either by persuasion or pressure, to invest heavily in the acquisition of modern telecommunication facilities with the aim of modernising their mass communication institutions and enhancing their technical capacities to generate and disseminate information widely. As a result, the technological growth of the communication systems in the developing world in the past few decades has been so phenomenal that on comparative terms the "change has been rapid in the less developed countries and slow in the advanced countries".

48. But this development in the technical capacities of Third World National communication system has been largely unplanned and, has been in utter neglect of some important dimensions of the communicative process. For example, the acquisition of more modern technical facilities for the modernisation of national communication systems in Third World countries has been undertaken without much consideration being given to the structural character of the society within which the institution has to operate and in relation to the desirable state of corporate existence shared by a broad segment of the citizenry and borne out of their historical and contemporary experiences.

49. NITEL is now being configured for a joint-venture ownership of a number of privately-owned facilities. For example, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) optical fibre telecommunications network is being considered for a joint-venture ownership by the NNPC and members of the Public with additional transmission links (radio and optical cable) to raise access for the international service. Already, the NNPC optical fibre network has offered a stiff competition to NITEL in the provision of high-speed leased lines and digital telephone service on certain routes while the cellular telephone network has offered a stiff competition to NITEL's domestic telephone service.

50. The opportunities for the early growth of VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals) in satellite communications via the NCC-controlled space segments, is another factor which, when fully operational, will accelerate the development of Domestic Operators and User Networks in Nigeria. VSAT is fully deregulated in Australia, Japan and the US, and is also being gradually deregulated here in Nigeria.

51. When deciding policies on technical development of telecommunications, one must take into consideration such parameters as Population, Economy of the Nation and National Target. The present aspiration of the Nigerian Telecommunications authority is to attain the telephone density of 1 to 100 as defined in the Lagos Plan of Action, Declaration of Lome and Arusha Declaration, of which Nigeria is a signatory. Consequently, the Ministry of Communications is found to be pursuing the following objectives on the development of telecommunications services, in future, in order to achieve self reliance by the year 2000.

Support for the government's programme of rural infrastructure development by extending telephone service to the rural areas in an economic and judicious manner.

Campaign for the recognition, by the government, of telecommunications as a support component for other development sectors such as agriculture, tourism, health and education so as to ensure that the funding necessary for the telecommunication facilities required is included in the development plans for these sectors.

Adoption of an operation and maintenance strategy that will ensure maximum utilisation of the existing facilities and provision of good quality service in order to generate adequate funds for further development of the network.

Standardisation,a pre-requisite for local manufacture, being embarked upon, covering equipment and materials operations and architecture as applicable.

Local manufacture of materials, components and systems in partnership with good intentioned industrial entrepreneurs, to enhance maintenance of existing systems, to establish a technological base necessary for achievement of self reliance in telecommunications technology.

Tapping available resources for the financing of the implementation of well designed and economical viable projects for rehabilitation, maintenance and new installations.

Establishing a suitable management structure for the implementation of the development programmes.

Operating a tariff structure which will ensure enhanced revenue generation from urban facilities without discouraging the use of rural facilities.

Establishment of Research and Development facilities where special investigations, pilot projects will be carried out.

Intensive local or in-plant training and re-training the exact requirements for a project to ensure that it will be correctly implemented and successfully put into service.

Increase the available telephone lines in the country to above one million to achieve the target density of 1 percent for a population of 100 million.

To ensure that all citizens of the country are within easy reach of telephone service by the year 2000 and other services which telecommunications can provide, thereafter.

52. Apart from the laudable achievements of NITEL work also started recently, on telecommunications project which would introduce at least 130,000 digital telephone lines in Lagos. This project involves construction of new exchanges and expansion of some existing ones. It is being financed with a World Bank Loan. The new exchanges which are also being located in the suburbs of Lagos are to have a total of 5,000 digital lines. A new transmission facility involving digitalizing about 30 repeater stations to link Lagos state with Kano is also in the current development plan. These projects are part of NITEL'S massive network expansion programme aimed at modernising and extending services to more Nigerians. Other services outside Lagos, the headquarters of NITEL, include the newly introduced 20,000 digital lines into the telephone network in Ibadan Oyo State to cover the Western zone of the country. The project was executed at a cost of N1.33 billion.

53. Other digital exchanges recently switched into the network in the South West zone are Abeokuta Exchange with 6,000 lines, Warri Exchange with 5,000 lines and the Benin (central) Exchange with 10,000 lines. Ilorin which is in the North West Zone was also switched into the network with 6,000 lines. Similarly, NITEL introduced into its networks, in 1995, a data transmission system which is known as X.25 packet switching. The system allows for point to point and point to multi-point data transmission with and between organisations.

54. The X.25 packet switching system was introduced because data telecommunications systems have become a vital and strategic tool required to launch the country into a new phase of growth and International relations. Plans are on to expand the X.25 system which has one node to a multi-node network to cover the whole country. The new service was said to be introduced as a value-added network service as allowed under the deregulation policy of the government. The new service also allows the investment of human and material resources in the delivery of reliable and cost effective services.

55. The achievements, to date, from these development efforts have resulted in the establishment of the following telecommunications facilities:

227 analogue automatic telephone switching centres with an installed total capacity of about 400,000 lines out of which more than 205,000 lines have been connected:

436 terrestrial microwave relay stations, comprising 264 terminal stations and 172 repeater stations and providing the bulk of toll and trunk circuits for the national network.

a national telex network of total capacity of 12,800 lines.

International telex exchange of 1,500 trunks.

A co-axial cable system (960 voice channels) between Lagos and Kaduna.

A domestic satellite system with three Gateways at Lanlate (Lagos), Kujama (Kaduna) and Enugu.

A submarine cable system linking Lagos with Abidjan, Dakar and Casablanca and carrying about 10 per cent of the Lagos Gateway traffic as well as providing an alternative route for international services when the satellite circuits fail.

56. On human resources development, the staff-to-line ratio of 180 staff to 1000 lines in 1985 has progressed to 14 staff to 1,000 lines in 1995. Major network expansion and modernisation projects carried out by the staff of NITEL have led to a number of projects such as:

Digital facilities in each station and ITSC at Enugu.

More than 15,000 lines Cellular Mobile Radio.

Celluphone for rural communications.

Lagos 'bound' 45,000 lines Digital local exchange at Odunlami.

Victoria Island earth station.

Joint Venture Arrangements with Digital Telecomms resulting in the formation of Mobile Telecomms Services (MTS).

57. NITEL also has the following components to focus on:

Modernisation of the network to ensure reliability and effective network services and performance.

Network expansion for improved revenue generation.

Provision of value-added services like voice mails.

Customer care

Detailed billing.

58. Following from the promulgation of Decree 75 of 1992, it is worthy of mention that private firms have now started to venture into telecommunications services in Nigeria. A number of these Companies work in partnership with the U.S.A. and U.K service providers such as Sprint (one of the world's leaders in telecommunications) to provide a global data solution for the Nigerian marketplace. For example, utilizing one of the most sophisticated equipment manufactured by Alcatel, Info Communications X.25 packet switching network provides the following services:

X.25 services

. Synchronous connectivity

. Asynchronous connectivity or Dial-up

Electronic Mail

. Fax delivery

. Telex delivery

. Internet mail delivery

. X.400 access to over 300 mail systems such as CompuServe Mail, AT&T mail, MCI mail, etc.

Info Communications has already finalized discussions with U.S. sprint on the implementation of full Internet services in Nigeria.

59. An efficient telecommunications system depends on the calibre and skill of its managerial staff. It is vitally important to ensure a sufficient supply of managers, with personality and intellect equal to the complex demands of telecommunications. All potentially good managers within the NITEL organisation are now being identified, and properly developed. If good managers or functional specialists like accountants cannot be found within the organisation, they are brought in from outside. The administration is also prepared to provide adequate incentives (salaries, working conditions, etc) which have been attracting and retaining a permanent force of competent managers and functional specialists.

NITEL is currently planning to pursue the execution of a number of programmes to strengthen the network in the midst of deregulation. The programmes are:

Massive training and re-training of engineers and technologists to cope with intensive maintenance demand.

Organisation of annual national maintenance seminars and workshops and also for systems utilization level and plan.

Improvement on the present network performance indicators through responsive customer-oriented operations procedures/guidelines with decentralized stores (materials management) organisation.

Development of skills in traffic engineering and network management.

Use of fibre optic cable and satellite networks (value-added network services).

Establishment of a third-level National Repairs and Calibration Centre for equipment refurbishment repairs, consequent upon the absence of manufacturing facilities in the country.

Closely related to the above is the need for collaboration to ensure that equipment is compatible and of acceptable quality. To set the rules of the game in the midst of equipment with varying standards, the NCC is empowered to seize the initiative to define national standards for a harmonized network. Not only will systems be required to support optional network requirements, they must also be adaptable to meeting future services specification requirements with minimal software/firmware/hardware upgrades or modifications.

60. Capacity building in Science and Technology depends on a sound base of human resources development. A command of literacy and numeracy is a pre-condition for successful learning in science and technology and in other fields. The key to development that is self-reliant and sustainable is education. Given the vast expanse of African countries and the problems of transportation facing the continent, education can be more rapidly fostered through the installation of mass and rapid communication systems. One of the objectives of establishing the Telecommunication Foundation of Africa (TFA) was to assist in bringing African countries closer to the global information society. This objective is apparently being pursued here in Nigeria through active cooperation with networks such as the Regional Informatics Network for Africa (RINAF), a programme conceived by the Inter-governmental Information Programme of UNESCO and which is being financed by a grant of the Italian government and by a contribution from the Republic of Korea.

61. The officially designated RINAF's national node for Nigeria is based at the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) located at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. NACETEM, through RINAF actively cooperates with and was co-founder of the Nigerian Internet Group. UNESCO is instrumental to the establishment of both NACETEM in Nigeria and the RINAF initiative. There is no doubt that judging from the array of continental activities, a good foundation is being laid for the integration of Africa into the global communication system. UNESCO's Intergovernmental Information Programme (IIP) in its implementation of the Informafrica regional strategy has introduced informatics into the education system in selected African countries including Nigeria. IIP has supported the training of informatics specialists and users in collaboration with research and training institutes and is helping to facilitate entry of young people and women into working life. IIP plans to extend its activities under RINAF to include a growing number of African institutions to further consolidate the joint activities of African scientists in education and administration.

62. In pursuance of its commitment to the use of informatics and on human resources for information development efforts in education in Nigeria and other parts of the world, UNESCO is also promoting the development of a Satellite University of Science and Technology (SUST), an inter-university network to broaden global educational exchange via satellite broadcasting. UNESCO initiated SUST in collaboration with the National Technology University, Colorado USA in its belief that in the long run, education via the airwaves is a cost effective and equitable manner of delivering knowledge to the work place and the house. SUST is being planned to produce post-graduate, scientific and lifelong learning programmes for distribution to participating schools, universities, homes and workplaces. To do so each site will have a satellite transmitter, an Internet link and video production facilities.

63. With the successful implementation of the aforementioned on-going telecommunication efforts in Nigeria, the country is in a position to benefit from the opportunities for scientific and technological manpower development which SUST will provide given the scarcity of human resources and technical facilities available in the country.

64. With the Cairo University of Egypt serving as the Arab host of SUST, Nigeria representing 20% of Africa's population is also planning to serve as the African host for SUST in order to bring the benefits of scientific and technological education to a sizeable proportion of Africa and enhance the country's capacity for sustainable economic growth.

65. The initiative that has led to this collaborative effort between a RINAF node and the TFA a non-governmental organisation will certainly lead to the elaboration of strategies that will help African countries to develop those telecommunication infrastructures that will enhance person to person communication, electronic mail, person to group communication and provide access to data among African scientists, researchers as well as industries.

66. In development communication, planning is a deliberate, systematic and continuous effect to organise human activity for the efficient use of communication resources and for the realisation of communication policies, in the context of a particular country's development goals, means and priorities and subject to its prevailing forms of social, economic and political organisation. Development communication planning, therefore, must take into account the development environment and goals of the country in which the planning takes place. In addition, the country's political ideology, social issues, communication facilities and systems, as well as available resources are usually properly studied before planning the communication strategy that would suit the environment.

67. Unfortunately, communication is usually brought into the planning of development programmes only as an after-thought. Emphasis in most developing countries is always on publicity. For the authorities in such countries there is no difference between information (provision of facts and figures) and communication (exchange of ideas). No serious thought is usually given to the importance of communication - mass, interpersonal, traditional and folk - in development. Provisions are usually made for publicising development plans and objectives, but very little is done for feedback and for discussions. Hence a common complaint of communication researchers and practitioners is that communication policies and plans are too often in the hands of those who do not know enough about communication to set up or contribute to the communication systems that best serve the development needs of their countries.

68. In development communication planning, therefore, communication should not be seen only as a tool, a supporting mechanism or an independent variable in development. It should be viewed as an integral part of development plans, one of whose major objectives is to create communication systems or modes that would provide opportunity for people to have access to means of communication, and to make use of these means in improving the quality of their lives. Therefore, in seeking solutions to the problems of communication in development, it is imperative to first look at the larger development process, and then at the role or roles of communication within the larger system.

69. The present developmental status of Telecommunications (a public utility service) cannot be assessed in isolation of the general economic trends of the country. Setting realistic objectives depend on many factors including the Nigerian Internal and External policies, Existing infrastructure for Telecommunication services (Internal and External), Government Telecommunications Policy, manpower development, Industrialisation programme and Fiscal policies.

70. The following points are pertinent to the Nigerian situation as of now:

Inadequate supply of the public utility services that support Telecommunications, e.g. water, electricity and Gas.

The inability of the public security agencies to extend services to remotely located plants sites.

Inadequate facilities to guarantee continuous equipment training and retraining for in-serving officers locally.

Problems associated with introduction of new technology in the network.

The need to guarantee the main frame work of the organisational structure and policy continuity once adopted by government.

Natural climatic condition (temperature, humidity, etc.) unsuitable for modern electronic Telecommunications equipment. Air conditioning of equipment environment is necessary to obtain the ambient operating condition desired or specified.

71. A number of workshops had been organised recently to draw the attention of the populace to the importance of Information Technology to development. At one of such meetings, especially the one on the Draft of the National Policy on Information Resources and Services held at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Topo, Badagry, Lagos State and was held under the auspices of UNESCO and the National Library of Nigeria, February 18-20, 1991, the following recommendations were arrived at:

All information must be available to all people, in all formats purveyed through all communication channels and delivered at all levels of comprehension.

All types of information resources and services produced in Nigeria constitute a vital investment in the national development efforts. Such information should be systematically collected, preserved and effectively managed as basic inputs to national development efforts at all levels.

Endogenous information and indigenous knowledge must be regularly integrated with externally generated information on Nigeria's development, as well as with relevant information on the development of other countries.

Nigeria's information resources and services must be organized in space and time so that waste is avoided or minimized. In particular, the acquisition, storage and sharing of information resources and services must be rationalized to ensure the optimal utilization of human, material and fiscal resources in national development.

Information resources in all forms - oral, book, serial, print, electronic media, etc. must be harnessed and repackaged, using the most cost effective processing, communication and transport technologies available to deliver appropriately targeted information to all categories of Nigerians, and especially the illiterate and rural population who constitute more than 80% of the population.

72. Since effective maintenance of any telecommunication outfits dependent on availability of spare parts, it has been suggested that all future information and telecommunications projects should be aligned to provide for spare-parts production in the country. In this respect, efforts are being made to build into contract agreements on imported technologies, the possibility of Nigerians being involved in the assembly of such technologies abroad. Such involvement will allow Nigerians to gain detailed insight into the internal arrangements and working of the equipment. The maintenance schedule of any future project should be clearly assigned to Nigerians.

73. The recent competitive environment of telecommunications which allows more than one field operator must of necessity attract standards and rules of operation for orderliness, effectiveness and efficiency. The flexibility of choice open to customers also call for a wide interconnecting boundary between operators and a specific level of quality of service to be attained by all to avoid harmful effects on other operators and the public being served at large.

74. There is a need for an effective monitoring and enforcement mechanism in the structural frame work of managing telecommunications in a liberalised environment. Furthermore, penalties applicable to violation of rules must be commensurate and promptly applied to deter violators. The monitoring and enforcement unit could be structured within the Regulatory Institution or otherwise, such responsibility could be devolved on existing law enforcement agencies in the land. The instrument establishing the Regulatory Institution by government would, along with the statement of mission, determine the position in the hierarchy of governance where the supposedly autonomous and independent Regulatory body would be and at the same time, define specific issues to be addressed which may, or may not, include enforcement of rules and application of penalties.

75. The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), also in its own rights, is empowered among other things, to prepare standards for products and processes and to ensure compliance with the Federal Government policies on Standardization and Quality control for both locally manufactured goods and imported products throughout the country. It is noteworthy that the decree establishing the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) specifies as its function, the setting up of technical standards for the telecommunications industry. However, to ensure coordination and clarity where required, NCC relates with SON and other agencies in areas of common interest e.g. safety regulations and environmental hazards.

76. The current effort by Nigeria in formulating a comprehensive national communication policy should be seen not only as an effort to come to grips with the myriad of problems of socio-economic development, structural imbalances and integration of its multi-religious population into the mainstream of the life of the nation, but perhaps, equally important it is an effort to exploit its rich but latent communicative resources to forge a credible and potent foreign relations, as well as a means of further developing and improving on its economic base.

1. Introduction

1.1 Background Information on Nigeria

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is a tropical country on the West African Coast along the Gulf of Guinea, with the Republic of Benin to the West , Niger to the North, Chad to the North-East and Cameroon to the East and South-East.

The climate is tropical. In the South, the average annual temperature is about 32^oc, with high humidity and the average annual rainfall above 3,800mm in parts of the South-East. It is drier and semi-tropical in the North, and the average annual rainfall may be as low as 625mm.

Nigeria covers an area of some 923,769 sq.km, and situated between latitudes 4^o and 14^oN of the equator. In some parts of the country, latitude tends to modify the high humid and hot temperature associated with tropical rain-forest regions.

The vegetation ranges from rain forest in the south, through deciduous forest to grasslands dotted with shrubs which finally shades into the dry desert regions. Within the past few decades, desert encroachment has threatened human and cattle life in the northern - most parts of the country. The southern part is characterised by undulating hills, occasionally rising to as high as 3000 to 5,000 meters in some places. The northern part shows the same features but rising to a plateau in the centre and north-eastern part of the country to about 8,000 metres above sea level.

The two major rivers transversing the country are Rivers Niger and Benue, in a confluence at Lokoja, from where they flow through a series of creeks in the delta region into the Atlantic Ocean. Other inland drainage areas and important rivers are Cross-River, Imo River, Kaduna River, and Lake Chad.

1.1.1 Demographic and Cultural Diversity

The peoples of Nigeria are many and varied. They include the Fulanis, the Yorubas, Hausas, Igbos and a large number of Northern and Southern ethnic groups. These variations have combined to produce a very rich admixture of cultures and art, which form the heritage of modern Nigeria.

The Nigeria census in 1963 recorded a total of 55.670.055. There was another census in 1973, but the results were never published. In 1984, the population of Nigeria was officially estimated at over 94 million. Nigeria's population today is put at about 100,000,000 on a land mass of approximately 930,000sq. kms. It is a Federation of thirty states and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. The climatic conditions range from wet and humid in the South to dry and hot in the North.

There have been suggestions that more than 45% of the Nigerian populace are under 20 years old and are still of school going age. This has put a lot of pressure on the educational systems of the country, and eventually on the labour market. The economy is therefore being planned to grow fast enough to provide jobs for the many school leavers annually.

Furthermore, the rural-to-urban migration has been found to be growing daily and thus creating unprecedented problems of health and housing, transportation, law and order. This puts a lot of pressures on the delivery systems for these social services. In spite of this, majority of Nigerians still live in rural areas, living on subsistence farming, trading, rural industries, and crafts.

1.1.2 Some Telecommunication Information on Nigeria

The total number of subscribers to telephone lines as at the end of December 1986 was put at around 230,000 while Telex subscribers were only 5,300 in number. Total installed capacity for telephone then was 320,834 and telex 11,577. The percentage utilisation for telephone therefore was 71.6 per cent while telex was approximately 45.7 per cent. However, modernity in telecommunications has provided facilities that make for new class of service, improved revenue generation with properly reviewed tariff policy. Now, in 1996, the country has almost 1,000,000 subscribers to telephone lines all of which are handled by standard A antennae facing both the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean Regions installed at four (4 NO.) different geographical locations across the country. Nigeria operates a Domestic Satellite System by leasing three (3 No.) transponders from INTELSAT which are accessed by nineteen (19 No.) Standard B earth stations in some state capitals of the Federation. There is a Territorial Manager responsible for Telecommunications Administration in each state except Lagos state where because of the relatively large number of switching centres and subscribers in the metropolis, it was considered prudent to have at least two (2No.) Territorial managers.

Nigeria embraced Digital Technology since the 1980s with the introduction of Digital Switches and Transmission Systems (Radio and Optic fibre) into the network. Since the beginning of the 90s, Mobile Telephone Services (Cellular), Paging and Electronic Mail have also been part of the services offered by NITEL (Nigerian Telecommunications Plc). NITEL now has an X.25 and X.40 switching facilities in its network. Today however, to a population of One hundred million (100m), the figure of more than half a million telephone lines in the country means in effect, a very low telephone density ratio; though the country has the largest number of telephones in any one country in Africa.

1.1.3 Economic and Socio-Political Climate of Nigeria

The importance of communication in any country whether developed or developing is so obvious. In fact the inter-relationship between the economic development of a country and effective telecommunication services is so interwoven that it is difficult to tell which one comes first. Suffice it to say however, that most developed nations have the more developed telecommunications infrastructures and services. While the inhabitants of the developed world look forward to enjoying the full benefits of the so-called "Information Society" by the year 2000, the situation in the developing world is the opposite. For example, it is well known that the city of Tokyo has more telephones than the whole of the continent of Africa with a population of 500 million.

This type of disparity, coupled with the interest of common humanity, led the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to seek ways and means of not only bridging the gap but also enabling humanity, as a whole, to cooperate towards a common goal of telecommunications service within easy reach of all people at the turn of the century. One of these ITU efforts (2) culminated in the Resolution (No.20) adopted by the Plenipotentiary Conference of ITU in Nairobi, 1982, which called for the establishment of "an International Commission for worldwide telecommunications development.

The Resolution mandated the Commission, inter alia, "to recommend a range of methods including novel ones for stimulating telecommunications development in the developing world using appropriate and proven technologies in ways which would:

serve the mutual interest of governments, operating companies, the public and specialised user groups in the developing world and of the public and private sectors in the developed world; and

lead to progressive achievement of self-reliance in the developing world and the narrowing of the gap between the developing and developed countries".

The Independent Commission for Worldwide Telecommunications Development, which was set up, eventually submitted its report, titled the "Missing Link" which is famous for its contents and recommendations on world telecommunications development especially in the developing world.(3) The ITU felt it necessary that after the submission of the report, a World Telecommunications Development Conference should be held to go through it.

This Conference (4) was held and brought together Members of the Union at ministerial level to study and exchange views on the many aspects of the report of the Independent commission that had national government policy implications. This was the first Conference of its kind and it reflected the importance that the ITU gives to telecommunications development particularly in the developing countries.

The Conference adopted on 30th May, 1985 the Arusha Declaration which, in many ways, was expected to help in the bridging of the telecommunications gap, if conscientiously implemented.

In addition to the Arusha Declaration, it is pertinent to also recall the Lagos Plan of Action for the Economic Development of Africa which incorporated in its programme of action, the Transport and communications Decade for Africa which aimed at rapidly developing the transport and communications infrastructure of the continent to respond to the political, economic and social aspirations of the continent. Furthermore, an Africa Telecommunications Development Conference was also organised by ITU on behalf of the Panaftel Coordinating Committee, in Tunis, Tunisia, from January 12 to 16, 1987. It dealt with various aspects of telecommunications development plans in Africa.(5)

In the pre-colonial days, Nigerians lived under political systems with varying degrees of sophistication in terms of organisation and management of their own affairs.

In 1960, Nigeria became an independent country. Since independence, Nigeria as a nation has experienced frequent political changes. It has had eleven governments of which seven have been military and four civilian. Presently, Nigeria is having a military government.

The colonial infrastructures vis-a-vis roads, railways, telecommunication, system of administration, language and common rules of commerce, educational institutions and colonial townships-have al helped to rub the rural Nigerians of their tribal nature and made them available for the development of the new nation.

Urban areas have continued to grow and telecommunication facilities are increasing at a tremendous rate; educational institutions are growing and attracting more and more young people to come into contact with one another. Associations and other professional bodies are recruiting membership on the basis of achievements. All these augur well for a nation in the making.

Economic development during the colonial era, under the British, supported the production of raw materials and tropical products like palm-oil, palm-kernel, rubber, cocoa, groundnut, groundnut oil, and timber, and also minerals for export.

Since the discovery of oil in 1970, oil has come to dominate the whole economy and trade of Nigeria.

In the Second Development Plan 1970-74, the role of the government was reviewed and stated explicitly. The rationale for the government role in the economy was stated as follows:

For a long time, the influence of the government in the economy has been all pervading, not restricted to the traditional areas of providing infrastructural support, law and order, but has made direct investments via its numerous publicly owned corporations, companies and joint ventures in the direct production of some goods.

The foundation of the modern economy of Nigeria was laid during the implementation of the 2nd Development Plan. The 3rd Development Plan 1975 - 1980 adopted the objectives of the 2nd Plan and also adopted the following implementing and measurable objectives:

Increase in per capita income

More even distribution income

Reduction in the level of unemployment

Increase in the supply of high level manpower

Diversification of the economy

Balanced diet

Indigenization of economic activity

The third plan was aided by OPEC and sustained favourable balance of payments positions, then.

The execution of the 3rd Development Plan recorded significant achievement in various fields of the economy. But due to some operational problems and many other reasons, the performance fell short of the high expectations prevailing at the outset of the plan.

With the introduction of the 4th Development Plan which coincided with the return of the civilian rule under a new Presidential type constitution, almost immediately the oil prices and demand started to fall and the expected revenue declined.

With the introduction of SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) in 1986, as compared with the pre-early 1980s there was renewed interest in making use of local technological resources with increased local sourcing of industrial raw materials. The increased renewed interest was due to some factors which included political interest in self-reliance and the need of finding production techniques more appropriate to distributional and employment objectives. SAP, though increased the local sourcing of industrial raw materials in Nigeria, has not contributed significantly to the technological development of the country mainly because of the increased local cost of importing those inputs that cannot yet be produced locally. One major problem is the shortage of machinery and spare parts, since very limited capacity exist in Nigeria for local fabrication of the simplest machine, and equipment with the result that even the machine designed or adapted by research institutes were hardly commercialised.

Inadequate or ineffective dissemination and use of information is assumed to be responsible for the slow pace of industrial development in Nigeria. For rapid industrialization, dissemination of usable research findings to industrialists in the language and format they understand is one major factor. The inability of the publication and utilization of research findings has also resulted in a considerable proportion of researchers carrying out activities which have very little or no relevance to science and technology and industrial developments.

1.1.4 Electronic Communications and the Telecommunications System

While the existence of information does not necessarily ensure its use, the real value of an information system lies in the servicing of specific user needs. In order to solve this problem, and hoist the country on the path of greater technological and overall socio-economic development as well as create a new lease of life for the citizenry, a planned increase in penetration of telecommunications services has been seen as a welcome development for national growth.

Every human society, from the most primitive to the most advanced, depends on some form of telecommunications network. It will be virtually impossible for any group of people to define their collective identities or make decisions about their common and binding interests, without communications. Communication networks make society a reality.

It makes it possible for people to cooperate, to produce and exchange commodities, to share ideas and information and to assist one another in times of need.

Indeed, every facet of the basic rights is dependent on telecommunication. Such basic rights of the individual as the right to life, the right to personal liberty and dignity, the right to free expression and information and the right to free movement, all of which enhance the quality of life of the individual, are facilitated by telecommunications.

Electronic Communications involve the process by which messages are sent across the globe through the use of the computer, telephone line and a modem. Unlike the fax system which allows one page of text to be transmitted at a time, electronic communication facility allows several pages to be processed off-line and through a single dialling, it allows these several pages of messages to be transmitted to a gateway where they can be distributed to their various destinations.

Furthermore, electronic communication involves any of several forms of information exchange between two or more computers through any of several methods of interconnection such as telephone line, optical fibre, satellite or radio. This communication mode is rapidly spreading throughout the world as a fast, reliable and in most applications, an inexpensive form of communication. It is fast and inexpensive because it can use existing public telephone lines, a dedicated (leased) line or via microwave radio frequency.

The foregoing is indicative of the requirements necessary to induce a meaningful development of telecommunications infrastructure in Africa.

1.1.5 The Geopolitical Structrue of NITEL

This section of this report examines geopolitical structure and policy phasing and its implications on the pursuit of profit and social services objectives including national interest and unit within the framework of telecommunications policy in Nigeria. Geopolitics in its generic sense attempts to explain world political developments in terms of geographic space. It emphasizes fact of physical and economic geography seen either as opportunities or limitations in the pursuit of specific goals and objectives.

The geopolitical structure and policy phasing is also well demarcated when we examine the functions and roles of which the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) was set up. NITEL was established to provide efficient telecommunications services to all parts of the Federation and to link Nigeria with all parts of the world with emphasis on those countries maintaining strong economic and political relations with Nigeria. In its external services, it was also mandated to give priority to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sub-region and other independent African States as a reflection of Nigeria's foreign policy.

On domestic telecommunications services and the implications of pursuing multiple objectives, i.e. socio-political and economic policies on the operations of NITEL, the enormous difficulties in evolving and implementing telecommunications policies and programmes in Nigeria became apparent when consideration is given to the large size and regional distribution of the country's population and the structure of the country's rural settlements. An effective coverage of all parts of the Federation in the supply of telecommunications services depended on resource availability and effective planning and co-ordination of the systems network as well as efficient management and technical operations. Telecommunications is a capital intensive industry. However, with resource constraints, a phased approach to network expansion was adopted. This called for sound investment decisions, technological and management innovations, operational and financial efficiency and generation of profits sufficient enough to efficiently maintain and expand telecommunications services to all parts of the Federation.

Prior to 1985, the internal and external telecommunications services were provided and managed by two distinct organisations, namely the Posts and Telecommunications Department, for internal services and the Nigerian External Telecommunications Ltd for external services. This situation was fraught with problems. The Posts and Telecommunications Department consisted of two dissimilar businesses with different operating objectives and environments. The Postal Service was essentially social in outlook. As telecommunications on the whole is a commercial operation, there were difficulties in the management of these two services to the detriment of the public interest of having good communications facilities. Further, the existence of separate organisations for the management of the internal and external telecommunications networks did not augur well for efficient national telecommunications network because of lack of co-ordination that existed between the two operating entities in development planning, project phasing, implementation, operation, maintenance and billing. This separate existence of the operating entities often resulted in duplication in investment with consequential heavy demand on scarce national financial and human resources for telecommunication development. It also affected the promotion of cross subsidisation from the more lucrative international sector to the not-so-lucrative domestic sector which was beset with problems arising from logistics and maintenance due to, among other things equipment spread.

Organisational problems were not the only one that retarded telecommunication development efforts in Nigeria. Others including the following, deserve special mention:

The planned objective could not always be achieved due mainly to shortage of funds, inadequate executive technical manpower and uncoordinated project management.

Rapid advancement in technology is making the procurement of spare parts for maintenance of existing systems a costly undertaking as these were then obtainable from fewer sources than before.

Lack of equipment standardisation which created problems of spare parts stocking.

The inadequacy of the tariff, at times, has made generation of revenue to cater for recurrent capital expenditure and future development difficult.

Lack of future plan, information and needs from local government areas.

Lack of co-ordination of infrastructural planning.

Poorly defined and discontinuous policies on national development plans.

The net effect of these problems was constant failure to attain planned targets and poor performance of the telecommunications undertaking in the country.

It is pertinent, however, to point out that these problems are being tackled within the limits of the authority and resources of the new organisation, NITEL. For example, plans have been completed to start the establishment of standards for equipment operation and architecture, while at the same time the tariff is being reviewed to reflect the reality of the present-day operational costs. The NITEL organisation is such that it is now very easy to contact local government areas for information about their development plans where these exist. Also, efforts are being made to follow up equipment standardisation with local manufacture of telecommunications equipment. In fact, the centralisation of the control of the international and domestic services has led to an improvement in the operation and maintenance of the national network and the situation is such that NITEL is now able to pay all salaries from its earnings.

Telecommunications is both dynamic and capital intensive and in view of its catalystic effect on the development of other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, health, tourism and education and its necessity for the commercial, industrial, socio-economic and political development of the country, the need for an orderly and efficient development of telecommunications infrastructure in Nigeria has now been found more urgent in order to keep pace with the development of the other sectors of the economy.

The overall national objective on telecommunications may be stated in general terms as the provision of modern, efficient, reliable and adequate telecommunications services in the country subject to the constraints of available resources. In addition to the overall national objective, there are several sub-objectives which deal with specific aspects of telecommunications such as types of services to be provided, quality or service, operational and equipment standards, etc. These objectives have often led to a set of policies within the framework of the national policy.

At the national level, the general objectives are; to promote an orderly and efficient development of telecommunications, and to promote the provision of efficient public telecommunication services in Nigeria. In the fulfilment of these objectives, decisions have been taken on certain issues, some of which are:

Legislation of Telecommunications;

Role of Government;

Rights of Citizens;

Competitions and Monopoly;

National Security, etc.

1.2 The Nigerian Society and the Information Sector

In some of the present thirty states in Nigeria, the proportion of rural urban dwellers is estimated at over 75% but, generally, Nigeria claims an average of about 70%. Some 80% of these inhabitants are engaged in agriculture and other extractive subsectors, that is, nearly three-fifths of the total population are engaged in the primary activities of growing food (and mining).

Significantly, the agriculture sector in the United States of America employed 44% of that country's population some 100 years ago, but only 2% of the population is today engaged in feeding the entire nation (and exporting food also). A two -sector aggregation of the same American labour force data translates to 92% of all USA workers engaged in non-information activities in 1880, and 8% in the information sector. Today, the population engaged in the information sector is about equal to that in all the other sectors put together, that is about 50%.

Similar changes are reported in other industrialised societies, as in Europe. These countries are said to have arrived at the Information Age or the Post-industrial Age, which is assumed generally to have begun in the 1960's with the discovery of the transistor.

The information Society is characterised by certain relevant dimensions, including:

the change from a goods producing to a service society;

the centrality of theory in technological innovations (as against intuitive inventiveness and craft); and

the application of decision rules in place of intuitive judgements, as in modern management of systems (analysis), organisations and enterprises.

Subsequent sections of this report examine the ways information and communication are being introduced into the economic and social development of the country.

1.3 Telecommunications and Economic Development: Challenges and Opportunities

Telecommunications are a key infrastructure of economic and social development for the second half of the 21^st century. They provide, as facilitator, an enabling condition for carrying on the dominant pursuits of the modern day, namely, of the Information Age. Two types of information business can be identified: the first is associated information, such as derives from the need to transact businesses related to the primary and secondary occupations of extracting (agriculture and mining) and manufacturing. The second is a commodity that is based on information and knowledge.

During the first 50 or so years of the telephone, it was devoted to serving the needs of the traditional economic (and social) sectors, for moving goods from source to consumer. The objective of development in switched or two-way telecommunications was almost entirely the universal penetration of the Plain Old Telephone (POT). The telephone was invaluable for carrying out voice communication over short and long distances. In this circumstance, it was not the agricultural and mining sectors of the economy that called for the most use of the POT but, rather, the manufacturing, distributive and management subsectors.

Where manufacturing is weak, however, as with rural communities and most third-world nations, the penetration of the ordinary voice telephone was expectedly low.

It is clear that the African countries are grossly underwired and their telecommunications facilities quite clearly underdeveloped. An analysis, showing the correlation between national GDP and telephone density revealed the link between economic affluence and the penetration of telecommunications. It is only of academic interest as claimed by Maduka whether it is affluence that came before the telephone or it is the telephone that created the affluence. By treating telecommunications as an infrastructure, the notion is that wealth and affluence can thereby be enhanced, but a quick evaluation of the cost of the telephone line shows that it probably requires an affluent economy to pay for the minimum UN recommended telephone density, of one line per 100 inhabitants. Today, the Nigerian statistic is about 0.66 lines per 100 inhabitants. A combination of the latest census figure and the drastic devaluation of the Nigerian currency (Naira) value is naturally of considerable interest and interpretation to different professionals and scholars.

In the Information Society, information is also a stand-alone commodity, not merely associated with primary or industrial production, but essentially with services, including communication itself. The range of these services includes messengering, broadcasting, advertising, news services, databases, financial and several other professional services. The computer falls in the centre of this rapidly developing information business and the countries which have attained this tertiary or information stage of occupation have large telephone densities. At this point in time, it would be difficult to try to identify a threshold for this stage to be attained. Workers in this stage are finding the POT rather inadequate for the high demands which they now place on telecommunications. They need to be freed from the short cable or leash on the telephone instrument, hence the cordless phone; they have to be reached anywhere (mobile), they manage their time critically (voice/electronic mail) and the need to access large masses of data at high speed, for decision-making in the highly competitive world of modern global business.

1.4 Technology Development and Telecommunications Policy

1.4.1 Background Information

Technology development refers to the translation of research results into goods and services as well as improvement on existing technologies based on cost and effective evaluation.

Science and Technology have become critical factors of economic and social development. Through their application, it has become possible to harness the forces of nature and to transform the raw material resources with which nature endows man into goods and services for better quality of life. Indeed, the

Case Study

Empowering Socio-Economic Development in Africa

Utilizing Information Technology

A Critical Examination of the Social, Economic, Technical and Policy Issues in

Nigeria

by Dr. G.A. Alabi, April 1996

Table of contents

Executive Summary