Airtel, GYADI partner on Coal City summit

Airtel CEO, Deepak Srivastava

Mobile telecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria is partnering the Global Youth Awareness & Development Initiatives (GYADI), to host the first-ever Information and Communications Technology (ICT) summit focusing on youth empowerment in Enugu tagged CoalCity ICT summit.

The summit with the theme ‘Refocusing Enugu Youth for Sustainable National Development with ICT,’ has been scheduled to hold on Friday, May 25th at the Golden Royal, Independence Layout, Enugu State.

A press statement made available to ITRealms Online by Erhumu Bayagbon of Airtel’s public relations, indicated that its aimed at promoting youth empowerment, educational development and local support for developmental initiatives by individuals, groups, organizations and governmental authorities.

He quoted the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Deepak Srivastava, as saying Airtel is committed to partnering with the government at all levels as well as notable organizations in creating solid platforms for the development of the Nigerian youth. 

He also said, the summit was a clarion call heeded in good time given the current wave of ICT knowledge sweeping across the global community, just as he applauded the organisers for concerted efforts aimed at bridging the existing gap in ICT among the indigenes of the State.

Acquiring ICT knowledge, he said, is no longer an option anymore, adding that it’s basic as the food people eat, the clothes wear and the shelter over peoples’ head.

“The world now runs on ICT. This explains the need for and our interest in promoting ICT-focused knowledge,” he said.

The Chief Operating Officer also stated that Airtel has recorded several milestones in the ICT domain, saying that the company is always in the forefront in delivering innovative products and services such as My Airtel My Offer (MAMO) which runs on a unique ICT platform.

Barely two weeks ago, Airtel Nigeria commissioned the largest data centre in Airtel Africa. The data centre has 20, 000 square feet of equipment space and is to boost seamless network and billing services to its customers. 

It would also be recalled that in the first quarter of this year, Airtel Nigeria rolled out its pan-Nigeria 3. 75G data services across the 36 States of Federation plus the Federal Capital Territory. Airtel currently has the widest coverage and fastest speed of 3.75G network.

According to the organizers, the event will be attended by several dignitaries including the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; Governor of Enugu State Sullivan Chime; Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Gilbert Nnaji and top Airtel representatives among others.

Remmy Nweke

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

FDI, lubricant for sustainable growth in mobile telephony

*Ms Funke Opeke, CEO, MainOne Cable

Chief executive officer of MainOne Cable Company Nigeria Limited, Ms Funke Opeke, has described Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as financial lubricant for sustainable growth in mobile telephony in Nigeria.

Opeke who was forecasting into the five-year Strategic Management Plan (SMP) of the Nigerian telecommunications sector, while dwelling on ‘Broadband Nigeria – The Next Frontier’ noted that resultant increase in investor confidence leads to an abundant inflow of foreign direct investment.

This, she said, provides the financial lubricant required to sustain growth in mobile telephony infrastructure and services deployment in Nigeria based on independent regulation of the industry.

She noted that such evolving regulatory trend supported series of financial incentives, economic regulations and determinations seeking to promote further competition, particularly in the voice telephony market, namely mobile, and to a lesser extent fixed, evident in improved availability, affordability and quality of services to the Nigerian consumers.

The former Chief Technology Officer of MTN Nigeria, also said that this growth so far witnessed in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector has, to a large extent, been restricted to the voice telephony segment of the sector.

“... And has so far failed to extend to broadband and data segments,” she asserted.

Opeke further said that the huge dichotomy between the voice telephony and data segments is evident when statistics are presented.

Pointing out that with tele-density in the country growing from below 2 per cent in 2001 to about 65 per cent within 10 years, the broadband segment is still yet to catch-up.

She said, recent statistics have shown that there are over 45 million internet users in Nigeria, which on the surface appears to be a large.

“This figure represents only 29 per cent of the population,” she said.

With the advent of the Main One and Glo-1 submarine fiber optic cable systems as well as the expected WASC and ACE cables, she observed that Nigeria has sufficient bandwidth capacity to drive the growth of data and broadband penetration.

These cable systems, he said, brought in the potential of delivering fast and affordable international connectivity at speeds far in excess of what was previously available on the NITEL SAT-3 submarine cable system.

To seriously assess the development of broadband in the country, she suggested the scope must extend beyond examining the supply of international bandwidth to the country and move to an examination of the actual penetration in the market, in terms of end user access and penetration.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D