As Nigeria marks the 20th year of the introduction of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) in the country, which marked the beginning of telecommunications revolution in Nigeria, stakeholders have advocated collaboration among relevant sectors of the economy.
Speaking at a Forum in Lagos tagged “The Ultimate Game Changer”, a special summit in commemoration of 20 years of telecommunications revolution in Nigeria, the Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu noted that the country has not scratched the surface in telecommunication financial inclusion, and requires collaboration between telecom operators and financial institutions to make appreciable progress in service delivery in such areas.
He said that the key to unlocking accelerated development and quality service is in multi-sectoral collaboration.
While acknowledging that telecommunications is pivotal in all sectoral growth, Onyeagwu lamented the low level of digital maturity and literacy. According to him, there is a need to create a curriculum for digital literacy. “People need to understand.”
He referenced CBN’s adoption in 2012 of policies that could help financial inclusion by adults, and pointed out that all were telecom enabled. These include Agent Banking, Mobile Banking and USSD banking, among others.
The Zenith Bank boss further outlined some challenges that hamper the smooth adoption of telecom services in the country. Some of these he said include low level of digital maturity; avalanche of fraudulent websites; wrong mode of SIM recycling which exposes digital contents to fraud; security issues that have nearly erased rural banking and the demise of community banking.
He noted the need to establish a process of decommissioning digital infrastructure to avoid fraudsters latching on loopholes to mine unsecured data. “Organisations need to be deliberate in their efforts at data protection; and individuals need to be careful on how they share their data.
The issue of cybercrime is not technology, it is people.”
He further charged the regulators, NCC and CBN, to ensure reduction in cost of broadband and to ensure that the eNaira gets the reliable and dependable telecom connectivity it needs to operate seamlessly.
Also speaking at the event under the topic, “Telecommunications in Nigeria: The Revolution”, former Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC and currently, the Chairman of MTN Nigeria, Dr Ernest Ndukwe highlighted the evolution of telecommunications in Nigeria and emphasised on the need for all stakeholders to join hands and graduate the gains of GSM into the upcoming 5G technology adoption.
The event saw notable telecommunication experts and entrepreneurs speak on the next frontier in telecom growth in Nigeria.
