A renowned telecoms policy enthusiast, Mr Omobayo Azeez, has warned that the rising skills gap challenge in the Nigerian telecommunications sector is constituting a major threat to the future of the $75.6 billion industry.

He noted this while delivering a keynote presentation on ‘Bridging Skills Gap to Accelerate the Indigenous Telecoms Development’ at the just concluded second edition of the Nigerian Telecommunications Indigenous Content Expo (NTICE 2023) organised in Lagos by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

He said for the sector to continue to thrive, telecoms companies require professionals with skills in various areas such as cybersecurity, data analytics, wireless network engineering, software development, fibre optics engineering, IP networking skills, cloud computing, and VSAT engineering among others, but which are not sufficiently available at the moment.

“The current existence of the skills gaps puts a strain on telecom firms, limiting their ability to expand, innovate, improve customer services or develop new products,” Azeez said.

According to the Convener of Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFo), while the sector is growing in geometric progression, the workforce that shoulders its day-to-day operations and support is rather depleting, a development he described as a ticking time bomb.

He said: “Available data show a high global demand for tech skilled-workers particularly in the telecoms sector. This is why the situation is even scarier for a low-middle income country such as Nigeria because high-income economies that desire similar skilled labour will always have their way enticing away capable hands and talents from here.

“This is happening already,” he said, adding that in 2022 alone, operators in the sector lamented losing over 2,000 trained telecoms personnel in Nigeria to other countries.

According to Azeez, operators are finding the gaps difficult to fill as prospective applicants often lack the required knowledge and skill set to deliver, while trained workers are leaving.

“This has hampered the rate at which operators recruit. For instance, operators across the GSM, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Value-Added Services (VAS), Fixed Services and other subsegments of the sector have only employed additional 679 workers in the last three years, which cannot serve licensees in the sector even at a one-to-one ratio.

“Whereas, the talks around 5G, edge infrastructure, internet of things (IoT) and smart city initiatives all demand more capable hands to innovate and undertake professional tasks to achieve the future aspiration of the sector.

In his address, Azeez, who doubles as Team Lead, Business Metrics Limited, highlighted causes of the current skills gap in the sector.

According to him, they include defective educational systems, inadequate training programmes, poor remunerations, japa syndrome, global high demand for tech-skilled workers, government policies, and rapid technological advancements.

He encouraged industry stakeholders to leverage the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector (NPPIC), among other local content policies to develop homegrown talents with skill capacities that are globally competitive.

“While effective collaboration is required between government, operators, and educational, research and training institutions to bridge the gaps, the process should begin with operators by putting in place training and internship programmes within their organisations to meet their immediate needs.

“Operators should also review employees’ remuneration and welfare packages to retain already groomed talents before they are enticed with better offers in foreign markets because labour follows the money. Expatriate quota requirements and succession plan should also be adhered to,” he added.

He further underscored investments in employees’ training and capacity building to maximise available talents, adding that investments in the workforce should be prioritised the same way as Capital Expenditure (CAPEX).

“It would be a gross injustice not to acknowledge young Nigerians for their ingenuity, skills and entrepreneurial spirit, but the current skills gap identified in the ICT and the telecoms sector must not be ignored and should be jointly tackled before it escalates from an operating threat to an existential one.

“Therefore, we should commit to grooming and retaining talents to attract more investments and secure the digital future of the country,” Azeez concluded.

The post Widening Skills Gap Endangers Nigeria’s $75.6BN Telecoms Sector – Expert appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – The management of Galaxy Backbone Limited, Nigeria’s owned last-mile connectivity infrastructure service provider, last week in Lagos, South-West Nigeria received African Brands Leadership Merit Award 2022.

The organiser of the award, African Brand Congress says it recognised Galaxy Backbone Limited as ‘Africa’s Best Network Communications and Data Hosting Service Provider of the Year 2022’.

“This is to certify that Galaxy Backbone Limited is the winner of this category of the award as ‘Africa’s Best Network Communications and Data Hosting Service Provider of the Year 2022’, it announced at the gathering that attracted various stakeholders from the private and public sector of the Nigerian economy.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Galaxy Backbone Limited said the award is a commendation as well as a challenge to stretch further to provide shared ICT infrastructure, applications and services to all Federal Government MDAs and institutions.

African Brand Congress“We thank the African Brand Congress for recognizing us in a space we are passionate about providing excellent service to our growing Clients in the private and public sector; Network Communications & Hosting. This has challenged us to stretch further,” the statement reads.

Established to operate a nationwide IP-based network that will provide a common platform for connectivity and other infrastructure services for all Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) Galaxy Backbone has built and operates a single nationwide IP broadband network to provide network services to all Federal Government MDAs and institutions.

Apart from deploying ICT services to all Federal Government MDAs and institutions, Galaxy Backbone has been able to prove itself as a customer-centric organisation by extending services to Small, Medium Enterprise (SME).

Some of the specialized services SMEs presently enjoy from Galaxy Backbone include Galaxy Express, high-speed internet access over fibre, eLTE, Microwave and VSAT; Galaxy Contact Plus, a hosted contact centre service with shared contact centre infrastructure and multi-tenant CRM and Galaxy Host Basic, a managed web and application hosting for small and medium enterprises and MDAs on Galaxy’s shared hyper-converged infrastructure.

Also, Medium and Large corporate organisations are assured of technology services from Galaxy Backbone’s state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, where they can also take advantage of its network spread across the country.

Galaxy Backbone operates the National Shared Services Center (NSSC), the only Uptime Institute Certified Tier III data center within the nation’s public sector. The primary data center is located in the Federal Capital Territory and a secondary data center facility of the same standard in Enugu.

Galaxy Backbone built and operates the National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB), a cross-country optical fibre backbone. In its first phase, which has been completed, commissioned and covers a distance of 1484 km, the backbone spans 13 states across the South East, South-South, North Central and South West of Nigeria with base stations installed in 17 cities.

The post Galaxy Backbone gets African Brands Leadership Merit Award 2022 appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – At an inter-governmental summit in Addis Ababa in 1976, the then head of the state of Nigeria informed member nations of the Economic Council of Africa/Organization of Africa Union (ECA/OAU) about the history of satellites.

The Federal Government created a development plan to invest N10 million between 1976 and 1980.

After carefully weighing various policy options, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, which had previously been a council in 1970, was elevated to the status of a full-fledged ministry in 1980. The National Space Research and Development Agency was later separated from the ministry in 1988.

On September 26, 2003, at Plesetek, Russia, the Federal Government launched the first satellite, NigSat-1, into orbit after certain specialists had received training at Surrey Satellite Technology in London.

NigSat-1 is one of the five disaster monitoring satellites that make up the Disaster Monitoring Constellation network. When disaster monitoring is required, the satellites will communicate with one another and share information.

However, the second communication satellite (Nigcomsat), which was launched in May 2007, was lost owing to a break in the fuel supply link of the panel that resulted in a solar flare. The first satellite, NigSat-1, was designed to live for five years but is still operating in orbit today.

The launch of NigComSat-1R in 2011, after the incorporation of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) in 2006, was critical for both the country and the world. Another significant accomplishment for Nigeria was the launch that took place at Yasny, which is about a two-hour flight from Moscow, the Russian capital.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the NigComSat-1R point, a 2.5-meter high spatial resolution sensor, was manufactured and designed entirely by Nigerian engineers.

The satellites can be used for demography, including the planning and mapping of population surveys, the mapping of census enumeration areas, the planning and monitoring of rural and urban growth, and the provision of early warnings for natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and storms.

Over places that terrestrial network carriers are unable to cover, NigComSat-1R offers omnipresent high-speed coverage. NigComSat-1R will always provide consistent, dependable, and fast internet services at an affordable price, even in the most distant areas of Nigeria or West Africa.

High-speed data and video Internet connections, cost-effectiveness, and security are all features of their services. The solutions are customized for the best possible delivery in applications for communications, disaster recovery, and security.

NigComSat-1R provides transponder leasing services on Ku-band, C-band, and Ka-band platforms. In addition to greater look angles and lower latency for intra-African communications traffic, 28 transponders and 7 antennas ensure stronger footprints and center beams spanning Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Broadcasters rely on NigComsat-1R to transmit a variety of media content to their customers’ homes, including normal TV, HDTV, and Ultra HD channels, thanks to more than 50 DTH platforms. The platform offers video-on-demand programming in addition to free-to-air, free-to-view, and pay-tv channels.

NigComSat-1R offers locally produced, ground-breaking, value-added services that take advantage of experience to address industry-specific needs and raise the quality of our satellite communications services. It also contributes to the provision of services that improve efficiency and procedures at work.

NigComSat-1R, Nigeria’s only communications satellite will outlive its usefulness by 2026, meaning that the satellite will expire by then.

The relentless efforts of Prof.  Ibrahim Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, in building a digital Nigeria as well as supporting NIGCOMSAT in the growth of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has leveraged the Nigerian Satellite (NigComSat-1R) to deepen broadband penetration in the country.

He said this in Abuja during the formal announcement of the National Policy on VSAT installation essential skills for Nigerians and the flag-off of the policy implementation through the training of 600 youths nationwide.

According to Pantami, the NigComSat-1R is a crucial piece of national infrastructure that the government wishes to use to improve broadband connection and benefit rural and underserved regions.

“The Nigerian Satellite (NigComSat–1R) is one of the critical national (solid) infrastructures under the purview of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy that can be leveraged to deepen broadband penetration as well as to deliver Direct to Home (DTH) services in the country.”

The minister noted that broadband connectivity plays a critical role in the development of Nigeria’s digital economy, and said: “We are developing skill acquisition policies for the various infrastructure required to drive the digital economy.”

He further, asserts that filling the capacity gap in satellite-based service delivery is now seen as an urgent necessity to improve community quality of life, particularly in rural and remote areas where the majority of the population resides.

I join other optimistic citizens to advocate that NIGCOMSAT should face its primary purpose of commercializing Nigeria’s space products and soon, I believe, we would tell our own success story in space.

Fom Gyem writes from Wuye District, Abuja

The post NIGCOMSAT: More than Just Monitoring Satellites appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – The federal government said to thrive in the connected economy and society, it is determined to ensure that digital skills are provided to all Nigerians especially the youth in schools through the Digital Nigeria Centre (DNC).

The minister of communication and digital economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami said the digital skills will function together with other abilities such as strong literacy and numeracy skills, critical and innovative thinking, complex problem solving, an ability to collaborate, and socio-emotional skills.

Disclosing this in his remarks recently during the commissioning of the Digital Nigeria Centre built by the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) at Ijesha Moslem Grammar School, Irjo, Ilesha, Osun state, the minister said this will ensure the development of digital economy culture in the country.

The USPF under whose auspices the project was implemented, was established by the federal government through the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003, to facilitate the achievement of national policy goals for Universal Access and Universal Service to ICTs in the rural, unserved and underserved areas in Nigeria.

The DNC, hitherto known as School Knowledge Centre (SNC), targets students and youths for skills acquisition in order to increase Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy among school teachers and students; provide a platform for accessing online educational resources; equip students with ICT skills; facilitate ICT adoption in teaching and learning; and increase pass rate in mathematics, English language and other science subjects.

The four components of the DNC include ICT Tool component (made up of 40 desktop computers with embedded operating systems, server, printer, remote-controlled projector, high resolution scanner, and e-learning software). Another component is the Power structure, consisting of an inverter that comes with its charger, solar panels, batteries and automatic changeover.

There is also a Connectivity component, made up of routers, switches, firewall for network protection, modem, fibre/microwave radio or VSAT and bandwidth for internet connectivity. Finally, there is a non-ICT component constitutive of the furniture, cabinet, cooling systems, and allied appliances.

The post FG Will Ensure Digital Skills For All Nigerians – Pantami appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), the minister of Communications and Digital Economy, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, will commission a Digital Nigeria Centre (DNC) project in Osun State on Friday, January 14, 2022.

The project is part of government’s efforts to give concrete expression to the underlining principles and fundamental philosophy of the emergent digital culture in Nigeria, particularly Item No. 2 of the eight pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030.

Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, is also expected at the event as a Special Guest of Honour.

According to a statement signed by Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, director, Public Affairs at the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the Digital Nigeria Centre, hitherto known as School Knowledge Centre (SNC), targets students and youths for skills acquisition in order to increase Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy among school teachers and students; provide a platform for accessing online educational resources; equip students with ICT skills; facilitate ICT adoption in teaching and learning; and increase pass rate in mathematics, English language and other science subjects.

This project, the first to be commissioned in Osun State since the modification of the project as DNC, is located at the Ijesa Muslim Grammar School, Ilesa.

The four components of the Digital Nigeria Centre include ICT Tool component (made up of 40 desktop computers with embedded operating systems, server, printer, remote-controlled projector, high resolution scanner, and e-learning software). Another component is the Power structure, consisting of an inverter that comes with its charger, solar panels, batteries and automatic changeover.

There is also a Connectivity component, made up of routers, switches, firewall for network protection, modem, fibre/microwave radio or VSAT and bandwidth for internet connectivity. Finally, there is a non-ICT component constitutive of the furniture, cabinet, cooling systems, and allied appliances.

The DNC is a project of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), an arm of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), established under the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003 with the overarching objective to carry out the Commission’s statutory mandate of expanding the frontiers of universal access and universal service by ensuring service provision to unserved and under-served areas of the Nigerian economy.

Therefore, as mandated by NCA 2003, the USPF promotes the widespread availability and usage of network and application services throughout Nigeria by encouraging the installation of network facilities and the provision of network services and applications services to institutions, particularly in unserved and underserved areas and for underserved groups within the community.

Since inception in 2006, the USPF under NCC supervision and directive of the Minister, has implemented series of programmes and projects that promote ICT inclusion and adoption to mainstream accessibility to communication services for citizens and position Nigeria for global competitiveness in the emergent digital culture.

The post Pantami, Aregbesola to commission Digital Nigeria Project in Osun appeared first on Tech Digest News.