The current state of telecommunication in Nigeria is a result of the decision reached in the '90s to allow foreign investors to obtain operating licenses in order for the country to secure direct foreign investments. Despite the progress, there are challenges that remain – including affordable connectivity and broadband penetration.

ITWeb Africa spoke to the man who helped deliver the country's national broadband plan and who oversaw the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) during the advent of GSM, Dr Ernest Ndukwe about Nigeria's current challenges and future prospects.

Paul Adepoju: How far do you think Nigeria has gone towards achieving the goals of the National Broadband Plan?

Dr Ernest Ndukwe: I was privileged to be part of that plan in terms of crafting it, I chaired the committee that did the broadband plan. When we finished the job, the president was so impressed with it, that it was approved the same day. All of us have been working very hard to ensure successful implementation. Unfortunately, we've gone through a recession in the country which affected the earnings of people. There is a very strong relationship between the earning power of the individual and the person's ability to afford a connection.

When many people have challenges with affordability, it means that the speed of getting people connected to broadband services is much slower. From the report that has just been published by A4AI for Nigeria, what is obvious is that we've only achieved 12% broadband penetration. Sometimes, the figure looks horrible, but I know that in many cities in the country, the penetration could actually be as high as 30 to 50%. But when you look at the nation as a whole, there is a disparity. It can only improve when more people are employed, when the cost of connection is also reduced.

The target we have is that broadband penetration should be at least 20% by 2018. We still have a year to go to determine whether we will crack that figure. I suspect that we may be able to do so if the plans of government in turning things around happen, and if there is concerted effort to do the various things that we said we will do.

The broadband council also needs to be more agile so that if there are bottlenecks, they are removed in order that we may achieve the target.

Paul Adepoju: You mentioned the disparity in the broadband penetration from one part of the country to another and this is brought about by the continual reluctance of operators to go to some parts of the country - in spite of efforts to improve right of way and others. What is your assessment of the development and what do you think should be the way forward?

Dr Ernest Ndukwe: The truth about where an operator operates from is purely economic. No matter how much we wish that an operator goes to a particular place, unless it's a viable proposition, they will not go there because operating companies are owned by shareholders and they expect returns on investments. In the NCC, we set up the universal service provision fund – the idea is to provide a pool of funds that will enable the government to intervene in areas that are not so viable for the commercial operators and that is the trend worldwide.

Regarding right of way, many governments in Nigeria still don't regard internet access as a priority and that's why in many states, they are actually looking at taxation of operators instead of giving them right of way to rural areas.

So if you compound that by taxing the operator just for the tower installation, then you are actually worsening the situation. The government needs to understand that they need to incentivise the operators to be able to go to some of these rural locations to set up service. If you don't, the service will not happen.

There are many issues and state governments need to take it as a challenge to work with operators in order to extend services to rural and distant locations. Unless that happens, we will just be talking and not much will happen.

Paul Adepoju: As advanced as the telecoms sector in Nigeria is today, many players believe that the industry has profited foreign companies more than the local players. What is your response to this?

Dr Ernest Ndukwe: First of all, Nigeria was running the affairs of the telecoms industry since independence in 1960 to the year 2001. It was a monopoly service called NITEL and a mobile service called MTEL. In 40 years, we were only able to build 400,000 working lines for fixed services and 25,000 working mobile lines. There was no foreign company. Then the NCC was set up initially in 1993. It licensed a number of local operating companies.

From 1998, (there were) companies like CIL, which was owned by the current owners of Globacom, there was also Multi-Links - even though it has some India roots. There were about seven companies but there was one issue: they did not take advantage of the big opportunity that was there. If those companies had money and required resources to roll out the network, MTN would not have been the number one company today because many of these companies had first-mover advantage. But they did not have money. The opportunity was looking them in the face.

Then the government said Nigeria was lagging behind in Africa - even Cameroon started GSM earlier than Nigeria. The situation was affecting us, we could not attract many things because of the industry. So we decided on a licensing auction.

Secondly, many of these telecoms companies are Nigerian companies, we must get that in our minds. It is a misnomer calling them foreign companies since they are duly registered by the appropriate commission and authorities. The majority of the workforce in the telecoms companies are Nigerians. Nigerians are also occupying key positions in the various companies.

What we should ask ourselves is what have we gained in return? The answer is 150 million mobile lines from what it used to be at 25,000 lines. What we've gained is that many Nigerians (150 million) are now connected, broadband penetration of 12%. You can imagine what would have happened if we didn't have international dollars flowing in to be part of expanding our ecosystem.

All the infrastructure being built today, including the offices, are on Nigerian soil and no one is taking them out of the country. Talk about attracting foreign investments and I'm proud to say that Nigeria has gained more from attracting those foreign investors to Nigeria than if we didn't. I think we should look at the brighter side and we should not regret it.

Paul Adepoju: Let's talk about telecoms service quality. During your administration, operators were fined but many Nigerians believed and still believe slamming fines will only expand NCC's purchase. Watching from the sidelines, what do you think would work and deliver the envisioned QoS at the NCC?

Dr Ernest Ndukwe: QoS is needed to ensure that continues to improve which is guided by the NCC which slams fines on those that go below the fixed standard. I also know that caution is needed because some of the issues might not be the problem of the operating companies and they include power supply and security. An operator cannot be a power generating company, a diesel distribution company, it cannot be its own security agent to police equipment in remote areas across the country.

When the regulator looks at it, you want to hit hard but you cannot because of the numerous issues that are beyond the operator. Who do you sanction when thieves steal rare voltage regulators that take the centre offline?