Telecom
#AfriTECH2021: Galaxy Backbone Determined to Boost Cloud Infrastructure – Abukakar
Prof. Muhammed Abukakar, managing Director and CEO, Galaxy Backbone Limited, has expressed the company’s preparedness to provide ICT infrastructure and services to public institutions and the underserved communities in Nigeria.
Timi Fadeyi, head DataCentre at Galaxy Backbone
Galaxy Backbone is a public enterprise of the Federal Government of Nigeria incorporated in 2006 with the primary mandate of setting up and operating a unified Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure platform that addresses the connectivity, transversal and other technology imperatives for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.
Abukakar was speaking on ‘Boosting Cloud Infrastructure for Digital Economy via Partnerships’ through a representative, Mr. Timi Fadeyi, head DataCentre at Galaxy Backbone Limited, at the (hybrid) Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH2021) organised by TechEconomy.ng in Lagos (Nigeria) recently.
The Managing Director while streamline digitisation aligned with Bill Mcdermott SAP CEO who said: “Complexity is an obstacle to digitisation. To get the most out of the new world of digital business, you have to run SIMPLE.”
The trend of the new world
He said that the trends of the new world include hyper-connectivity, cloud computing, a smarter world and cybersecurity. These can be considered as four pillars necessary to drive digitalisation using infrastructure which will be used to service the community.
The realities of the digital economy as outlined by Abukakar the undeniable facts that digital economy is real and here to stay; “you have to embrace, innovate and thrive through it”.
He told the participants that reimagining your organisation cannot be overemphasised in this era.
“We need to work smarter, faster and simpler – a combination of a hybrid mode of working and harnessing relationships; virtual, physical, both.
“Artificial Intelligence is reshaping value chains, industries, communities, countries and the works entirely. You also need to secure your data; secure your entire digital experience, a combination of technology and you
Accelerators of the digital economy
Continuing, the Galaxy Backbone boss said, “To every action, there’s indeed a reaction. The digital economy keeps growing and transforming”.
Several components influence this growth and Abukakar summarised these thus: “The customer experiment which is driving the changes visible on different platforms; the core business processes on platforms that are smarter, faster and simple; smarter and engaged workforce to prevent different levels of possible disconnections; supplier-partner collaboration has never been this critical for an enhanced digital economy; and cloud harnessed Internet of Things and assets to drive real-time insights and new business initiatives.
He also said that cloud investments must be channeled right to enable an increase in revenue
The cloud and the digital economy
“The cloud is the preferred ‘currency’ for digital transformation and for reducing the initial cost of ICT infrastructure acquisition.
“Cloud computing is gradually reducing the downtime in public service delivery, increasing government and citizen engagement. It enables agility, flexibility, connectedness and the opportunity to scale your business”, he added.
Abubakar noted that with the help of the Ministry of Communities and the Digital Economy led by Prof. Isa Pantami and support from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Communications Commission (NCC), Galaxy Backbone is well-positioned to provide ICT infrastructure in a way that both parties — governments, institutions, NDAs among others can benefit.
Meanwhile, he said that the pillars that drive the mission of Galaxy Backbone include; to becoming the leading enabler of digital inclusion in Africa: Provides state of the art digital infrastructure and services for a digital Nigeria; to align its operations with government priorities; promote data sovereignty and security of government data, amongst others.
“Galaxy Backbone improves long-term financial sustainability, customer satisfaction, improve satisfaction, adoption and confidence in digital services
“Enhancing the digital economy through partnership, GBB provides its data services from two major locations including Abuja and Enugu. Data lost at one centre can be recovered at the other. This can be described as a data continuity solution”, he said.
According to Abukakar, data sensitivity determines which data centre to be used. This can be a virtual data centre, computing pool, resource pool; storage resource pool, elastic cloud server, among others.
“Economies of scale is an important factor to be considered that allows you to save a lot while running your own infrastructure,” he concluded.
Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) is planning to encourage geo-political regions that grants zero charges for ‘Right of Way’ approvals as well not implementing arbitrary charges on telecommunications base stations in their regions with zero tariff.
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON disclosed this to Nigeria CommunincationsWeek against the backdrop of incessant closure of base stations in some states.
He said that operators believe that the way out of this arbitrary charges and high cost of RoW approvals is regional tariffs.
“Operators are advocating for a regional tariff which means that geographical regions of Nigeria where cost of doing business for telecommunications operators is extremely high will attract high tariff compared to regions where there is low operating cost.
“Our advocacy of regional tariff is not based on a particular state but on regions. As at today there are regions where we have zero cost of “Right of Way” and low cost of doing business. Tariffs should reflect on operating environment. This means that national rate plan should consider high and low cost of doing business.
“If this is implemented, in a long run we could witness some regions having zero tariff because operational cost in such regions are friendly to operators,” he said.
It would be recalled that Kogi State recently shut down some operators’ base stations on account of local levies which raises the call for discriminatory tariff among geographical locations.
Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has hit back at Meta Platforms Inc, warning the tech giant that its threat to exit Nigeria will not erase its legal responsibilities or liabilities under the Nigerian law.
Meta said earlier today, May 3, that it “may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”
Meta’s warning came after it lost a legal bid last week to overturn a ₦220 million fine imposed by the FCCPC for violations of data protection and consumer rights laws.
Reacting to Meta’s threat, FCCPC, in a statement on Saturday, May 3, described Meta’s statement as “a calculated” move aimed at “inducing negative public reaction and potentially pressuring the FCCPC to reconsider its decision.”
FCCPC said that Meta threatening to leave Nigeria does not absolve the company of liabilities for the outcome of a judicial process.
“These infringements included denying Nigerians the right to control their personal data, transferring and sharing Nigerian user data without authorisation, discriminating against Nigerian users compared to users in other jurisdictions and abusing their dominant market position by forcing unfair privacy policies,” FCCPC wrote on X.
“Interestingly, Meta had been fined for similar breaches in Texas ($1.5b) and only recently was asked to pay $1.3 Billion for violating E.U. Data Privacy Rules.
Elsewhere in India, South Korea, France and Australia, Meta had faced varying penalties for similar breaches. But Meta never resorted to the blackmail of threatening to exit those countries. They obeyed.”
Meta may shut down its Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in protest against the substantial fines imposed by multiple government agencies.
The tech giant has been ordered to pay nearly $300 million in fines in Africa’s most populous nation, following regulatory demands which Meta described as “unrealistic.”
In July 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), imposed a $220 million fine on Meta for allegedly discriminatory and exploitative practices against Nigerian consumers.
The commission stated that Meta had failed to engage a Data Protection Compliance Organisation and had not submitted a Nigeria Data Protection Regulation audit report for two consecutive years.
Similarly, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), demanded $37.5 million over unapproved advertising, while the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), announced a $32.8 million fine for an alleged data privacy breach.
Meta challenged the decisions at the Federal High Court in Abuja but was unsuccessful, as the court upheld the fines in a ruling delivered last week.
The court directed the company to comply with payment by the end of June, but Meta has indicated it may not do so, according to the BBC.
“The applicant may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures,” the company stated in court documents.
Responding to the NDPC’s assertion that Meta’s data processing could expose Nigerian users to health and financial risks, the company said the agency had failed to “properly interpret the laws guiding data privacy.”
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