Expert Berates Govt. for Poor Telecom QoS

An ICT expert and software specialist, Collins Onuegbu has blamed the federal government over the continued poor service deliverance by all major telecom providers in the country, insisting that the government needs to invest massively in infrastructure and public power supply before raising expectation on the operators, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.

Onuegbu, managing director and CEO of Signal Alliance, a leading IT systems integration company in Nigeria said consumers’ expectation of the mobile providers are sometimes out of proportion.

He insisted that telecom firms in Nigeria were operating under unbearable conditions not matched anywhere else.

“Sometimes when we blame these telecom operators for poor quality of service, we should also look at the environment in which they are operating. The questions we should ask include: are they operating under basic acceptable parameters of providing quality of service? Has the government provided them with the much needed environment from which to provide grade A services and they are not doing so? I think, there are fundamental issues that we should look at before heaping blames on these operators,” Onuegbu stated.

He noted that for the country to have the kind of high grade QoS Nigerians are clamouring for, the government needs to invest massively on telecom infrastructure.

 He lamented the situation in which Nigeria is now close to fibre glut, yet broadband services remain low.

“Right now, we are talking of three sub-marine fibres (SAT-3, MainOne and Glo1) in operation in the country. Shortly, WACS (another undersea cable) would join them and there is even expectation a fifth one would join before 2015. But all these fibres have not in anyway improved broadband application in Nigeria. Why? The fibres are best all in Lagos where you have considerably improved service provision, but hinterland, their effects are not experienced.

“This is where government needs to come in and invest massively in the provision of infrastructure to boost broadband intake throughout the country,” said Onuegbu.
The Signal Alliance boss also stated that Nigeria’s current taxation regime was detrimental to service growth in the industry. “Taxation regime is too rigid and posses a barrier to growth,” he stated.

Onuegbu who is also chairman of the education and capacity building sub-committee of the institute of software practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), said Nigeria’s emerging new ICT policy being propagated by the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, was “a right move in the right direction.”

“What she (the minister) seeks is bringing together all public procurements under one umbrella – the ministry of communications technology. This streamlining of policy is a clear indication she has purpose, and is focused on achieving this purpose.

“Hitherto, each government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) operated independently, but the new policy seeks to put a stop to duplications, thereby enhancing efficiency. The policy also would ensure that the MDAs have the right quality of professional staff to manager their ICT operations,” he stated.

He believes introducing ICT in the daily operations of the MDAs would greatly reduce incidents of fraud associated with government establishments in Nigeria.