Federal Government has approved a 50% electricity subsidy for public hospitals across the country.

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Tunji Alausa, announced this on Thursday at the National Neo-Psychiatric Hospital in Barnawa, Kaduna State.

According to the Minister, Alausa said this gesture aims to reduce the running costs for public hospitals and alleviate the impact on patients.

He also announced plans to rename the hospitals as Specialist Hospitals to broaden healthcare service delivery.

“We know they are development institutions, they are social institutions. But inside the health and educational institutions, private businesses are hiding under them. These people charge their customers commercially and they expect to be subsidised because they are located within the territories of these institutions.

We said no, go and do a proper search and meter everybody. For the ones that are properly health and education-related, we are ready to subsidise them, even if they are on Band A.

“We are compiling our data, DisCos will collect a certain amount and the government will pay the balance.

“But we must get the data right so that we are not subsidising a private business that is charging its customers commercially. That will be an abnormal profit and it is unfair.” he said

By Engr. Gbenga Adebayo

The renewed Hope Agenda clearly recognizes the power of technology and innovation to enable inclusive economic growth and development. It is an important acknowledgement that if we can create the conditions within which innovation can thrive, we can maintain, or even accelerate the already rapid growth in the digital economy.

Since the liberalisation of the telecoms sector in the early 2000s, the ICT sector’s contribution to GDP in Nigeria has grown progressively. Today, it delivers 17.89% of annual GDP. That is more than double the contribution of oil and gas. From the initial development of connectivity infrastructure and services, the sector has catalysed the emergence of innovative technology businesses across a range of sectors. From financial technology, to data, logistics, transportation, healthcare and education.

It also provides the infrastructure that enables the delivery of critical national development projects, from national identity enrollment and management, to elections and financial inclusion programmes that provide access to vital services for marginalised and vulnerable communities.

While this growth is impressive and the impact on socio-economic development so far has been clear, the journey is far from over. The recognition within the renewed hope agenda is that the sector has the potential to drive a new wave of inclusive economic development that can be the foundation of Nigeria’s economy for decades.

To deliver this, the government has clearly and publicly acknowledged the importance of creating an enabling environment for investment and taken a number of bold steps to address investment bottlenecks. From the tough decisions to unify the exchange rates, to the tightening of monetary policy and a focus on reviewing the tax regime to make it smoother and more efficient. They have also created target investment funds to support key sectors of the economy, from healthcare and agriculture to the small businesses that drive the economy.

The specific role of the digital economy is captured in the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy’s 4 year 2023-27 growth plan, which envisages a further 15% increase in  the contribution of the ICT sector to GDP growth, as well as 15% YoY increases in investment in the sector, both of which are projected to support a 100% increase in the annual net revenue that the sector delivers to government.

These are laudable and ambitious objectives, but they are impossible to achieve without deliberate sustained strategic and tactical action. If these actions are not taken, then the foundations that have been built are vulnerable and not only will these objectives be missed, but the industry will stagnate.

If you look carefully at the investment trajectory in the telecoms industry you can see two clear and concerning trends, which are being further exacerbated by the recent short term economic shocks. Between 2021 and 2022 industry CAPEX declined by 30.37% while industry Foreign Direct Investment declined by 46.9%. This happened at a time when operational expenses have surged and it has been exacerbated more recently by rising interest rates increasing the cost of debt. What that means is that industry expenditure has been diverted from capital (expansion and growth) to operations and that the investment environment has deteriorated. The ultimate manifestation of this has been the recent losses declared by major operators for FY 2023 and HY 2024.

This is further exacerbated by the multiple taxation ecosystem that continues to exist across Nigeria, with operators exposed to 54 different federal/state/local government taxies or levies, many of which are technically illegal. There is a perception that the telecoms industry is highly profitable and so can be treated as a ‘cash cow’ – we are now seeing the impact of this, and even though it is clear operators are suffering, more new taxes continue to be considered by the national assembly.

This is a critical moment. It is an inflection point. If we act, we can establish the platform for growth and the delivery of the government’s ambitious objectives. If we delay, or fail to take the decisions necessary, then the industry is likely to go in the wrong direction. This will not only damage the interests of investors, many of whom are Nigerian, but also impact the emergence of the innovative services and products that ride on telecoms infrastructure.

We believe that decisive action can turn this moment from a crisis into an opportunity. Following extensive research, the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), has developed a clear set of recommendations that can catalyse the next wave of growth in the industry, and for Nigeria. These are:

1. Take immediate action on retail pricing: In the short term, this means an industry wide increase to retail tariffs, which were last reviewed in 2016, when the exchange rate was N373/$ and inflation at 18.4%. No industry can survive indefinitely in a rapid inflation environment and not be allowed to increase retail prices. Regulators have denied all recent requests, despite approvals being granted in other critical industries from power to fuel and transportation.
2. Make industry pricing sustainable: Every price increase requires individual pre-approval from the regulator, which continues to use 2016 pricing guidance. This is an outdated regulatory model that is not representative of global best practice.  ALTON recommends the implementation of a general authorization regime for tariff administration under which the NCC sets general pricing principles and requirements and operators independently align their tariffs with the set pricing requirements through self-certification, eliminating the need for prior approval.
3. Provide concessionary funding to enable CAPEX investment: To continue to drive investment and growth in infrastructure, the industry needs access to concessionary finance. Establishing a dedicated financing facility will help mitigate the impact of recent interest rate increases and enable more investment.
4. Build and expand regulatory capacity: With technology driving rapid change, we need to rapidly upskill the sector’s regulators to ensure the implementation of well structured regulation that provides the right balance between protection and investment incentive. Regulations need to be co-developed more constructively with industry on a regular basis.

If we can deliver each of these things, then we will have established the basis for long-term sustainable growth in the telecoms sector, and through it catalyse dynamic growth in Nigeria’s broader digital economy. This is achievable, and the time is now.

Engr. Adebayo is the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON)

By: Dave Citron, Senior Director, Product Management, Gemini Experiences

The ability to create custom Gems is coming to Gemini Advanced subscribers, and updated image generation capabilities with our latest Imagen 3 model are coming to everyone.

We’re rolling out new features that we previewed at Google I/O. Gems, a new feature that lets you customize Gemini to create your own personal AI experts on any topic you want, are now available for Gemini Advanced, Business and Enterprise users. And our new image generation model, Imagen 3, is now available across Gemini, Gemini Advanced, Business and Enterprise.

Create Gems for customized help — from coding to career advice

Over the coming days, Gemini Advanced, Business and Enterprise subscribers can start creating and chatting with Gems, the custom versions of Gemini first previewed at I/O. You can customize Gems to act as an expert on topics or refine them toward your specific goals. Simply write instructions for your Gem, give it a name, and then chat with it whenever you want.

With Gems, you can create a team of experts to help you think through a challenging project, brainstorm ideas for an upcoming event, or write the perfect caption for a social media post. Your Gem can also remember a detailed set of instructions to help you save time on tedious, repetitive or difficult tasks.

To help you get started, we’re launching a set of premade Gems for different scenarios,

including:

• Learning coach helps you break down complex topics, making them easier to understand.

• Brainstormer gives you easy inspiration — from fresh ideas for a themed party to the perfect gift for an upcoming birthday.

• Career guide unlocks your career potential with detailed plans to refine your skills and achieve your career goals.

• Writing editor can elevate your writing through clear, constructive feedback on everything from grammar to structure.

• Coding partner levels up your coding skills and can help you build projects and learn as you go.

Gems are now rolling out on desktop and mobile devices to Gemini Advanced, Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise users in more than 150 countries in most languages.

Generate high-quality images with Imagen 3

We’ve upgraded our creative image generation capabilities, and over the coming days, we’re bringing our latest image generation model, Imagen 3 to Gemini Apps and expanding its availability for users in all languages.

Imagen 3 sets a new standard for image quality, generating images with just a few words. You can even ask Gemini to create images in various styles — like photorealistic landscapes, textured oil paintings or whimsical claymation scenes.

Imagen 3 brings advanced image generation capabilities that come with built-in safeguards and adhere to our product design principles. Across a wide range of benchmarks, Imagen 3 performs favorably compared to other image generation models available. And as with Imagen 2, we use SynthID, our tool for watermarking AI-generated images.

Our design principles are clear: From start to finish, you remain in control of the creative process. If the initial image you get doesn’t meet your expectations, simply tell Gemini what you’d like to change and it’ll give you a new image.

Over the coming days, we’ll also start to roll out the generation of images of people, with an early access version for our Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise users, starting in English. We’ve worked to make technical improvements to the product, as well as improved evaluation sets, red-teaming exercises and clear product principles.

With Imagen 3, we’ve made significant progress in providing a better user experience when generating images of people. We don’t support the generation of photorealistic, identifiable individuals, depictions of minors or excessively gory, violent or sexual scenes. Of course, not every image Gemini creates will be perfect, but we’ll continue to listen to feedback from early access Gemini Advanced users as we keep improving. We’ll gradually roll this out, aiming to bring it to more users and languages soon.

To be among the first to experience these new features, try Gemini Advanced today or sign up for Gemini for Workspace.