'Active telecom subscribers have increased by 5.9% since 2015' - Minister

folarin okunola

November 1, 2016 10:11 AM

Shittu, using the opportunity, updated his commissioners present about the efforts of his administration to position the ICT sector.

Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu

Nigerian communications minister

The tweets were actually portions of a speech the Minister gave at the opening ceremony of the 4th National Council on Communications Technology (NCCT) meeting which took place in Kaduna last week.

Shittu, using the opportunity, updated his commissioners present about the efforts of his administration to position the ICT sector as a tool for the country to diversify its income stream from being oil dependent.

According to the minister, “Undoubtedly, ICT has a vital role to play in this endeavour.”

While these may seem like interesting and interesting, and maybe even encouraging, but Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) Executive Director, Gbenga Sesan, doesn't think. And he has a point.

ALSO READ: 'FG proposing a bill to charge Nigerians 9% tax on calls, SMS, MMS, others' - Minister

Teledensity is a metric used to report the number of landline telephone connections per 100 people in a specific geographic location.

From his tweets, the minister seems to be saying that every Nigerian owns a telephone. That is impossible and is an even more shaky figure when one considers that the number is based on the figures from the 2006 population census.

Like Mobisola Atolagbe of TechCabal put it, "... a sector that should be portrayed as open for business and foreign investment is being erroneously portrayed as saturated." Sigh.

When will Nigeria get it right?

folarin okunola