Etisalat Nigeria, the fourth entrant into the GSM
market in Nigeria has promised to increase its
involvement in local innovation that will further
drive the telecoms sector.


Public Relations Manager at Etisalat Nigeria,
Chineze Amanfo, made the promise in Lagos at
the quarterly seminar organised by the Nigeria
Information and Communications Technology
Reporters' Association (NITRA).


The seminar, which was sponsored by Etisalat
Nigeria, had its theme: "Engendering Local
Innovation in the Telecoms Sector."


According to Amanfo, Etisalat has been at the
forefront, promoting local innovation in the
telecoms industry, and promised that the
company would do more in engendering
participation in local innovation in the telecoms
industry, especially now that the subscriber
number across all networks is increasing daily,
with its current figure put at 142 million active
subscribers. She emphasised the need to further
grow the telecoms sector through capacity
building and local innovation solutions. According
to her, Etisalat is partnering with Ahmadu Bello
University (ABU), Zaria in the training
telecommunication engineers, which she said,
would enhance local capacity building in the
sector.


President of NITRA, Mr. Emma Okonji said Nigeria
is today recognised as the largest economy in
Africa with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of
over $500 billion, a figure arrived after the
rebasing exercise that took place last year.
He explained that the activities of
telecommunications, no doubt, contributed
immensely in helping Nigeria to achieve this feat.


Considering the growth in telecommunications in
Nigeria, with over 190 million connected lines on
all networks and over 142 million of these lines
active, and with a teledensity that has surpassed
101 per cent, Okonji challenged telecoms
operators to develop local capacity and engender
local innovations in the sector.


"In order to build upon the current achievements
in telecoms, NITRA has taken it as a point of duty
to the industry to use its quarterly seminar series,
as veritable platform, to advance discussions on
the need to promote local innovations in the
telecoms industry. We therefore consider the
topic for this seminar apt and timely as it gives us
the lee-way to discuss issues around the use of
local content and local innovations in creating
relevant ICT devices and solutions that will drive
further development in the telecoms sector,"
Okonji said.


Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene
Juwah, who was represented at the seminar by
NCC Commissioner, Dr. Mike Onyia, said: "From a
regulatory point of view, innovation is key to the
telecom industry. After the initial discoveries and
development in the telecom sector, it is innovation
that has catapulted growth in the sector to the
height that it is achieved today. Innovation in the
industry is also an attribute that is not exclusive to
nations or states. The ready examples of
uncountable number of apps developed in
different parts of the world, riding on all available
networks or platforms, shows that innovation is
driving the industry."


According to Juwah, the Commission has adopted
technology neutrality in its licensing process. The
reason for this is to provide opportunity for
creativity and innovation in the provision of
services. Restriction of service to specific
technologies may not allow for innovation.


Provision of choice with the entry of multiple
providers, and encouraging competition using
regulatory tools is also designed to encourage
local innovation in the provision of services. It is
well known that innovation provides mutual
benefit to bother the service provider and
consumer of the service, Juwah said.


He promised that NCC would continue to
encourage innovations in all aspects of the
industry, as it is appropriate to predict that when
broadband services become very much available
in Nigeria as planned, it will also come with
inevitable push for more innovations in the ways
services are delivered today.