Beginning on a question mode. If former president Obasanjo had taken loans for the transformation of the telecommunication sector in 2001, how much do you think would have been borrowed to achieve this much?

If the defunct NITEL or a government agency were to be the sole telecommunication service provider till today, how efficient do you think the telecommunication system would be today?

Considering the lofty action of former president Obasanjo to liberalise Nigeria's telecommunication sector, which brought and end to the monopoly of NITEL. Nigeria as at 2001, moved from 270,000 mobile phone subscribers to about 200 million in 2021.

With over $75bn investment over 20 years, a contribution of about 17% to the GDP, and provision of direct and indirect jobs for millions of Nigerians, one would appreciate the effort of the paradigm shift in the telecommunication sector.

The government has generated millions of dollars as revenue from the telecommunication sector alone despite the fact that she has invested such a little amount in it. It is such an unfortunate situation that government keeps wasting funds on several other sectors of the economy as a result of implementing wrong policies.

The efficiency in the telecommunication sector keeps improving, while facility upgrade is consistent, putting Nigeria at par with developed nations. Nigeria would probably be considered a developed nation if other sectors of the economy had undergone similar transformation the telecommunication sector experienced.

Former presidents witnessed the transformation brought by implementation of the right policy on telecommunication sector. One would ask, why such a similar policy was not applied to provision of electricity, railway transportation and crude oil refining, just to mention a few.


More than $20bn have been squandered by these leaders on electricity provision, yet, Nigerians pay for darkness, businesses relocate from Nigeria to neighbouring countries with better power supply, contributing to high unemployment in Nigeria.

Surviving businesses generate their own power, leading to high cost of production as this makes some imported products sell cheaper than the locally produced ones. Subsidy on petrol in 2022 is up to 1.4 trillion naira, cost of aviation fuel and diesel have skyrocketed.

China is making so much for providing loans for railway services in Nigeria, yet the railway infrastructure cannot be speedily provided because of so much political constraints. The railway penetration in Nigeria is below 5%, this creates a lacuna for massive investment to reverse the already over reliance on road transportation.


Modern services and infrastructure and abundant jobs can be provided without government's funding if the the government is ready to open up the economy for the right investors.

Nigeria can still get it right, but there is no time