Nigerians need trust for growth, businesses confidence – Ekeh

Mr. Leo-Stan Nnamdi Ekeh, is chairman of Zinox Group, an indigenous Technology Company in Nigeria as well as Buyright Africa Dotcom Limited. In this interview with TONY NWAKAEGHO, he x-rayed why lack of trust, others are the bane of technology growth and development in Nigeria. Excerpts:

What is the place of technology in this country?

So many Nigerians come out of world class institutions every year. Though we have the same training like every other person in the world; we are building it but we need to taste it. We have brilliant kids out of these local institutions, even the local companies are not doing very badly. We have whiz kids who are churning out applications, hard wares. Today we have telecommunications. Are they not Nigerians that are maintaining it? So why do you condemn them? Telecommunications sector is quite efficient. The biggest problem in the country first is trust. We need to use technology to delete some of these bad names. There is no need putting advert in the newspapers when they don’t have a product. Putting the advert is when people taste your product, they look for you. Every entrepreneur in the world is looking for a cheaper call Centre. That is what we have. We have English as a power, people with smart brains, smarter than China. The government must help the youth to survives. We need to impart that survival culture. And until we have it we have a problem.

ICT is key to development of the economy, how far have we utilized this?

It is like telling my grandfather to be digital. We are the interface between the digital age and the analogue age. And we are in transition from digital to analogue. We are on the right path and it is an incubation period that this country is going through politically, economically, but what is critical is that technology has made knowledge available to those who are interested. Look at the information they push to you on What Sapp if you read the information you will know all about the global community. These were nonexistence in the past.

The operators are talking of taking off the OTT from their plan, maybe because of the revenue. Is it not going to be counterproductive; what is your take on this?

The Telco sector, it’s a very sensitive issue because they are highly regulated. But what is critical to the country is that we must put those infrastructure and policies that will help a man that will need the service, who can afford it. There is no country in the world where everybody is a rich man. You talk about how many people are successful today and how many people will be successful in the future. Do you have a clear road map? If I were the government the first gift I will give to Nigerians is to put the country on a wireless cloud. So Internet becomes a right at a very cheap cost because it is the platform for learning and communication. So if today people are paying N500 per month and they have high speed Internet they will explore the world. You don’t need to go to America or to Britain, because this is the magic of India.

What is the role of the law makers in all of this?

The law makers are trying their little best based on the content they have. If you are an analogue law maker how can you decide the digital future? What they do all over the world is to employ people who are knowledge and digital driven who will advise them. That you didn’t come into the world in the last 20 years doesn’t make you irrelevant, but are you conscious to upgrade? So if you put a law maker who is not digital, it is not a priority to him. And that is why the country is mortgaged by oil, which is nature, nature mortgages you and this is the century people should utter their destinies. Change your story and the only way you can change your story today is through technology. These are some of the deficiencies, but should we lose hope the answer is no. This is the glorious nation in the world with population, with smart guys who can copy. I can tell you in the next 10 years this will be the greatest country to live and that is what people like us believed and are here.

Have stakeholders like you been able to talk to the government on the right way to go?

Yes, we will continue to talk to the government, but you know it depends on what their priorities are.

What is you take about the local content being clamoured for in the IT industry in Nigeria?

Local content, today we are shortchanged and there is nothing we can do. Your grandfather is analogue, your own father is analogue and as a matured citizen you will be struggling for them to understand what they are talking about. This is where we are coming from. Have there been any change in the country? The answer is no. The only local content talked about in this country is the oil sector where there is no pre-qualification for you to enter. If you want to go into oil sector and the country sees you as a successful person you can get it. So local content in this country is covered by oil, but we started working before the oil.
Local Content is said in this country for political reasons. Information is key. Any government you bring here will tell you about local content, but what is he using? What is his child using? You say you want to raise the Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR), but when I pay my tax, you use the money to patronise my competitors. They get the budget and disappear. Local content will happen in serious acceptance when the people of your age who are tech savvy starts leading this country.
The biggest shopping Centre in Nigeria is ShopRite, but in South Africa it wouldn’t be recognized; that is a bungalow. 10 years ago it was like an exhibition Centre with people coming from Badagry to come and see ShopRite, but since three years back a lot of people come there to see and for different activities. The Incubation Centres weren’t there in Nigeria but it became a reality under Mrs Omobola Johnson, former minister of Communication Technology. A lot of people are frustrated, but people who read computer in this age are smarter in the market place. The language we were using then is obsolete. You see a graduate who only five years old is telling you that his pay is N500, 000 last. The local content I will say will happen unconsciously because they will tell you it is real and it’s cheaper. I saw it in India where they continue to read and you will see someone who read chemical engineering, Agric economics, is a physician, psychologist and an architect and is employable compared to where you have one degree because where you need eight persons you find one capable person that will fill the space.