3G Service is an Unnecessary Luxury - Leo Stan Ekeh

[Richard Akindele]

The Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Zinox Technologies,foremost Computer Manufacturers in Nigeria, Mr Leo Stan Ekeh has declared that the proposed introduction of the 3G telephony service in Nigeria is an unnecessary luxury that is not needed for now

Mr Ekeh who stated this in an Interview with THISDAY in Lagos reiterated that the service is driven by imported technology and will amount to wastage of the nation's limited resources .He stated that it will amount to moving so much foreign currency outside the country thus weakening the naira. "Now if you deploy 3G today, few people will use it but it defeats our money seriously because a lot of it will go out because the technology comes from abroad. I mean what do we specially need 3G for right now, We need the minimum in the third world because the support cost is expensive, we must pay for it . We should pay less attention to extreme luxury in technology." declared Ekeh.

He stated that the fact that 3G is a sophisticated service is not a good enough reason to deploy it at this time in the country. "I can tell you as a technology person that 3G is not necessary right now, I agree with the sophistication, it clears a lot of doubts but what we are looking at is the minimum. What's the per capital income in Nigeria? So why do you deploy the highest technology when 98% of the people don't even have an idea of the basic. 3G even in Europe is not a very great success at the moment. 3G I think should be in Nigeria from 2010, not now. I mean, lets get few things right. 3G needs sophisticated technology to drive it and you are talking about deficiencies, each way the consumer pays for it. So what is special to the consumer about 3G.We are talking about minimal survival level, in a population of about 120 to 130 million. You are talking about the density of 20 million. So we've not scratched the surface yet" He stated.

Mr Ekeh who pioneered the made in Nigeria brand of Zinox computers that has grown into a formidable brand, gave kudos to the Nigerian Communications Commission NCC for its effective regulation of the ICT sector. "If you are talking about reforms in this country. The first success is the NCC, if NCC was corrupt, and not being sincere to the economy, themselves and the to the ICT sector, the sector could have collapsed, but that is one critical sector that we have seen and NCC can claim the success. That is the first achievement of the Obasanjo Government and it is on the basis of this achievement that other people and sectors are coming up"He asserted..

On the challenges facing the ICT sector,, Ekeh noted that although the sector is one of the highest profit yielding sectors, it has a lot of infrastructural deficiencies to contend with.. The issue of power he noted is one huge challenge in the sector. He stated that if a company has to employ the use of a generator set to every mast sub station, it a very expensive venture because there are automatic change over. He stated that in countries like Ghana,where electricity is available for 24 hours, operators don't bother with those headaches. "There was a time two months ago, when for almost a month we didn't operate cause we lost two big generating sets, all brand new in one month. One caught fire before and God saved us and the place was not burnt down.The other overheated and burst into flames. How can you compete with somebody paying in Ghana were government electricity is cheap.That is why people are not going into manufacturing because the headache is too much, from impor tation to exportation is a problem,we have a lot of security agents here and there demanding that you pay one fee or the other to export." Another challenge for the sector is that of the Ports he stated. He added that inspite of the efforts of President Obasanjo to reform the Ports,not much has been done." I think they are blackmailing Mr President unnecessarily because that is where we have a great income. He's done a lot to change the ports, but I can tell you till today not much has been done. Because you import your goods and they charge you extra one thousand five hundred dollars, they call it congestion charge because it is Nigeria. Then there is the fuel charge because of oil price that goes up and down. Now it arrives here ,that there is no space the vessel weight is loaded from the neighbouring country. The vessel owner has charged them already so the demurrage is charged on you already. Finally to offload your containers, if there is no enough cranes. Where you nee d a minimum of 30 cranes to work with but then only two is available and half of the time they might break and you can't carry containers on your head and you can't even locate your containers. Now when you locate your container, there are so many containers that will have to be moved and the vessels are coming every minute and while your container is stuck there they are charging you demurrage for delaying you ,its good business for them, because the more they delay you the more money you pay. So at the end of the day who pays for it. We are discouraged in doing business because our manufacturers are there because that is what is carrying your raw materials. Two it becomes too expensive, there is a global price to pay, so Zinox has to pay smaller profit for the goods compared to other international organizations"

One the disasters of the problem of the ports he asserted is that " most times we receive those components and they become bad, and these are electronic gadgets or chips and they have specific temperatures for storage. There can be extreme temperature, it can be too hot or cold. So it's a loss.Even for the manufacturers to replace the bad ones, you still have to go through the same thing because there is nothing like free duty for one or two items. So these are issues in the country." Lamented Ekeh.

Another challenge he noted is that of man power. According to the Zinox Boss, because of the educational system we have in Nigeria, enough qualified or skilled manpower is minimal.

On the state of the sector in the next five years,Ekeh stated Africa as an emerging market is just opening its doors and out of 150 million population, 20 million is a net and the 20 is not 20 citizens or 20 individuals because some people have five phones and the number counts, so when you really look at it with the population it could be fifteen million individuals are holding 20 million phones. An average person in this country he noted has has two phones and some have five so there is still a large gap and in Nigeria alone it is a big market as the capital income continues to grow ,multiple signatory, it becomes a necessity. If you don't have it you and your driver has no need but yo,u have to buy for your driver to reach you. The telecoms industry in the next five years he asserted will become more profitable, and like the oil sector in Nigeria will continue to boom.

On where he intends to take Zinox in the next five years,Ekeh declared that Zinox is guided by a clear road map which was defined from day one. He added that in spite of logistics problems faced by Zinox,it has not derailed from its set goals.He decried the problems of ports congestion which he noted occasionally destroys Zinox's components. "Even though we don't have a lot of control over problems like that of the Ports, we will continue to read and follow our road map, because we have a script which we call the business plan. Now we continue to sharpen it because it will likely save the situation.

Now I can say so far so good, sincerely we expected Nigeria where we are today or where we are going to be tomorrow, we should have been there two years ago, because we did our forecasting, we talked to government, their were a lot of promises and investment as to IT infrastructural development in the ministries . This has not really happened, government is the biggest spender and they are not on connecting heavily. So what do you do, you need to create a budget. Like the economy today is budget driven. You need to create a budget, except you have a budget you cant stand, but Obasanjo has done very well in the last five years but I am sure he is determined to finish up with a good record. But I pray the next man who takes over from Obasanjo will be much younger, will be IT driven, so that people like us can benefit.

This is what is lacking at the moment but in the next five years I am sure Zinox will have met it's expected target. .He reiterated that " Our expectation is that 50% of the country will become computer literate by 2010. The government should be digitally driven. We launched Zinox to computerize Nigeria programme, like the media houses who don't usually use laptop but today they have laptops and they are digitally trained and believe me today as Mr President is giving his speech the place is wireless and while he is talking we reveal the information down to the news room. Before this was not possible, and you had to start faxing, the line is not clear but today he/ she has a record of what the other person has sent and if something goes wrong and somebody says it is you then you will show a copy of what you sent. It is cheaper, faster, accurate and cost effective. Today you are communicating intelligently and effectively, no arguments." .This is what technology is all about" He asserted.

This Day.

[Richard Akindele]

God bless you my brother.

Mr Leo Stan Ekeh, you are a very informed and logical thinker. We need more people like you in Nigeria.

At the moment, there are too many people with authority on how our money is spent, but who don't have the slightest idea what Nigeria needs.

These no-good planners continue to keep Nigeria behind, because their actions lead to so much waste in our system.

I wrote an article (viewtopic.php?t=357) about how to do away with census in Nigeria. Read my analysis, and how this major step can be accomplished with as little expense as possible. In fact, my anaylysis came to a paltry $50,000. The same program if sub-contracted to foreign agents would cost tens of millions of dollars.

It's so sad for Nigeria that the people who know planning, can't get in government, and the people in government don't know planning.

[XSi]

You and I both know that this issue cannot be resolved in this generation. Only dull people get into the government, only smart at "spending money".

[fw12]

Obasanjo seems to be making a lot of promises lately though. Although nobody knows if anything is really being accomplished.

Hardly any week goes by without hearing about some new plan to make Nigeria better. Unfortunately, most of those plans aren't very benefial to starving citizens.

For example, how is 1 million laptops a benefit to Nigerians, when the same people can't afford 3 square meals a day?

The nation has misplaced priorities. Give people stable electricity, running water, good sewer system, solid healthcare, combat crime, etc. Only then would hi-tech make sense. It's like chasing a PhD degree, when we haven't even graduated primary school.