Paper presented at the eGYAfrica workshop on better Internet connectivity for research and education in Africa held during 24-26 October 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya

1. Nigeria: Internet Entrepreneurship, A new paradigm for internet
penetration in Africa
Victor U. Chukwuma
Department of Physics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, P. O Box 351, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria
Tel : +2348055075270, Email: victorchukwuma@yahoo.com
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2. Introduction
eGYAfrica is a bottom-up effort by scientists from across the globe but mainly in
Africa who aim to achieve better Internet access for tertiary institutions in Africa.
The plan is to ensure that African scientists corroborate, without a digital divide,
with their colleagues from the rest of the world. eGYAfrica’s strategy is threefold:
1. Influence Policy makers at National and Continental levels
2. Partner with Internet Service Providers
3. Encourage formation of National and Regional Focus Groups to drive (1) and
(2)
In our presentation, we will attempt to show the reason the engagement of
Internet Service Providers, the internet entrepreneurs, is crucial to the
achievement of the goals of eGYAfrica
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3. Introduction
It is argued that Internet penetration in Africa will be mainly driven by the
education sector due to its high demand. However, the education sector
with its genuine needs and demand does not have the resource, for now
in Africa, to deploy its own fibre optics network and must leverage the
private sector. Its our hypothesis that internet penetration in Nigeria and
by implication most of Africa is driven almost solely by a new class of
private sector entrepreneurs who are motivated by the power and
financial rewards of the internet. Given that the future of the internet in
Africa will depend on the growth of this clan, eGYAfrica must point out to
the private sector that if both sectors build synergy it will create
innovation and mutual wealth.
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4. Introduction
Recently, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), held its Telecom
World 2012 Conference at Dubai’s World Trade Center during October 14-15,
2012. This event which was five days of high-level meetings, discussions,
workshops and other activities and networking events held by the 120 delegations,
85 ministers, presidents of telecommunication companies, and numerous experts
addressed key issues in the field of Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) including affordability and availability of internet access to everyone.
At one of the sessions, the Secretary General of the ITU, Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure
highlighted the benefits of broadband deployment, and encouraged African
leaders to invest in broadband development and penetration, insisting that the
future of every nation lies with broadband. The sentiments of Dr. Toure are
congruent with the objectives of eGYAfrica and should strengthen one of our
aforementioned strategies, leaving us with only ways of thinking out of the box to
engage partners we identified in this presentation who will drive us to our goals.
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5. INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS
The Internet Big Picture
World Internet Users and Population Stats
WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS
June 30, 2012
Internet Growth
Population Internet Users Penetration Users %
World Regions Users 2000-
( 2012 Est.) Latest Data (% Population) of Table
Dec. 31, 2000 2012
Africa 1,073,380,925 4,514,400 167,335,676 15.6 % 3,606.7 % 7.0 %
Asia 3,922,066,987 114,304,000 1,076,681,059 27.5 % 841.9 % 44.8 %
Europe 816,372,817 105,096,093 518,512,109 63.5 % 393.4 % 21.5 %
Middle East 223,608,203 3,284,800 90,000,455 40.2 % 2,639.9 % 3.7 %
North America 348,280,154 108,096,800 273,785,413 78.6 % 153.3 % 11.4 %
Latin America / Caribbean 592,994,842 18,068,919 254,915,884 43.0 % 1,310.8 % 10.6 %
Oceania / Australia 35,815,913 7,620,480 24,279,579 67.8 % 218.6 % 1.0 %
WORLD TOTAL 7,012,519,841 360,985,492 2,405,510,175 34.3 % 566.4 % 100.0 %
Source: Internet World Stats 2012 5

6. Internet Usage Statistics for Africa
( Africa Internet Usage and Population Stats )
INTERNET USERS AND POPULATION STATISTICS FOR AFRICA
Pop. %
Population Internet Users, Penetration Users Facebook
AFRICA REGION of
(2012 Est.) 31-Dec-11 (% Population) % World 30-June-12
World
Total for Africa 1,073,380,925 15.3 % 139,875,242 13.3 % 6.2 % 43,404,160
Rest of World 5,939,122,375 84.7 % 2,127,358,500 36.1 % 93.8 % 824,642,360
WORLD TOTAL 7,012,503,300 100.0 % 2,267,233,742 32.7 % 100.0 % 868,046,520
Source:Internet World Stats 2012 6

7. Source: Internet World Stats 2012 7

8. Source:Internet World Stats 2012 8

9. Background to Nigeria’s Telecoms Environment
Strong signs of growth of Internet users in
Nigeria – basic facts Nigeria.
• Most populous African nation
with 150m people
• Nigeria’s broadband market was dominated by
• GDP of ~$180bn
Nitel until 2006, albeit at a very low level. Other
• Over 50 million mobile players had a share of a round 20% of a market
subscribers with only around 20,000 subscribers.
• Regional HQ of major
• At the same time the operators are rolling out
regional, multinational coy’s
national fibre backbone networks to support the
in Africa
ever increasing demand for bandwidth.
• Nigeria has one of the largest Internet user
communities in Africa, about one quarter of
Why Nigeria? them live in Lagos state.
Significant consolidation has • Yahoo has an estimated five million unique users
occurred in Nigeria’s Internet monthly in Nigeria, generating over 250 million
impressions every month. This puts Nigeria
and broadband sector, from
second in Africa after Egypt which has over a
over 400 ISPs three years ago billion impressions created monthly.
to around 150. New powerful
• Nigeria has overtaken South Africa to become the
players from the fixed-wireless continent’s largest mobile market with now over
and mobile network operator 75 million subscribers, and yet market
camps have entered the penetration stands at only around 50% in early
market with 3G mobile and 2010.
advanced wireless broadband
services such as WiMAX
Source:Mobitel 9

10. Internet Statistics
Internet Users & Penetration rate – 1996; 1998; 2000 – 2011
Note: Internet users are those accessing the network from school, university or work, as well as from individual
Household or business accounts. Subscribers are those who pay for Internet access.
Source:Mobitel 10

11. Internet Services Providers
Fixed ISP
Mobile
(Fixed Wired & (Broadband,
(GSM, CDMA)
wireless) VSAT, ADSL)
GSM:
MTN, Airtel, Glo, Etisala
Direct-on-
t
pc, IPNX, Swift
CDMA: Nitel Networks, Netcom,
Starcomms, Multilinks-
Linkserve, Mobitel
Telkom, Visafone, Reltel
(Zoom)
Phone & Internet Phone & Internet Phone & Internet
Services Services Services
Source:Mobitel 11

12. Main One is a communications services company providing open access wholesale international
connectivity and broadband capacity to countries in West Africa. Main One built and own the first
privately owned submarine cable over a distance of 7,000 kilometres along the West African coastline,
with initial landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal. The Cable currently delivers high speed
bandwidth of 1.92 terabits per second (but has been proven to provide capacity of at least 4.96 tbps) with
branching units in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal and Ivory Coast. Main One provides open access,
wholesale, international broadband capacity to countries along the western coast of Africa.
Main One is present at various internet exchange points both regionally and internationally. We are
available to interconnect at
 Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN)
 Ghana Internet Exchange (GIX)
 London Internet Exchange (LiNX)
As a result MainOne is able to provide shorter routes, lower latency service and bandwidth scalability at
affordable prices.
Source: Main One Cable Company 12

13. Partners for internet Penetration
Source:Mobitel/ Main One Cable Company 13

14. Main One Points of Presence
Source: Main One Cable Company 14

15. Source: Main One Cable Company 15

16. 1 Network Infrastructure: National Data Network
Globacom owns a robust infrastructure and is the only operator in Nigeria with integrated
domestic and International network.
• Globacom high speed optic fibre network spans more than 10000 km covering almost entire
Nigeria. The network covers all the major cities– Lagos, Ibadan, Benin, Warri, PortHarcourt,
Abuja, Zaria, Kaduna, Kano, Abeokuta etc.
• The network is configured in multiple ‘self-healing’ rings to ensure error free service.
• Besides this, Globacom is establishing a Metro ring across all the 20 major cities of Nigeria.
• The backbone and metro rings of Globacom are equipped with Single Mode 96 F Optic Cable
with ITU-T G.652 standard. It is armoured cable for extra protection from rodent.
Source:Globacom Nigeria 16

17. 1 Fiber Network
Source: Globacom Nigeria 17

18. 1 Microwave Network
Source: Globacom Nigeria 18

19. MTNN’s backbone microwave and fibre optics cable transmission
infrastructure
Source:MTNN 19

20. Network Infrastructure
Source: Phase 3 Telecom 20

21. NITEL
Source:Mobitel 21

22. Internet Usage and Growth
470,068
• Internet usage is growing rapidly.
• Existing operators are aggressively expanding even though
quality of service is poor.
• Glo sold out 60,000 in one month but was forced to recall
due to poor performance.
218,309
165,000
141,266 132,365
85,000
70,000
40,000
25,000 20,000
5,000
Starcomms MTN dongle Multilinks 21st century Zoom (Reltel) Visafone ipNX Swift MTN (VGC)Cobranet (UGO) GLO
Source:Mobitel 22

23. Source:Mobitel 23

24. 2012
Source:Mobitel 24
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media, Sep 2010; mobitel , 2012

25. The Way Forward: Partners
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26. The Way Forward: Nigeria Broadband Forum
• The Nigerian Communications Commission held the maiden Nigeria Broadband Forum, with
the theme “Demand as catalyst for broadband services in Nigeria,” on 26thJuly 2012 in Lagos.
The Forum was motivated by the need to deepen internet and data penetration in order to
further drive economic and market growth in the country, which will accentuate the level of
demand for broadband services that would accelerate nation-wide deployment.
• The Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU, Dr. Hamadoun I.
Toure encouraged Nigeria to urgently establish and follow through transparent and effective
regulatory framework and policy for broadband development in order to achieve massive
broadband development.
• The Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, in her
opening speech, assured the audience of the Federal Government’s support on universal
access and national broadband deployment, while advising the NCC to determine
appropriate pricing in order to foster affordability of the broadband internet services at the
grass root levels.
• The Executive Vice-Chairman/CEO of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah in his keynote address,
showcased the NCC proposed workplan and announced the adoption of Equal Access Model
to facilitate rapid development of Broadband in Nigeria, noting that this model has been
successfully implemented in countries like Singapore and Australia.
Source: Nigeria Broadband Forum 26

27. Government Policy and NCC Regulation
Policy Regulatory
The following are policy considerations for Government: Economic, Legal and Regulatory framework to
a. Government to provide broad policy framework for facilitate Broadband national growth include:
the development of infrastructure that will support a. NCC to provide incentives for broadband
the growth and access to broadband services at deployment and penetration in Nigeria.
affordable cost to consumers.
b. NCC to address Spectrum congestion through
b. Strong government and political commitment
variety of available options.
towards broadband provision is imperative.
c. Provision of incentives by government will stimulate
c. NCC to facilitate infrastructure sharing for
investments in Broadband deployment similar to the efficiency through innovative models.
tax exemption granted to GSM operators at the d. 4G frequency spectrum will need to be licensed
inception of GSM mobile services in Nigeria. by 2015.
d. Government to facilitate access to low cost funding e. Develop innovative spectrum optimization and
and financing of long term Broadband deployment harmonisation scheme.
loan facility by the Commercial Banks. Government
intervention on high bank interest rate is required to
encourage investment in broadband.
e. Government to drive the development and creation
of local content in broadband service delivery and
create a venture capital fund for software
entrepreneurs.
f. Build a business case with states and local
governments to stress the need and importance for
right of way for the provision of telecommunication
services in a mutually beneficial approach.
Source:Nigeria Broadband Forum 27

28. DEMAND DRIVERS, COMPETITION AND TARIFF
a. Government to drive demands for Broadband Services through extensive use of the internet and on-line
data services for immigration services, Company Registrations, Tax filings, Customs and Excise Duties
Services, contract administration, Universities Admission processes and selections, etc.
b. Demand for Broadband identified in the various multi-sectors such as; health, e-commerce, education,
aviation, banking, maritime activities etc.
c. Need for regulatory framework to drive competition and sustainability in the various layers of the
proposed model.
d. Stimulate content demand through innovative applications, services and products.
e. Increase in Broadband infrastructure will drive innovation for new businesses and SME growth.
f. Different categories of services should be developed to suite the different needs of various customers.
g. Broadband would facilitate the growth and availability of innovative and evolving ICT services which will
increase the national GDP.
h. The rapid deployment and availability of broadband will lead to the introduction of innovative services.
i. Deployment of digital on-line services in at least 20 Government ministries by first quarter 2013 will
increase demand for bandwidth.
j. Need to bridge the huge demand gap for broadband services in Nigeria.
k. Connecting homes to Broadband
Source: Nigerian Broad band Forum 28

29. What is 4G?
The 4G
Provided multi-media
support
features, spread
spectrum
transmission and
increased data
A narrow band digital transfer speeds
network that provided
digital data services as
3G
SMS and Email
Developed as a narrow
band analog mobile
technology that
facilitated voice calls
2G
1G
1981 1992 2002 2009
Source:Mobitel 29

30. Emerging Trend for Wireless Broadband
Source:Mobitel 30
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media, Sep 2010, Mobitel

31. THANK YOU ALL
Acknowledgement
I am deeply grateful to Ken Esenwah of Mobitel Nigeria for materials used in this presentation. I also thank the management of glo, Main One Cable
Company, MTN, Mobitel and Phase 3 Telecoms for the the network maps that were used in preparation of this presentation
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