T H I S D AY •THURSDAY,DECEMBER 1, 2016
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BUSINESSWORLD
E-BUSINESS
Revive Dying Businesses with Palliative Measures, ATCON Tells FG Stories by Emma Okonji Worried about the continuous depreciation of the value of naira, which has further weakened to N470 to a dollar, coupled with the scarcity of dollar, the President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Olusola Teniola has said that unless government introduces shortterm palliative measures to address the situation, more businesses are likely going to collapse within a short period of time. Teniola, who raised the alarm while addressing journalists at the weekend in Lagos, on the deplorable state of businesses in the telecoms sector, listed several challenges that telecommunications companies are facing in doing business in Nigeria, while calling on government to expedite action in proffering long-lasting solutions to the issues. According to him, several businesses in the telecoms sector and across other sectors of the Nigerian economy, are shrinking because of the non-availability of dollar to import telecoms equipment, which he said, are usually transacted in dollars. “Aside scarcity of dollar, the rate at
which dollar is converted to naira is so high that it has made nonsense of legitimate transactions that are carried out in dollar denomination. Business owners can no longer make importations because of the scarcity and the high rate of dollar, and businesses are shrinking,” Teniola said. While listing some of the challenges in the telecoms sector, Teniola said most telecoms companies could no longer participate in the auction process of spectrum licences and that those that have already been awarded spectrum licences could not rollout services across the country as a result of the difficult business environment of the country. Responding to questions relating to the licensing of MainOne and IHS as Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) for Lagos and North Central respectively, by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Teniola said their inability to rollout commercial services with the InfraCo licences, was not unconnected with difficult businesses situation in the country, occasioned by forex. He said the current difficult business situation in the country, would continue to discourage foreign investors
from investing in the country, if nothing was done about it. He therefore called on government to introduce short-term palliative measures like tax rebates and tax concession for businesses, especially telecoms businesses that are operational in the country. Addressing the current move by the National Assembly members to increase telecommunications tax bill by 9 per cent, which has passed the first and second readings at the floor of the National Assembly, Teniola said although
government needs money to fund national projects and that such monies are generated through taxes, he however advised government to thread with caution in order not to further shrink telecoms business in the country. According to him, the telecoms operators were already over-burdened with government taxes and levies, insisting that further tax on telecommunications, will exclude about 10 per cent of the population of telecoms subscribers, which is over 20 million, from getting access to
telecommunication services. However, since government needs tax revenue to execute projects, it should consider reducing the proposed introduction of 9 per cent telecommunications tax bill to 1 per cent, which could easily be absorbed by the telecoms operators, Teniola said. “As an advocacy body, ATCON will continue to appeal to government to amend some of its decisions in order to encourage the ease of doing business in the country,” Teniola added.
He welcomed the recent move by the federal government to diversify the Nigerian economy in the area of information and communications technology (ICT) and agriculture, but stressed the need for government to provide the necessary ICT infrastructure that would help to boost development across the country. He said government must deal with the fundamentals in the ICT sector, in order to fully diversify and grow the Nigerian economy.
iSON Restates Commitment to Technology Skills Transfer iSON Technologies, an arm of iSON Group, Africa’s largest IT and ITeS company, with presence in over 25 countries in Africa, has restated its commitment to enhance technology skills transfer in Nigeria, through intensive training. The company has therefore called for greater public –private partnership in IT training, in order to further boost growth and transfer of technology skills in Nigeria. Chief Growth Officer at iSON Technologies, Mr. Akshay Grover, who restated the companies commitment at a press briefing in Lagos recently, said iSON would constantly make itself available to be part of the industry bodies that would develop IT in Nigeria through intensive training that will impact ICT skills in Nigerians, having successfully sponsored a lot of training courses in the county, in line with our business models. According to him, companies, which are supported by iSON in Nigeria, develop their core technologies, while ISON, as a core systems integrator, will load bundle of services on the core technology developed by the various companies and deliver them as services to the clients. Speaking on iSON Technologies investment in Africa, which includes IT training, Grover said the company has invested between $25 million and $50 million across its African business, with plans to increase its investment to $100 million in the next three months, since it is about concluding its business deal to get private equity investment
to grow its business in Africa. He said iSON has currently created over 12,000 jobs across sub Saharan Africa, where it operates, with plans to increases it to 100,000 within the next five years. “At iSON Technologies, we are passionate about deploying tech services to our customers. Over the years, we have become the go-to technology provider for different verticals spanning Telecom and ISP, BFSI, government, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Direct to Home (DTH) and Entertainment, Education and Healthcare,” says, the Chief Operating Officer of iSON Technologies, Mr. Rahul Srivastava. As a systems integrator, iSON provides end-to-end IT services and solutions across Africa. The company’s strong service offerings include consulting, systems integration, managed services and off-shore/on-shore services and cloud services. It has strong links with leading pan-African partners for major companies such as AVAYA, Oracle, Huawei, IBM, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Juniper and Fortinet, among others. “We are extremely excited about the future of technology, especially in a country like Nigeria, where technology inclusion is quite promising and of course we are firmly set to lead the revolution in this market,” Srivastava said. iSON’s clients, according to him, include MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, Standard Chartered Bank, AIICO, AXA Mansard, GT Bank, Chase Bank, UNICAF, Zuku, Toyota Kenya, among others.
REBRANDING ETISALAT EXPERIENCE CENTRE
L-R: Director, Consumer Segment, Etisalat Nigeria, Adeola Dairo; Managing Director, Samsung West Africa, Paul Lee and Vice President, Marketing, Etisalat Nigeria, Adebisi Idowu, at the launch of the Samsung Experience Zone in the Etisalat Experience Centre in Lagos... recently
NESREA: Telecoms Firms Now Next Economy Begins Start-up Comply with Environmental Talent Hunt in Nigeria Next Economy, an initiative of empower African youth in Regulations Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), has said that telecommunication companies no longer flout environmental rules and regulations in the country. Its Director General, Dr. Lawrence Anukam disclosed this in Abuja at the 7th national dialogue on the implementation of national environmental regulations. The DG stated that the telecommunication operators have also realised the need to cooperate with the agency especially on the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) before erecting their base stations. According to him, “Initially, we were a little bit not getting it right but in recent times, most telecom companies are beginning to follow the rules in terms of making sure they conduct the environmental studies, the EIA even before erecting their masts. But we still notice one or two infractions and when we do, we try to follow up appropriate actions.” Ankam added that there have been a lot of improvements better than it was years ago. The DG stated categori-
cally that except the Federal Ministry of Environment, no other institution in the country, including State governments has the mandate to issue the EIA certificate, noting that the agency was established to ensure strict compliance with all environmental laws, guidelines, policies, standards and regulations in the country. Earlier, the Environment Minister, Ms. Amina Mohammed said the regulatory dialogue was to discuss information on how best stakeholders could ensure compliance with environment safety programmes. She stressed: ”Nesrea is an enforcement arm of the federal ministry of environment and is mandated to enforce all environmental laws, guidelines, policies, standards and regulations in Nigeria and to prohibit processes and the use of equipment or technology that undermine environmental quality. “It has responsibility to enforce compliance with provisions of international agreements, protocols, conventions and treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory. But Nesrea cannot carry out these functions effectively without the collaboration and cooperation of other sector players.”
the Dutch Foreign Ministry via the 1% Club, is in Nigeria, in search of talented technology start-ups with valuable ideas and solutions that could address specific societal challenges. Next Economy, which has been in Nigeria for the past three months, mentoring technology start-ups and entrepreneurs, at the weekend, in Lagos, partnered Co-Creation Hub (CC-Hub), a Lagos based technology incubation centre, to organise a Crowdfunding Bootcamp, for the selection of start-ups with commercially viable solutions. Selected start-ups will be linked with international investors that will invest in their solutions and transform their business ideas into multi-million naira business with global recognition. The Bootcamp was divided into sessions and they were considered for pitching & storytelling, social media strategy, the intricacies of creative campaigning, crowdfunding canvas and business modelling. The most successful campaign of the day and the most favourite campaign of the day, is expected to win €500. After the campaign period of 30 days, a jury will reward the top seven startups with extra funding ranging from €5000, €3000, €2000 and €1000. Next Economy aims to
developing the talents and skills required to compete in the 21st century and create a future for themselves. The Next Economy believes in the ability of African youth to dream and bring their concepts to reality thereby changing their lives, and the lives of the people around them. The Next Economy carries out its objectives by promoting three schemes aimed at encouraging employability, entrepreneurship and business skills essential for a successful career and life as an entrepreneur. The schemes are tagged ‘Make It Work’, ‘Get It Started’ and ‘Grow Your Business’ respectively. Currently operating in three African countries including Nigeria, Next Economy collaborates with facilitators already on ground individual countries to carry out its prerogative. For example, in Nigeria The Next Economy partners with CoCreation Hub, Fate Foundation and SOS Village among others. The Next Economy is currently running its programmes in Lagos and Abuja, which admits participants on a quarterly basis. Also in conjunction with Cocreation hub, The Next Economy also has a running partnership programme that mentors and guides early stage start-ups operational for the next three years.