‘e-magazine conceived to guide telecoms investors’
The former Vice- President, Nigerian Society of Engineers, and a consultant to the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, highlights the motives behind the establishment of a free e-magazine, in this interview with Jonah Iboma
Cyberschuul news has become an industry reference as an electronic news bulletin for the Nigerian telecoms and IT industry. How did it begin? The conception of CyberschuulNews dates back to the deregulation of the telecoms industry in Nigeria. It was an activist's response to support and promote deregulation and to assist investors from the perspective of private sector initiative and innovation outside the domain of government. You will agree with me that one of the key objectives of telecoms deregulation is to attract investments to the sector. The critical need of every investor is information. CyberschuulNews was conceived to publish industry information in a manner that would service investors. Useful information is indispensable to the growth of any industry. CyberschuulNews was also conceived as a family of e-publications, which can be a vehicle to motivate the world to do business with Nigeria in telecoms. It is also a platform to network for the advancement of human capacity building from skills development through job placement to expertise mobility. We are excited that this medium is playing that role for which it was conceived. How does it achieve these objectives?It reviews industry events, makes intelligent and informed forecasts, and publishes information upon which investment decisions could be based. As I said, the typical investor places high premium on abundance of information. You probably know that between 1991 and today, we have been involved in telecoms industry research on the average of one topical research per year. These research works are either carried out for some of our private sector clients or the Nigerian Communications Commission – the telecoms regulator in Nigeria, or for ourselves and some in collaboration with others. All these are telecoms focused research for different kinds of purposes. This would tell you that we are in the position to make available pool of information, which those who want to invest can rely upon. While the e-magazine publishes some for its audience, some are offered to those investors and users who need them. And the publication is free.You instituted and pioneered the Most Promising Website Designers Competition which provided the platform for choosing the Nigeria's IT Youth ambassador. Has this project been rested?That initiative was not designed as a lifelong project. It was conceived to achieve certain objectives and as soon as that expectation was met, we rested it. Its purpose has been served and we have rested it. The main objective was to make the point that in Nigeria, we can produce the best. We made that point very successfully.
We wanted Nigerians, the government, and its agencies in particular, to realise that the best can come from within, and that government should take notice that it can achieve the best in the industry by using available indigenous skills available either at home or in the diaspora. Quite frankly, and happily too, there has been tremendous improvement in that regard and one must commend the Federal Government and relevant agencies in the sector for this. I think they listened to us and we have no reason to still repeat that campaign as if we were not heard. More so, there are other problems that needed to be addressed for the benefit of the growth of the industry. Do you know that several youths looked up to that programme as very motivating and would have liked it to continue running? That may be true. But we still have several other programmes that can motivate the youth even more. You may wish to know that we have been involved in campaigns that are focusing on other areas of critical need for the IT sector. Currently, we are involved in some projects designed to motivate the government and its agencies to have a change of focus of human capacity building and education from 'certificating persons' to making the individual functional, productive and useful to society. These also include plans to make the government at various levels to clearly understand that we need to harness the skills and inherent competences of the physically challenged among us, in various ways. Recently, the Nigerian Communications Satellite has been angling to be allowed to enter into last mile telecoms services. Do you think such a move is informed? If it is for them to operate telecommunications services, it is wrong to license them to do that. Anybody who wants to operate telecom service must put his own money into it not our money The promise that the company would be privatised is not enough to qualify them for a licence. Let it to be privatised before it seeks a licence. You don't license an operator on the basis of what you think it is intending to be, but on what it is.
Cyberschuul news has become an industry reference as an electronic news bulletin for the Nigerian telecoms and IT industry. How did it begin? The conception of CyberschuulNews dates back to the deregulation of the telecoms industry in Nigeria. It was an activist's response to support and promote deregulation and to assist investors from the perspective of private sector initiative and innovation outside the domain of government. You will agree with me that one of the key objectives of telecoms deregulation is to attract investments to the sector. The critical need of every investor is information. CyberschuulNews was conceived to publish industry information in a manner that would service investors. Useful information is indispensable to the growth of any industry. CyberschuulNews was also conceived as a family of e-publications, which can be a vehicle to motivate the world to do business with Nigeria in telecoms. It is also a platform to network for the advancement of human capacity building from skills development through job placement to expertise mobility. We are excited that this medium is playing that role for which it was conceived. How does it achieve these objectives?It reviews industry events, makes intelligent and informed forecasts, and publishes information upon which investment decisions could be based. As I said, the typical investor places high premium on abundance of information. You probably know that between 1991 and today, we have been involved in telecoms industry research on the average of one topical research per year. These research works are either carried out for some of our private sector clients or the Nigerian Communications Commission – the telecoms regulator in Nigeria, or for ourselves and some in collaboration with others. All these are telecoms focused research for different kinds of purposes. This would tell you that we are in the position to make available pool of information, which those who want to invest can rely upon. While the e-magazine publishes some for its audience, some are offered to those investors and users who need them. And the publication is free.You instituted and pioneered the Most Promising Website Designers Competition which provided the platform for choosing the Nigeria's IT Youth ambassador. Has this project been rested?That initiative was not designed as a lifelong project. It was conceived to achieve certain objectives and as soon as that expectation was met, we rested it. Its purpose has been served and we have rested it. The main objective was to make the point that in Nigeria, we can produce the best. We made that point very successfully.
We wanted Nigerians, the government, and its agencies in particular, to realise that the best can come from within, and that government should take notice that it can achieve the best in the industry by using available indigenous skills available either at home or in the diaspora. Quite frankly, and happily too, there has been tremendous improvement in that regard and one must commend the Federal Government and relevant agencies in the sector for this. I think they listened to us and we have no reason to still repeat that campaign as if we were not heard. More so, there are other problems that needed to be addressed for the benefit of the growth of the industry. Do you know that several youths looked up to that programme as very motivating and would have liked it to continue running? That may be true. But we still have several other programmes that can motivate the youth even more. You may wish to know that we have been involved in campaigns that are focusing on other areas of critical need for the IT sector. Currently, we are involved in some projects designed to motivate the government and its agencies to have a change of focus of human capacity building and education from 'certificating persons' to making the individual functional, productive and useful to society. These also include plans to make the government at various levels to clearly understand that we need to harness the skills and inherent competences of the physically challenged among us, in various ways. Recently, the Nigerian Communications Satellite has been angling to be allowed to enter into last mile telecoms services. Do you think such a move is informed? If it is for them to operate telecommunications services, it is wrong to license them to do that. Anybody who wants to operate telecom service must put his own money into it not our money The promise that the company would be privatised is not enough to qualify them for a licence. Let it to be privatised before it seeks a licence. You don't license an operator on the basis of what you think it is intending to be, but on what it is.
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