100 Days in Office: ICT stakeholders lauds Sanwo-Olu’s contribution to the sector

Some stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector on Friday lauded Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s contributions to the sector in the first 100 days of his second tenure in office.

The stakeholders made their commendations in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Saturday.

They said that assessing the administration’s 100 days performance in the ICT sector would be underestimating the efforts of the governor, because most of his policies and activities are to become beneficial in the long-term.

NAN recalls that the Lagos State Governor was re-elected for a second term in office on March 18, 2023.

Ayowande Adalemo, the Founder, Wave5Wireless Ltd., an internet service provider, said that justice would not be done, if assessing the 100 days of Lagos State Governor Sanwo-Olu’s tenure in office was done in the short term because his plan for the sector are long-term.

Adalemo said that the governor had done pretty well, having looked at the critical aspect of Lagos economy and with his expressed intention to turn Lagos to a trillion-dollar economy.

He said that among the governor’s achievements, he had partnered with some companies like Wave5Wireless for broadband access for Lagosians.

“This is very critical and very important, so judging by his 100 days in office is like a scratch on what he really wants to do and achieve in the ICT sector.

“I think I will rather judge him by what I see in his long-term plan. For instance, the Lagos blue line rail system is here and active, and has WiFi on it.

“This tells you that Sanwo-Olu is looking around and aiming for an integrated ecosystem, where everything works together to provide services to millions of Lagosians,” Adalemo said.

Mr Wole Abu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Liquid Intelligent Technologies Nigeria (LITN), said that Lagos under Gov. Sanwo-Olu was a business-friendly environment for the ICT sector.

Abu said that the contributions of the government to the sector had mostly been in form of policies, adding that its policies had been friendly on the operators in the sector.

He cited the Dig Once Policy as being well-implemented in Lagos State with no problem whatsoever.

NAN reports that the Dig Once Policy seeks to promote installation of ready-made buried fibre conduit for seamless fibre deployment in the country.

Some of its objective include provisioning of shared infrastructure for existing internet service providers and entrants; promotion of installation of ready-made fibre conduit for broadband deployment and reduction of the barriers to entry for internet service providers.

According to Abu, one could just go to the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance & Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA), a one stop-shop and have one’s fibre needs addressed.

He noted that the administration was also doing well in terms of regulating telecoms infrastructure around Lagos.

Abu, however, noted that the biggest challenge for the administration was that, typically in Nigeria, the government always took decisions from the revenue perspective, before they pass it onto the industry.

He said, “there should be more engagement and dialogue before government formulates policies, and government should see its role as an enabler of business and not advisories of business.

“If that is done, we will work together to make life better for everyone. Government is basically public sector, while we are the private sector and we have a shared objective to make life better for everybody.’’

The LITN boss said that communication between both private and public sectors and access to relevant government officials, transparency in processes should be improved upon, even though what existed was good and commendable.

“Once that is done, then the rest are normal business challenges

On his part, the General Managing Director, VDT Communication, Mr Abiodun Ominiyi, said that much could not be said about the Sanwo-Olu’s administration because of the peculiarities of the telecoms sector.

“Most of the gains and challenges of the ICT Sector can be directed or attributed to the federal administration,” Ominiyi said.