ABUJA - None of the telecommunications and ICT companies in Nigeria was listed in the 10 ‘winning’ ICT pilot projects of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO)for rural connectivity this year.
This is in contrast with the country’s position as the leading market for telecommunications in Africa , with 55.2 million phone users, according to statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Reports say that the top 10 winning ICT pilot project was published under the Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Report Executive Summary, 2008.
The latest report shows how policies, trends and initiatives have either impeded or facilitated the process of improving rural connectivity in the 18 African Commonwealth countries.
The rating was based on the significance and relevant progress made in rural connectivity.
The report identified 10 promising ICT pilots already in operation, which the CTO proposed for large-scale adaptation and replication across Commonwealth Africa through Public Private Peoples Partnerships (PPPP).
Pilot projects from companies in Uganda, Ghana, South Africa , Mauritius and Tanzania were rated high in providing affordable telecommunication access to rural dwellers in areas where little or no telecommunications infrastructure existed.
Best practices and lessons learnt were taken from five selected, non-African, comparator countries, Australia ,Canada, India , Malaysia and the United States.
The report also cited a mobile phone money transfer scheme in Kenya , M-PESA, as one of the lead pilot projects.
The service offers opportunity for subscribers to send cash to other mobile phone users by SMS without any need for a new handset or SIM card.
“The service has attracted more than 1.6 million subscribers and transferred over 148 million dollars via SMS in just its first year of operation.
“M-PESA is also an affordable service, costing an average of one dollar to send
and/or receive money, therefore proving a major source of competition for other more traditional money transfer agencies.
“The service is also faster and more secure than other means of money transfer, ” it said.
Established in 1901, the CTO seeks to provide to the developing countries, the
effective means to help bridge the digital divide in the specific areas of telecommunications, IT, broadcasting and the Internet.
This October, Nigeria hosted the 6th annual CTO Forum 2008.
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