Deployment of ICT Will Reduce Poverty in Nigeria, Says Danbatta

Emma Okonji

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, the Nigerian Government is using the potency of Information and Communications Technology (ICTs) to tackle poverty in the country.

Danbatta, who made the disclosure during an interactive session with participants of Senior Executive Course (SEC) No. 38, 2016 at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru, Jos, Plateau State recently, said government has set up various ICT intervention agencies and programmes to contain poverty in the face of unexpected oil revenue crash.

Danbatta also said that the strategic vision of the Commission, which is anchored on an 8-point agenda, among them, Facilitate Broadband Penetration, Improve Quality of Service, Optimise Usage and Benefits of Spectrum, Promote ICT Innovation and Investment Opportunities, and Promote Fair Competition and Inclusive Growth, would contribute in no small measure to government’s efforts in fighting poverty with ICTs.
He, however, said in the pursuit of ICTs for development and poverty reduction, three things remained very important, which he listed to include Access to Service, Availability of Service and Affordability of Service.

Danbatta explained that the challenge for the poor is inability to access information due to inadequate infrastructure, ignorance or illiteracy.

“The availability of information sources for the poor should be of great concern if poverty is to be reduced,” he argued.

Separating digital poverty from traditional poverty such as general scarcity, dearth, or the state of lacking a certain amount of material possession or money, Danbatta pointed out that most developing nations are suffering from digital poverty, such as the lack of means with which to access ICTs, the lack of skills to use the ICTs, and inadequate information about the usefulness of ICTs.

Digital poverty, according to him, incorporates a demand component, a capability dimension and a supply component.

“In order to fight poverty in all its ramifications ICTs must be considered a key driver for social development and economic growth,” Danbatta said.

“To stimulate the Nigerian economy particularly in production, agriculture and intellectual property, we should aim to improve ICT penetration in both mobile telephony and broadband services to all parts of the country no matter how remote. The target should be increased ICT interaction and usage in Agriculture, Health, Trade, Finance, Insurance and Transport. This would automatically affect the nation’s GDP, improve the quality of life, reduce dependency on forex and improve the value of the naira”, he submitted.

Specifically speaking on government’s efforts to address poverty through ICTs, Danbatta said that apart from the creation of the NCC through a deregulation effort aimed at stimulating competition and enhancing service and product availability in the telecommunications industry, government has also empowered intervention agencies like National Information Technology Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), to impact on the lives of the people.

While pledging the NCC’s support for the vision of the present government to put Nigeria among the top 20 in the comity of nations, Danbatta listed some initiatives of the Commission as directly or indirectly targeting poverty eradication. They include: Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI), Digital Awareness Programme (DAP), Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) Projects, Frequency Auction – which has contributed over N300bn to the Federation account, and Value Added Services – which has created a chain of services and income streams.