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Tech: NDITDA Bill Must Not Be Allowed to Destroy the New Oil Well

Published

3 years ago

September 3, 2021

Eric

By Joel Popoola

In tech terms, 2007 was a thousand years ago.

YouTube was a little over a year old. Instagram and Snapchat didn’t exist. TikTok wouldn’t go international for another decade.

That’s why it’s only sensible that we update out technology laws to reflect the Nigeria we live in now.

But this regulatory refresh must not come at the expense of our economic future.

This week has brought news that the National Information Technology Development Agency is apparently seeking to extend powers granted in 2007 to provide the Nigerian tech sector with advisory guidelines to a fully-fledged regulator with the powers to determine which businesses are allowed to operate.

Under the proposals, companies would also have to pay a 1% levy on their profits to NITDA. Companies failing to comply with the rules would risk jail time or minimum fines of 30 million naira.

In the aftermath of the government’s banning of both cryptocurrency and Twitter, insiders fear the move may have the effect of hindering innovation in Africa’s fastest growing tech ecosystem.

This must not be allowed to happen.

Tech is a sector which has defied the stagnant economy which has defined Nigeria in recent years. The internationally-renowned Financial Times recently branded Nigeria “Africa’s hottest start-up scene”. Of every five dollars invested in venture capital funding in Africa in 2020, one dollar went to Nigeria. In Flutterswitch and Intersave our nation is home to two of Africa’s four unicorns- companies valued at over $1billion. Investors poured $1.6billion into the Nigerian tech scene between 2016 and 2020.

It is this reason why tech’s role in the Nigerian economy has been called “the new oil”. And as the world adapts to a post-oil future, it’s something which is only going to become more and more critical. We must not intentionally destroy the new oil’s well.

As the Financial Times writes, the Nigerian government’s “byzantine structure, endemic corruption and penchant for free speech crackdowns” already inhibits innovation and discourages investment. Heavy handed regulation will only encourage investors and businesses to look elsewhere.

Fintech – digital banking – is one of the most significant divers of the Nigerian tech boom, and in a nation where 60 million people do not have a bank account and where 96% of transactions still take place using cash, the sector is only going to expand – democratising money as it does. No-one is seriously suggesting this area should be an unregulated free-for-all. Consumers need to know that they are investing in a reputable and regulated organisation and not a digital pyramid scheme.

Regulation which supports instead of strangling innovation is the key to prosperity. But the Nigerian tech sector has all-too-often found both the NDITA and other governmental bodies remote, inaccessible and even antagonistic.

This approach is symptomatic and symbolic of the digital divide between decision makers and ordinary Nigerians.
At the digital democracy campaign I lead we are trying to bridge that divide with technology.
We have developed a free app called Rate Your Leader to help elected officials better engage with both technology and the people who elect them.

The app allows direct person-to-person communication between verified voters and confirmed local leaders. As a result, Rate Your Leader allows the rapid raising of issues and concerns and the sharing of information, allowing communities to collaborate to make local areas better and helping politicians understand what matters most to the people who elect them. Rate Your Leader’s abuse-proof technology ensures that this communication is always courteous and civil.

Rate Your Leader also lets local people rate politicians for accessibility, transparency and honesty – building trust in both politicians and political institutions.

The Nigerian tech sector is alarmed by the prospect of a bill which seems to give a single agency the power to decide which businesses can operate and which technologies can come to market, and baffled with a bill which seems to entirely contradict the Nigerian Startup Bill, a tech industry–led initiative much better targeted at delivering a more startup-friendly business environment.

As with so many aspects of the Nigerian political landscape, the key to overcoming these concerns is better engagement – engagement that new technology ironically makes it a lot easier to facilitate.

If we are to safeguard a more prosperous future, it is engagement which must take place at the earliest opportunity – and at Rate Your Leader, we are willing to support that engagement in any way we can.

Joel Popoola is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, digital democracy campaigner and founder of the Rate Your Leader app. He can be reached via @JOPopoola

Featured

Stay Away from CBT Centres, JAMB Warns Parents, Threatens Arrest

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2024

Eric

As this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) begins on Friday, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has vowed to arrest parents found near any Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre during the 2024 UTME exercise.

The directive was issued at the final briefing of the CBT centre owners, which was held virtually on Wednesday, 17th April, 2024.

The spokesman for JAMB, Fabian Benjamin, said this directive became necessary following the intrusive disposition of some parents during the Board’s previous exercises.

Benjamin, who quoted JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, said any parent, who disobeys the order would not only be arrested but his ward would also be disqualified from sitting for the examination.

Oloyede explained that this measure became necessary as it has been discovered over time that many of these intruding parents are facilitators of examination infractions while others have, by their actions, disrupted the Board’s examinations in the past.

He added that some miscreants also disguise as parents to infiltrate the centres to perpetrate all forms of infractions.

“The Board’s helmsman noted that going by the extant national policy on education, a candidate for the examination must have attained the age of 17 years.

“Therefore, it is evident that these parents had not allowed their wards to pass through the classes as defined in the document, hence the desperation to follow their wards to the examination venue with the aim of compromising examination officials.

“At any rate, it is clear to any discerning observer that these parents deserve to be sanctioned as they had obviously ‘smuggled’ underage children into the ranks of those scheduled to sit the examination,” the Board note through a statement.

Furthermore, the Registrar said all arrangements have been concluded for the conduct of the 2024 UTME, which will be held in over 700 CBT centres across the nation.

He disclosed that the Board expects a seamless exercise but it has nevertheless made adequate provision to tackle any technical glitch that might occur in the course of the examination.

He, however, warned that if a session experienced any technical challenge, candidates in subsequent sessions would be allowed to sit their examination as scheduled while the candidates in the challenged session would be rescheduled for the last session for the day or the following day or even further depending on the centre schedules.

Featured

Oyo Govt Demolishes Operational Base of Yoruba Nation Agitators

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2024

Eric

The Oyo State government, on Wednesday, demolished a building serving as the operational base of the Yoruba Nation agitators led by Modupe Onitiri-Abiola, in Ibadan.

Onitiri-Abiola, one of the widows of late Bashorun M.KO Abiola, had declared the creation of the so-called Yoruba Nation in a video posted online, which has been widely condemned.

Last Saturday, some armed men in military uniforms invaded the Oyo State Secretariat, with the motive to forcefully take over the State House of Assembly, before they were dislodged by the combined efforts of police and troops for the Nigeria Army 2 Division..

Mr. Fatai Owoseni, Special Adviser on Security Matters to Governor Seyi Makinde, confirmed the demolition of the house located at Toye Oyesola Street in Ibadan South West Local Government Area.

Already, no fewer than 29 suspects – including a lecturer – arrested in connection with the foiled armed invasion were on Wednesday arraigned by the police before a Chief Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan.

In a case with charge number Mi/520c/2024 between the Commissioner of Police and the 29 suspects, they were accused of a seven-count charge of treasonable felony, unlawful society, illegal possession of firearms, and conduct likely to cause breach of peace.

Inspector Bakare Rasaq, the Investigative Police Officer (IPO) at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan, said the offence contravenes, and is punishable under Section 516 of the Criminal Code, Cap 38, Vol. II, Laws of Oyo State of Nigeria, 2000.

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PDP BoT Queries Damagum, Anyanwu’s Continued Stay in Office

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2024

Eric

The Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party has queried the continued stay in office of the party’s acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, and National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu.

Recently, many party members have raised concerns about the ongoing tenure of Damagum and Anywanwu in their respective positions.

Previously serving as the PDP National Deputy Chairman (North), Damagum assumed the role of acting National Chairman following the court’s suspension of the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, in March of the preceding year.

With the National Secretary being selected as the PDP candidate for the Imo State 2023 governorship election, the South zone has been grappling with nominating a replacement. Despite this, he, along with other party leaders, contested and retained the position of party secretary after losing to Governor Hope Uzodinnma.

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