If adequately explored and backed by right policies, disruptive technologies can improve the about nine per cent Information and Communications Technology (ICT) contributions to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This was the view of stakeholders at the just concluded maiden edition of Nigeria International Technology and Exhibition Conference (NITEC) 2016 in Lagos.
A disruptive innovation is one that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market leaders and alliances.
Indeed, at the NITEC forum, the Director of Public Affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Tony Ojobo, who represented the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said disruptive innovation is a positive development in the transformation of the GDP of the continent where the traditional operators have enjoyed glided opportunities as technological advancement in the sector has intruded in an esoteric state of being.
Danbatta noted that pre-2000, investment in the telecommunications sector was $500 million with few persons owning phones, and just over a decade and half with better liberalization and a regulator in the sector, the investment profile is over $32 billion, with 148 million phones.
Citing Harvard Business Lecturer, Prof. Clayton Christensen, Danbatta noted that it is not unusual for a big corporation to dismiss the value of a disruptive technology because it does not reinforce current company goals, only to be blindsided as the technology matures, gained a larger audience, market share and threatens the status quo because they are designed to work with sustained technologies.
While also making reference to a report by Mckinsey and Company that listed 12 disruptive technologies to include: mobile Internet; Internet of Things; cloud; advanced robotics; autonomous and near – autonomous vehicles; renewable energy storage; some disruptive technologies fall under the genres of Over-the-Top (OTT) services which are carried over the networks, delivering value to customers, but without any carrier service provider being involved in planning, selling, provisioning, or servicing them, thereby implying that traditional telecommunications operators cannot directly earn revenue from such services.
Speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunanya, observed that disruptive technologies would contribute significantly to the nation’s GDP if ICT start-ups are encouraged to create innovations that deliver value.
Represented at the event by the Vice President, Networks Operations, Airtel Nigeria, Adedoyin Adeola, the Airtel boss noted that ICT currently contributes up to nine per cent to Nigeria’s GDP while there is potential for growth if ICT start-ups can explore the available opportunities despite the current dollar rate and Nigeria’s slow GDP.
