 Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Boswanti Jani says Nigeria seeks to expand its broadband infrastructure with $2 billion investment. Information and communication technology, ICT, is the major sector with a double-digit growth contribution to the Nigerian economy. A Q42023 GDP figure was 18.6%. Now, technology experts believe that niche ComSat infrastructure should be tapped into as a backup for the digital infrastructure. They highlight the point that satellite technology is critical for the future of the digital economy and serves as an alternative to the on-the-sea cable. My guest is the CEO of Marbula Media and the convener of Tech Switch 2024, Inans Isar. He joins me now to look at these critical issues. Many thanks for joining me on Business Insights. It's a pleasure to be on Plus TV again, Justin. It is indeed a pleasure to have you. So let's just go through what has happened since on Thursday. Most Nigerians, the comfort of their homes, they noticed that they could not really connect via the internet. Most banks' apps were not working. It was as though some part of West Africa or the country has been disconnected. I just want you to explain to us how that really happened and, of course, what the costs have been over the past days that this happened. Okay. What really happened to the on-the-sea subcables, our target and accident, which has been a collateral damage to the African economy and also community in terms of the internet and also the broadband services. A lot of Africans have depend so much on that broadband internet, which has been a high rise to productivity. Africa depends 70% on internet consumption. We have the largest volume across the whole world. So it has been a very huge traffic. And I believe there's been a progress. What has happened really would just have to look a step forward. That this thing should not happen again. I want to say these are things that the GLU network have foreseen in land and the submarine cables, which you see that has not been a problem which has affected GLU. But that has not been an alternative route in terms of using the subcable. It has its own challenges, major challenges in the deep sea. Thank you. So our advice that alternative routes would be suggested. Speaking of alternative routes being suggested, in passing you mentioned GLU and the satellite communication. We thought by now should have been able to harness the technology of satellite. We have NYCHCOM SAT 1 and YOV 1. But with all of the satellites, is it that they are no longer in the orbit and not making much use of it or that what exactly are the issues really? Every device or every establishment of network has their own challenges. Maybe the satellite has been so cost effective because satellite has been the first generation of the digital system which brought about the revolution in the digital economy. And people are deviating from it looking at a high speed broadband. When you lay in a cable, it goes faster than the network due to weather. That's why when you look at how the internet came into Africa, we start with the mass, which is the line of sight from pole to pole. And gradually the population and the traffic begin to grow. So we believe that in going to the high speed internet, we need the submarine cables, the fiber optic cables that could deliver a fast digital experience to us. So that's why many companies who have seen those ideas and tested it and seen that it's so trusted. But for now we've seen a different circumstances through that aspect, which I believe the first instance, which is the satellite network, has been the best. The best and the only best. Okay, but looking at this now, since on Thursday until now, although I read in my intro some telcos and some banks have rerouted their internet connectivity because over time it's been main one that have been in business and that most people connect to. So are there or not? We've talked about the satellite burden. How effective is this? Or is it to get other players to be involved in this on the sea cable? Since you said it is really active. Then how often are we likely to see incidents of these ports happening over time? We'll continue to experience it as far as it's a device. It will fail one way or the other. That's why we say there are often circumstances. The weather within the deep sea might change. It might be a result of the sea creatures attacking the cables. It might be a result of that. Why people navigate to a particular network? It's because of the benefits they enjoy, the security they enjoy, the reliability they enjoy. If this particular incident had not happened, the main one cable would have been the best. People never see the fiber optic cable within the deep sea after an alternative route. But now people are reconnecting, re-navigating into that particular which we're going to experience a high traffic. It might be slow of internet. It might be something else that may erupt from the data center. As it is right now, it's as though the main one, as much as I don't want to talk them out of business, is actually the main player as it is right now. How costly is it to have major players getting involved in this on the sea cable so that at the end of the day, there may be some sort of competition and, I don't know, have alternatives as it were? I'm not really telling you how much. No, in terms of, not specifically, in terms of, of course, is it something that really costs so much that I would need several platforms to come together to get it done or how exactly? I'm not really, what I would like to say is it depends on the investors. If you're interested, if you're really interested in investing in playing a major role, it's welcome. But whether I'm trying, the picture I'm trying to paint to you now, it depends on the benefit where each and every investor is getting. So from the main one, you can see the main one went into an agreement with the Atlantic Cable Management Agreement which has, they have a working force module and it's, they gave us a space of five weeks. In the next, just two weeks behind, the cables have already been fixed up to 50%. So we're likely saying maybe in the next one or two weeks, it will be fixed because it has been a rapid walk over the deep sea. Okay, so as it is right now, still talking about them, the fate and the future of internet connectivity. What should Nigeria be doing to ensure that we stand as a hub in Africa in terms of connectivity, in terms of service providers and all of that? Okay, what I really want to say is that all the conferences, all the seminars and all the workshops that we have been attending that we have been hosting, this is the right time to put those knowledge, understanding experience into a productivity. If we didn't do that, I would target intellectual genocide. What do you mean by that? Intellectual genocide is all the ideas that we have, calculated ideas which are profitable to establish a quality infrastructure to make Nigeria a better and the giant of Africa. If we don't put it into play, then we are going nowhere. Policies, the government, so much depends on political and so many partisans' politics, which is not helping us to grow. Like I said, the Malcolm Satwan R replacement is the best alternative option right now for the whole of South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. So what is really stopping us as a people, us as a government from actually getting the most of this Malcolm Satwan? Number one, is commercializing it. Number two, allow the private sector to become a player in terms of security and encrypted data. Because the nine concepts are comprises of the broadcasting, broadband, transpondent and navigation. It's a business, a very huge business, but government are not looking to this business aspect. That's the major challenge. We have forgotten that we have a satellite. Not until this particular problem has erupted. How many youth have we trained to take over the satellite? Do we have a data center that we can take hold of this satellite? Those are things we should really look into and we should give the youth a chance to play. Because this hard time, I said, skills play its roles. Okay, so invariably you're saying that the government is not actively prepared or taking or bringing hands on technology or personnel to ensure that we make the most of this digital technology that Malcolm Satwan has to. Of course, the government is not prepared. Okay. You see, the government is not prepared. When you look at it in a clear picture, the internet is the market. The internet is the office. The internet, who is the head sector? The internet, who is the e-commerce? The internet, who is the fintech? Everything revolves around the internet. And even the government depends on the internet. But when one of the things erupts, the government wants to ban the use of internet. And you're also using the internet. So the NicomSatR is specifically designed to provide a high broadband service in broadcasting and internet services. And also a health security. So if you want to do this, there is a section of that NicomSatR that you have to lease out to the private sector to take hold. It's not just a one-man tax. The government cannot hold everything. When you lease that, it's all about privatizing that particular sector. Okay. I also just popped to my head right now. If government is actually slow peddling in ensuring that we make the most of AMSAT like technology, is there not an opportunity for private sector on their own to actually put their own satellite out there in the orbit? Here is an opportunity. And I believe if the private sector were able to do a lot of paperwork and see they need to own their own private satellite, it's going to be a very huge benefit. And you can see, let me just go back a little. The past telecom sector that just left Nigeria, where it was acquired by Nine Mobile, they worked on satellites. They have never had any issues. It is a lot. They've never had any issues on sites, mass on sites, you know, the fiber optic cable. The satellite is pinpointed directly to their coverage area. That is the benefit. That is a huge traffic insecurity. It's also a larger market for them to focus on Africa. So if the private sector were looking into this initiative and let them own their own private satellite, it will go a long way. All right. Okay. It's still a business insight and plus TV Africa. We still have them in Nantes, East Africa. We're looking at the undersea cable cord that disrupted internet connectivity in the past few days. But something new is coming to Africa. We'll just talk about it in the next two minutes as we round off in a moment. Do join us again. All right. Welcome back. It's still business insight and plus TV Africa. I still have the CEO of Marbula Media and the convener of Tech Switch, Nantes, East Africa. As we round off the show now, we're still looking at ICT. Tech Switch 2024. There's a Tech Switch 2023. The whole idea was to bring African key players on one arena to just make Africa the focus of technology in Africa. So what do we expect for this year, 2024? All right. Tech Switch 2024. The team is financing African technology, the gateway for social economic transformation. This particular event, addition for this year, we're expecting to fund African ideas, African innovation, African creativity, to bring them to the limelight where we can support them with SIM fund and also connect them to investors in the tech sector. And next also, we are looking at launching our tech factory, which we call the Emporium. We're being in partnership with a tech hub in Ghana, Eric Electronic, which developed PC Board. So with Tech Switch this year, we're trying to replicate it across all Africa. Okay. So as the time approaches, plus TV will bring you details. And of course, I'm sure Tech Switch will be doing business with us as we go forward in the year. Thank you so much, Inans Issa, for all of the useful insight that you have brought on this issue of on the seacoat. And we can talk about the need for us to just create homegrown solutions to actually meet our needs. And we have the technology, I'm sure, we have also the manpower to get that work right. Yes. Yes. We have the manpower. We have the market. Okay. We have the knowledge and the capacity building initiative to move. All right. That's the size of the show for today. My name is Justin Academi. Many thanks for being a part of the show. I'll see you again next time. Bye for now.