 We're here at ITU Telecom World 2012 in Dubai, and I'm very pleased to be joined by Amobula Johnson, who is Minister for the Ministry of Communication Technology of Nigeria. Amobula, thank you very much for being with us today. You're welcome. Thank you for having me. I'd like to talk to you about the radical transformation that's going on in the ICT sector, and what for you is the principal opportunities arising from this? I think the greatest opportunities for us in Nigeria is just the opportunity of inclusive development. The fact that ICTs become really a level for everybody, and they really become a means by which you can include the population that is not typically included in development. They live in the rural areas that are disadvantaged, they're economically disadvantaged, they're socially disadvantaged. All of those things, ICTs can actually help to bring them in to the former part of the economy and help us to begin to close that digital divide that we all talk about. What have been the major challenges in the Africa region? The biggest challenge really is broadband, is getting that broadband infrastructure out, because when I say inclusive development it sounds very compelling, but you've got to get the connectivity and the access to the rural areas, and when you look at countries like many African countries where a large portion of our population is actually in those rural areas, the challenge is really getting that connectivity, whether it's fiber or satellites or whatever it is, getting to the rural areas at a cost that is affordable to the people in the rural areas, and also of course at a speed that makes sense to them as well. And how have you been managing to overcome these challenges? We've used, to a certain extent, our universal service funds, basically from the 2% of the annual operating revenue from the telecoms companies, and we've used that primarily, at least over the last two years, we've focused primarily on using those funds to subsidise our private sector operators to going into those areas, and we've also used them to subsidise the purchase of devices, because it's not only about getting broadband there, it's so people have the mobile phones and the tablets and the computers to access that infrastructure. We've talked about the challenges. What's your vision or response to address the opportunities that are obviously being brought about by this incredible transformation? There are tremendous opportunities, and I think for us in Nigeria, today, ICT contributes about 5% of our economy, and when we're looking at, with the transformation agenda of our president, it's to diversify the economy away from oil and gas. So ICT is really a very veritable means of actually diversification. So there are opportunities in software development, there are opportunities in device assembly, there are opportunities in broadcasting, and so our vision, basically in one sentence, is to increase the contribution of ICTs to GDP, and that comes about by various things, not only the inclusive development, but also the commerce and the business that comes out of the opportunity of having ICTs available to people. So you're optimistic for the future of ICTs in the region? Absolutely optimistic. It's a way forward for sure. And finally, we're here at ITU Telecom World 2012. Tell us a little bit about your presence here and why you think this event is important. This is actually, I mean, Nigeria has been represented here several times, but this is actually my second time. I was just made minister before the last ITU. I think the reason we're here is, well, there's seven reasons why we're here. First of all, it's to just be aware of what is happening around the world. I think the conversations that are going on right now are really very, very important for us as we take ICTs forward. And sometimes they're actually in validation for what we're doing in Nigeria, because you hear what other countries are doing, how they've been successful, the mistakes that they've made, and you learn from that and you take it to Nigeria. But there are many things that they're doing that we're doing as well. So it's validation for our strategy, validation for what we're doing. And finally, it's an opportunity to showcase Nigeria. We've got a very nice pavilion here. We brought some young innovators, people that are doing tremendous things, young Nigerians that are doing tremendous things in IT. And we're hoping that we can showcase this to the world. And of course, it's an opportunity to tell other countries that Nigeria is a great place to invest. There are many investment opportunities. So many reasons why we're here. And this year actually, again, just to validate the fact that ICT is very important to the Nigerian economy, our vice president has been here over the last two days. He was at the opening ceremony, gave the remarks at the leaders forum. And so that just shows that this is important, and we're taking it very seriously. Marbella Johnson, thank you very much indeed for being with us today.