In March, I had the chance to spend a few weeks in Lagos to attend some business meetings, as that’s where ScholarX is headquartered. I also took the opportunity to meet with some friends who I’ve gotten acquainted with online over the past year, and I might add are doing great work to build the Ecosystem. And as usual, I took in the fast-paced bustling hub Lagos is, not minding the usual bumps that it came with.
One thing though that really caught my imagination was; Internet connectivity, and what will things look like if we really got it right? This struck home with me when I almost missed a skype meeting with a very Important potential investor from North Africa. I had been out attending meetings most of the day, and so I had to rush back to my hotel to get set up as it was a late evening schedule. And then boom! It happened. The hotel’s Wi-Fi decided to “pour sand in my Garri” and started acting up. After about 15 minutes of battling with it – by now the hotel staff had joined- they (hotel staff) ended up giving me a portable modem to get connected for my meeting. Even with that, the connection was poor at best. The other option would have been to connect with my phone, but the data service provided by Telco’s in Nigeria is story for another day. Long story short, it was not a pleasant experience, and this is somewhat reflective of the connectivity experience in a country of close to 200 million people.
According to recent reports, Nigeria is ranked 3rd in Africa in Internet affordability which is good, but what impact does that make if quality of service received is below par?
Like Bill Gates said “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow. I cannot agree more. If Data is the new Oil, internet connection is the “engine oil”! Without high-speed reliable internet connection, we will not be able to realize the 21st century goal of building solutions for exponential growth that will help us solve well documented issues facing Africa.
It is obvious that internet connectivity will not solve issues in isolation. Infrastructure (power supply), Policy (implementation) and education all need to be improved at the same time. However, just imagine if we at least get Internet connectivity right.
The global business landscape is as competitive as ever. The way I see it, while advanced nations are building solutions to make things: quicker, faster, cheaper and more efficient, we (Africa) are barely meeting up in terms of solutions that solve basic problems. And with the state of internet connectivity, it’s like bringing a pen to a machine-gun fight.
We just must get it right!