ABUJA: The head of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Titi Omu-Etto said in an interview with a local media outlet that the ICT sector can, and should do more to bolster the country's GDP. He commented on the role of privatization and the country's state-owned NITEL operator, which has seen much confusion over whether it will be sold or remain nationally operated. “With the benefit of hindsight, we may say if NITEL had been either privatized or enabled to compete we would have done far better,” he said in comments published by The Moment of Nigeria. “If we had restructured to harmonize the incongruent industries of telecommunication, broadcasting and computing, we would have done better. If we had embraced true liberalization in energy supply sector, we would have grown faster. And many other ‘ifs' which we need not mourn about,” he continued. He continued to say that in the past two decades, since telecommunications was first introduced in Nigeria, the country has seen massive growth in the sector, but added that more work can be done to bring it into compliance with international standards and help push the country into the top 20 of global economies. Omo-Ettu argued that boosting private and public initiatives in recent years “shows that Nigeria cannot remain low forever, if it liberalizes properly and sincerely any of its service sectors.” He added, in terms of economic development that “given the right environment, Nigeria can attain world class status, not by sloganeering, but by taking good decisions.” BM
