A dangerous scenario capable of mortgaging Nigeria in the hands of unknown system managers is beginning to play out in the nation’s ICT sector as telecoms operators are not only gradually relocating to India, but are now operating from there.
The development according to experts remains a serious threat to national and corporate security.
This coming on the heels of revelation made by the Senate Committee on Communications in a statement, saying the ongoing relocation of networks by telecom firms to India while their business activities remain in Nigeria is not acceptable.
The Committee therefore urged the minister to urgently take necessary actions towards arresting the situation before it degenerated into a national threat.
According to the statement, the development posed danger to national security and safety of both government and corporate data.
In the release, Senate averred that this is time to draw the attention of the Federal Government “to another dimension of security challenge threatening the country due to undermining activities of telecommunication firms operating in Nigeria have emerged.”
This was part of the intelligence handed down to the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, when he appeared before the lawmakers to defend the 2017 budget of the ministry.
While defending the budget, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, said “Some of the companies have started relocating their Network Operation Centres from Nigeria to India, which has grave implication on national security, as these centres would be monitored by foreigners from outside the shores of Nigeria.”
Another angle of worry for the lawmakers is the growing incidence of “indiscriminate sack of competent Nigerian employees at the expense of their foreign counterparts.”
The senator frowned that the development, saying it is a “contravention of expatriate quota, casualisation, intimidation and discrimination of indigenous staff” by service providers.
However, in response, the minister assured that measures are being put in place to track the disturbing development, promising that “before the end of the first quarter of this year, the ministry would inaugurate the implementation committee for the transformation of the Digital Bridge Institute located in the six geo-political zones of the country into Information and Communications Technology University (ICTU)”.
The target of the ICTU is to start producing graduates and skilled manpower that would fit into the modern telecoms industry and international market.
Business Hilights gathered that India is now a superpower in ICT with cheap services delivery, thus prompting emerging economies to rely much on technologies from the Asian tiger.
