Executive Summary
USIA /GTC Assessment of
Internet Connectivity
Needs of Nigerian Universities
By Cliff Missen, MA -- University of Iowa
The Need for Internet
Connectivity
Nigerian universities have been practically decimated by the past two
decades of economic and political upheaval. The Nigerian
university system, once well respected around the globe and envied by
others in Africa, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self.
Now it is left to a new generation of university administrators and
professors to rebuild their capacity and their reputation.
Nigeria's much heralded return to democratic rule in 1999 has left
many in the academic community hopeful that they will once again have
the resources and the freedom to reinvent their teaching and research
missions. Nigerian universities remain essentially unscathed by
the digital revolution that has swept through Western academia in the
past decade. In the digital realm, the Nigerian university
represents a blank slate.
In most countries, the universities are depended upon to deliver to
the marketplace and ever-growing cadre of young professionals who have
mastered digital technologies and henceforth diffuse them into the
public and private sectors. While many Nigerian universities offer
one form or another of a computer science program, few of their
graduates can offer contemporary or relevant expertise and very few have
had practical experience with modern equipment and software.
Given the radical and rapid technological change and the increased
and intensive digitization of virtually every realm our human endeavor,
it is imperative that the next generation of Nigerian professionals have
broad understanding and practical skills with these digital
technologies.
At the same time Nigerian scholars and researchers need to have
access to the enormous wealth of online information, scholarly journals,
and digital collaboration opportunities if they are not to be rendered
irrelevant in the world of modern academia.
Yet providing Internet connectivity and e-mail access to the hundreds
of thousands of Nigerian academics is a formidable challenge.
While it may be tempting to look to an outside source for an
off-the-shelf and immediate solution, the key to sustainable and
economical growth in these areas lie in developing Nigerian capacity to
build, support, and expand upon these systems.
So the overarching aim of any project in this area should be to
develop the capacity to develop and maintain digital communication
technologies at Nigerian universities while at this same time
encouraging and developing partnerships with the public and private
sector to create broader opportunities for students to gain practical
expertise.
The State of Internet Connectivity
at Nigerian Universities
Only one university in Nigeria, Ile-Ife, has direct Internet access at this
point. They have a satellite connection, set up by a contractor
for the national telecommunications monopoly, NITEL, which delivers --
on a good day -- up to 64K of bandwidth. On a bad day (and it
appears that most days are bad days) their connection is
inconsistent, and slow. The university pays (when it is able to
pay) an amount equal to four times the going rate for international
satellite connectivity.
Several universities use a telephone-based email system sponsored by
the National Universities Commission (NUC) that routes email through the
International Center for Applied Physics in Trieste, Italy.
Others have a handful of email accounts with Nigerian Internet service
providers. However, the NUC email system has frequent outages --
sometimes lasting up to six weeks -- largely because of their dependence
upon NITEL. As well, it is not uncommon to hear the customers of the
handful of Nigerian ISPs complain of having to dial hundreds of times
over several days to gain a connection. Testing of ISP connections
revealed speeds of up to 14,000 baud, but most often the connection is
so slow as to make it impossible to open a Web page without being timed
out repeatedly.
Four of the universities visited have
intentions to install satellite ground stations, but only two have
gone so far as to collect bids from vendors and prepare a plan.
Satellite connectivity is the only current viable option for most
Nigerian universities since the telephone infrastructure is in poor
condition and the distance between campuses is great. Two federal universities – with over 10,000
students apiece -- reportedly operate without a single functioning phone.
Most institutions subsist with a handful of working
telephones and barely functioning intercom lines.
All Nigerian universities face a major hurdle in connecting to the
Internet via satellite: licensing. The Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), which is charged by the Ministry of Communications to
authorize new satellite installations, currently charges $42million for
permission to connect with Internet services outside of Nigeria.
The only internal option for Internet connectivity is the national
telecommunications monopoly, NITEL. However, NITEL’s connection
to the Internet is severely limited and overburdened already. Those who use
NITEL’s Internet service report dramatic delays and frequent outages.
While the new
democratically-elected government is making telecommunications a
priority, it is expected to take years before most of the trappings of
conventional Western Internet connectivity – leased lines, T1
connections, ASDL, etc. – will be available in Nigeria.
Potential Solutions
There's no doubt that Nigerian universities need to be connected to
the Internet, but the problem, while it may appear to be technical, has
both a hardware and a human component.
Virtually every person interviewed decried the lack of computer and
network expertise in the country. Universities that have tried to
train a cadre of technologists find themselves in a losing battle as the
private sector poaches their skilled staff members. Administrators
at each university expressed frustration at not even knowing what
questions to ask.
So beyond assisting Nigerian universities with hardware and Internet
bandwidth, it has proven equally imperative to provide capacity building
assistance. From decision-makers to librarians to lecturers, the
entire academy needs exposure to the potential and practicalities of
implementing digital communication technologies.
Hence, consultations with the National Universities Commission, the
one organization capable of formulating a cohesive connectivity strategy
for the federal universities, focused on both putting the hardware into
place while training the technologists to make the process
sustainable.
In conjunction with the National Universities Commission and the more
general consultations with potential partner universities, a plan was
designed which integrated both technical and capacity-building
components. This plan, estimated to cost $1million USD, would
place satellite receivers at eight prominent universities around Nigeria
and provide walk-in, drive-in, or dial-in Internet access to every
academic in the federal university system. This plan would also
provide for training of satellite technologists.
See the
NUC Satellite Proposal
for more details.
An additional proposal to provide capacity building in networking and
using the Internet, as well as create U.S. institutional linkages, was
developed. This proposal would provide both "on-seat"
and U.S.-based training for university decision-makers, technologists,
and innovators. By focusing on developing a digital culture at
universities as well as promoting inter-university cooperation and
discourse, this proposal seeks to hasten the adoption process by
promoting best practices.
See the Nigerian
Universities Digitization Project Proposal
for more details.
Other Issues
As mentioned earlier, Nigeria's telecommunication policies are
dramatically hindering progress towards Internet connectivity for all
sectors, but most especially the universities. Whatever assistance
the U.S. might be able to provide in terms of informing policy makers or
providing high-level contact with prominent Internet advocates might
help to clear the way for the universities to proceed. Several
universities have indicated they would have the wherewithal to connect
immediately if they could overcome the prohibitive licensing fee.
Finally, it does not hurt to mention the fantastic democratizing
potential of the Internet. At the University of Jos, the Computer
Centre staff was able to take a single unreliable telephone connection
and turn it into a communication link that connected 1,200 people at
UNIJOS with the nearly billion individuals
around the world who have access to email. The Centre reported
sending 5,000 messages a month out to the Internet. Those using
the UNIJOS email system were emphatic in making the point that they had
no other means of reliable communication with their colleagues in the
outside world and that the news and tools they gleaned from their email
was as good as gold in an information-starved environment.
More Detailed
Reports
The following documents contain links to detailed reports on the ten
institutions and three Internet Service Providers visited between
October 10 and October 20, 1999. They also include links to an
ambitious plan to create Internet connectivity across the NUC
universities as well as several documents describing relevant issues.
There are two ways to view the documents:
Chronological
Itinerary
Index of Documents
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