Driving Nigeria's Digital Transformation

As Africa's second largest telecommunications market, Nigeria is undergoing an explosive digital transformation with the government implementing their National Broadband plan to drive digital inclusivity and accelerate digital transformation. At the forefront of this is Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a leading connectivity, innovation and intelligent technology company and part of parent technology giant Cassava Technologies.

TowerXchange spoke with Wole Abu, the CEO of Liquid's Nigerian operations and ex-CEO of Nigerian towerco Pan African Towers, about their role in supporting digital transformation in Nigeria.

My name is Wole Abu, I am the Chief Executive Office of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Nigeria, a leading digital infrastructure company that provides high-speed connectivity, cloud, and cyber security services.

I have been in the Nigerian telecoms industry for over 20 years now and was fortunate to be one of the pioneers that entered the sector back in the 2000s when GSM telephony exploded in Nigeria. I started at Econet Wireless, one of the first telecom license bidders in the country and played an integral part in the wild rollout period between 2002 to 2010.

Through several major acquisitions, I moved from Econet, to Vodacom, to Zain, and eventually, Airtel Africa, which I left in 2017 to become the CEO of Pan African Towers, an indigenous Nigerian towerco, for three years.

While I was there, we went through a lot of repositioning and capital raising, stabilising the company and bringing investors on board. Since then, I have been with Liquid Intelligent Technologies as the CEO of its Nigeria operations.

Liquid started almost two decades ago and has evolved to become a digital transformation powerhouse offering multiple services across numerous verticals. In terms of fibre provision, we have a 110,000km fibre backbone on the continent, capacity on multiple subsea cables and even satellite connectivity.

Our strategy is fundamentally about leaving no African behind in the race to digitally transform the continent. We are proud to be an African-founded and African-owned company and operate across the continent.

As a one-stop shop technology company offering high-speed connectivity, cloud and cyber security services with unmatched resilience and scalability, Liquid Intelligent Technologies entry into Nigeria in 2022, gave new impetus to the country and region’s digital transformation journey.

Our goal is to become the go-to company for this digital transformation initiative, and we have built a diverse portfolio of assets and digital services to achieve our vision of a digitally connected Nigeria.

We were the first African company to lay over 110,000 km of fibre network across the African continent, and we are slowly but surely extending our fibre backbone even within the country.

When we launched our operations in Nigeria last year, it was to reiterate our commitment to the Nigerian government that we would partner with them to achieve the objectives of our National Broadband Plan (2021 – 2025) and transform Nigeria into a leading digital economy, a vision enshrined in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020 – 2030).

Through our expertise, we will work towards ensuring that businesses and individuals can add to the growing digital economy setting Nigeria on its path to transform into a tech powerhouse in Africa.

Currently, 50% of fibre loss is caused by roadside construction, which is responsible for cutting our fibre assets. The problem is based on a legacy mindset issue where the building code in Nigeria, as well as in other countries across Africa, only applies to utilities such as electricity and water.

GSM technology was introduced after the code had been written, and neither federal nor provincial governments have updated the code to include telecommunication infrastructure. When you want to deploy fibre, you have to apply for a right of way, but there is no regulation to support telecom infrastructure providers.

Governments need to understand that the deployment of fibre is not a destructive industry or an opportunity to generate substantial amounts of revenue through fees. Telecoms should be recognised as development infrastructure improving the lives of local communities, but MNOs and infrastructure providers are seen as targets for revenue generation.

If government agencies classify telecoms infrastructure as the same as other utilities, the private sector will not face such a huge challenge in trying to raise capital, deploy infrastructure, and contribute to achieving targets set in the National Broadband Plan.

It is vital that the Critical National Infrastructure law passes soon and we are trying to push this through. The bill will impact all critical infrastructure and not just telecoms and it is good to see organisations from other sectors also join forces.

Industries are becoming increasingly reliant on technology to operate, and resilient connectivity and power networks are no longer a luxury but a necessity to many companies. For a country already struggling with economic challenges, it is a no-brainer to do everything we possibly can to reduce the disruption of service delivery.

Another key fact to keep in mind is that, the passing of this bill will ensure an increased investment from international organisations, as they will no longer be concerned about the vandalism of their infrastructure.

There are numerous articles penned on the opportunities that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will bring to the African continent. However, none of these opportunities will be realised to their true potential unless we roll out 5G, and this is not just limited to Nigeria, but the entire continent.

It is common knowledge that 5G will usher in a new era of connectivity and capabilities unheard of on the continent and even globally. Nigeria’s still does not have national 4G coverage, but the demand from end-users and enterprises is being met by 4G technology.

There is no perceived urgency for 5G, and I don’t see this changing in the short term. However, 5G is coming; government has issued 5G licenses, and some of the MNOs have started their 5G rollout.

At Liquid, we want to provide our customers with the best-in-class service and therefore we are constantly looking to partner with the public sector to ensure that Nigerian have access to 5G. The successful rollout of 5G ensure that Nigerian businesses have access to the latest technologies that level the playing field against their international counterpart.

While the infrastructure gap is massive, it also presents a great opportunity; it will require collaboration between the private and public sectors to solve the challenges of right of way and infrastructure ahead of the 5G rollout.

The deployment of fibre-to-the-tower involves a complex dynamic between the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) tenant, the tower company (towerco), and the fibre company (fibre).

The MNO is the ultimate beneficiary, as they rely on the fibre infrastructure to support their operations. To establish a viable and sustainable monetisation model, a revenue-sharing arrangement based on capacity utilisation between the towerco and fibre is considered the most practical approach.

Under this model, the MNO pays for the capacity they use for the fibrecos, and as the tenant to the tower, the towerco takes a percentage of this revenue. While the model can be fixed-fee, revenue share tends to be the most effective approach.

Liquid has started discussions with a couple of towercos for a PoC to explore this and it is important that the MNO participates in the discussion to plan for future capacity based on their demands.

We operate in many off-grid environments, so when we plan our networks, we do not factor in grid supply to source our energy needs. While diesel generators are the go-to, we are also installing renewable energy sources to transition towards greener and more cost-effective networks.

We also look for equipment which helps us maximise our solar power networks, especially in resilient backup to last through the night. ESCOs are a great solution to help us reduce our power OPEX, but we need to see bigger players in the market who can support our energy demands.

We do engage ESCOs on some localised projects, especially to reduce reliance on energy-intensive diesel generators. However, we partner with Distributed Power Africa, a renewable energy provider under the Cassava Technologies house of brands to cater to our customised renewable energy needs.

The capital that has driven Nigeria’s telecom industry so far has come from development finance institutions, but the fresh capital to support the country’s digital transition will have to come from international stakeholders.

It’s important for governments to create the right policy framework to help the ease of doing business. Nigeria has set up a new office to help investors evaluate opportunities in the country with fair returns on investment without having to deal with any local barriers.

So far, the technology space has attracted a lot of international attention and making digital infrastructure an attractive asset class. New policies have been rolling out to support the follow of investment into Nigeria.

Even the National Broadband Plan is underpinned by a lot of investment incentives by the Nigeria Inventive Promotion Council, providing ‘sweeteners’ to potential investors. A new infrastructure fund has also been launched to help push capital into this growing sector.

The private sector will ultimately be taking the risk, but with the World Bank, IFC, and African development banks seeing the potential in Nigeria, we should be able to create a space that attracts private investors. We want to make sure that people can invest safely here as there is much opportunity for those who do invest.