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2. Growth of information technology

Historical Perspective

It is on record that the electronic digital computer made its first appearance in Nigeria in 1963, in connection with the analysis of the 1962/63 national census data.³ In the 10 years between 1963 and 1973, the total computer population in the country stood at 20-25, with 6 or so of these being associated with the multinational companies. By 1977 the total number of installations had grown to around 70. It was by this time that many universities, government departments, and parastatal organizations, including the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and the Federal Office of Statistics, as well as many banks and commercial firms, began to show interest in computers.

Up to 1977 there were only three computer vendors in Nigeria. They were JCL, IBM, and NCR, and all three were the local subsidiaries of overseas computer manufacturers dealing almost entirely with mainframes and minicomputers. In 1977, the government promulgated the indigenization decree, which set apart some categories of industrial activity exclusively for participation by Nigerian nationals, while stipulating a minimum of Nigerian interest in others. One of the three original vendors, IBM, did not want to comply with the decree, choosing instead to pull out of the country.

The decree produced two other important effects. First, there was an influx of indigenous vendors in the computer business. Secondly, the keener competition in the industry led to more aggressive marketing policies. As a result, the number of computer installations in the country rose sharply. Whereas 39 computers were installed in 1975-1977, 1978-1980 witnessed the addition of 197 new installations. There were 149 new installations in 1981-1983, and a further 99 in 1984-1986.⁴ Already by the end of 1982, the price of crude oil was beginning to drop sharply in the spot market; and this marked the beginning of the foreign exchange debacle and the attendant import restrictions.

Table 3.3 lists some important milestones in computer usage in Nigeria.

Computer diffusion

The Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) has conducted periodic but unpublished censuses of computer installations in Nigeria; the latest of these gives the position at the end of 1984.⁵ Published computer statistics began to appear in 1983 when the first edition of the Nigerian Computer Users' Directory (NCUD)⁶ was published. The second edition of the NCUD appeared in 1985 and the third edition in 1988. The availability of this directory permits more accurate statements to be made regarding computer diffusion in the various sectors of the economy. The data contained in the directory must, however, be treated with caution.

Table 3.3. Milestones in IT usage in Nigeria

Table 3.4. Growth of industrial computer installations since 1977

Source: Ref. 6.

Fig. 3.1 shows the growth of computer installations from 1974 to 1988, broken down into three categories, namely:

Fig. 3.1. Growth of computer installations in Nigeria, 1974-1988 (Source: ref. 7 and ref. 9)

As can be seen in table 3.4, the proportion of total installations going to the industrial sector rose steadily from about 17 per cent in 1977 to 23.5 per cent in 1988. It seems that this showing has been won at the expense of government installations, which from fig. 3.1 appear to be levelling out. (The government share of installations is probably set to rise with the present computer sales drive targeted at the local government administrations, which are now beginning to function effectively as the third tier of government.⁷)

Geographical Spread

The state-by-state distribution of computer installations in Nigeria, using data from the NCUD (1988), is shown in table 3.5. Lagos State leads the field with 72 per cent of all installations, followed by Oyo State (5.0 per cent), Kaduna (including Katsina State) (3.9 per cent), Bendel State (3.1 per cent), Anambra (2.9 per cent), and Kano State (2.2 per cent). The other 14 states share less than 11 per cent.

Table 3.5. Distribution of computer installations by state, 1988

Source: Ref. 6, 3rd edn.
a. Includes Akwa Ibom State.
b. Includes Katsina State.

The position of the Lagos metropolis as the political, commercial, and industrial capital of Nigeria, as well as being the base of practically all computer vendors in Nigeria, easily explains its dominance in computer usage. Oyo, Kano, Kaduna, and Bendel states, each with more than 2 per cent of the installed computer capacity, are also known to have a significant concentration of industries.

Computer Types

Table 3.6 shows the percentage distribution of types of computers used in Nigeria (all sectors) from 1979 to 1988. The growing population of microcomputers is hard to estimate, as has already been noted. It is however certain that the trend is towards the increasing use of microcomputers: "the trend in computer sales in Nigeria indicates that older computerized companies and institutions with mainframes, as well as those newly computerizing (with or without mainframes or minis), are all investing substantially in desktop micros."⁸

Table 3.6. Types of computer installation, 1979-1988

Sources: 1979 - ref. 10; 1983 - ref. 5; 1985 - ref. 6, 2nd edn; 1986 - ref. 4; 1988 - ref. 6, 3rd edn.

Computer Brands

Using figures compiled by the NCUD, the distribution of installed computers among the leading brands (1988) is shown in tables 3.7-3.9. With the mainframes, the most popular computers are NCR (22 per cent), IBM, and ICL (each with 21 per cent of the total). Others are Wang (18 per cent) and Cyber CDC (13 per cent).

With minicomputers, the leading brand is NCR (24 per cent), closely followed by ICL (23 per cent). Monroe (LC) (15 per cent) and Digital (PDP and VAX) (12 per cent) are also well represented.

In the area of microcomputers, the IBM personal computer (PC) is the clear leader (43 per cent); Apple (20 per cent) and Tiger (16 per cent) are also well represented. The figures need to be adjusted to take account of undeclared micros. The journal Computers in Africa estimated that there were 350,000 microcomputers in Nigeria in 1988.⁹ This figure, which includes home computers as well as microcomputers used in institutions and commerce, is probably an overestimate.

Source of Imports

Table 3.10 shows the importation of digital computers by country of origin in the first six months of 1988; table 3.11 gives the importation of off-line data-processing (DP) equipment for the same period.

The total value of computer-related imports for the first six months of 1988 is N90,616,100, made up as follows:

Table 3.7. Brands of mainframe computers in use, 1988

Source: Ref. 6, 3rd edn.

Table 3.8. Brands of minicomputers in use, 1988

Source: Ref. 6, 3rd edn.

Table 3.9. Brands of microcomputers in use, 1988

Source: Ref. 6, 3rd edn.

Table 3.10. Imports of digital computers complete by country, January-June 1988

Source: Federal Office of Statistics.

Table 3.11. Imports of off-line data-processing equipment by country, January-June 1988

Source: Federal Office of Statistics.

3. IT policy

Nigeria does not as yet have an IT policy, although at almost every gathering of computer people in Nigeria there is a call for a national computer policy and a high-powered executive authority to give effect to the policy.

Government has however from time to time taken a stand on some specific IT issues and these are discussed in this section.

Central Computer Committee

In the late 1970s the federal government set up a committee known as the Central Computer Committee, charged with the task of assembling available national data on computing. The committee was expected to develop standards for users, vendors, and consultants on computer projects as well as to develop inputs for a national policy on computing. As this was a period of import restrictions, the committee had the additional function of reviewing all applications for the importation of computers and making recommendations to the Ministry of Finance for the grant of import licences. The latter function tended to dominate the activities of the committee. But, with the advent of import deregulation (one of the gains of SAP), the committee can now be fairly said to be moribund. One of the former members of the committee has stated that the committee succeeded in making recommendations for a computer policy;'¹⁰ if so, the recommendations do not seem to have seen the light of day, nor is there any apparent policy action stemming therefrom.

Committee on Micro-electronics

In 1986, an advisory panel set up by the minister to discuss micro-electronics development in Nigeria made a number of far-reaching recommendations, which included:

• a programme of short-term activity directed towards the development, design, and fabrication of prototypes of microprocessor-based systems;
• the creation of activity centres for the implementation of the short-term plan;
• the foundation of a Technology Development Centre;
• the formation of a national committee on high-technology microelectronics.

The recommendations came at a time when a National Science Fund was being set up, and so funding seemed to have been assured. Although the plans are still at the gestation stage, there is evidence that they are being vigorously pursued.

Overall there are signs that the federal military government and state governments are taking the computer question very seriously. For example, the Anambra State Government has been at the forefront of giving moral and financial support to the initiatives at the state's University of Science and Technology to develop a computer manufacturing capability.

Research Institutes

Of the nation's 22 or more federally funded research institutes, two are being designated centres of excellence for high technology. These are the Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO) at Lagos and the Projects Development Institute (PRODA) at Enugu. These two centres are expected to play an important role in IT developments, especially in manufacture.

Assessment

However encouraging these government initiatives may be, they are not a substitute for a coordinated national strategy for computer development in the country. The case for government intervention is all the stronger because, in a developing nation, government, by tradition and sheer resource base, plays a preeminent role in all aspects of national development. This issue is discussed in Foster et al.¹¹

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