With the explosion in digital technologies and data, countries across are grappling with effective ways to address the threats emerging in the digital space as well as provide supportive structure for digital technologies uptake. At present, at least 66 percent of countries in the world has at least a form of data protection laws. By data governance, we mean the processes and laws available in managing the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data in the digital economy. African continent is not left out in the emerging structure with also proliferation of data governance and policies. However, UNCTAD report in 2020 noted that African region has the lowest adoption rate of the new technology and data protection laws.

CSEA has collected vast dataset to dive deep into the scope and coverage of digital development and evolution of data governance principles in Africa. This is under our project - Strengthening Data Governance in Africa. The Digital Governance Index was designed to evaluate Africa's level of digital development. The Index covers 54 African economies and is derived utilizing 21 dimensions to assess performance across three indicators

We performed detailed analytics (click here) on cross-country performance in these indicators.

The index is expected to be an indicator for assessing African’s digital evolution and uptake. This will help to pinpoint early and late adopters of the digital space as well as their pace. With awareness of the Digital Governance Index, governments and key stakeholders can adapt and integrate policy initiatives to strengthen requisite skills, provide efficient and inclusive digital services to all; bridge digital divides to order to fulfill the principle of leaving nothing behind while fostering economic development. Digital Governance Index will provide policymakers at national and regional level with information to support decision on digitalization policies.

Data governance remains a difficult concept to unpack even as efforts to understand what good data governance looks like have recently multiplied across the world. CSEA is leading a number of research activities aimed at clarifying what data governance means for the continent and what should be done to set up governance frameworks in African countries. These include a recent event on African data governance (recording available here), a project and subsequent report on Strengthening Data Governance in Africa, and the African Digital Preparedness dashboard.

The Data Values Project spoke with CSEA Director of Research Dr. Adedeji Adeniran to learn about the current state of thinking on this topic and research priorities and needs for the coming years:

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Nigeria—the largest economy in Africa—signed the AfCFTA on July 7, 2019, becoming the 34th member of the trading bloc. Under the AfCFTA, Nigeria stands to gain from increased access to cheaper goods and services from other African countries, as its intra-African trade is currently low: Indeed, as of 2018, Nigeria’s imports from the African region relative to total imports was at 3.2 percent while the share of Nigeria’s exports to the African region relative to total exports was 13.2 percent. Moreover, in 2020, Nigeria’s main trading partner was actually China.

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The Nigerian health system has suffered several setbacks. It is vastly under-resourced in terms of personnel and medical infrastructure. While this is a widespread problem, conditions in rural areas are often far worse compared to urban ones. Nigeria’s poor health system has resulted in penurious outcomes, prompting stakeholders to call for immediate government intervention. Yet, the government’s health expenditure is still significantly lower than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation of 15% of the annual budget.

Over the decades, the migration of medical doctors from Nigeria has increased. The NOI Poll in 2018 revealed that 88% of doctors in Nigeria were seeking employment abroad. Furthermore, between 2015 and 2021, about 4,528 Nigerian-trained doctors have migrated to the United Kingdom (UK). Even with the pandemic and existing health burdens in Nigeria, doctor’s migration has increased. This worrying trend exacerbates an already deteriorating health system. And it is unlikely to stop, as Nigerian doctors continue to seek better working conditions abroad.

Health Personnel Shortage and Migration

A WHO report revealed that Nigeria has a Doctor-Patient ratio of 4 doctors per 10,000 patients and five hospital beds per 10,000 patients.

With over 200 million people, it would take about 25 years to produce enough doctors to cater to the population, asserts the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). This dire situation can only lead to poor health outcomes. High child and maternal mortality rates are preventable if doctors are readily available. The link between the number of physicians and mortality rates has been documented in the literature, reflecting the negative consequences of doctor shortages in Nigeria.

The primary reason for the large number of medical doctors emigrating each year is the lack of adequate funding in the sector. The 2021 health expenditure accounted for only 7% of the total budget. It is less than the 15% agreed on by African leaders and the WHO in 2001.

According to the NMA, approximately 2000 doctors leave the country each year. The average number of doctors trained in Nigeria and currently practising in the United Kingdom (UK) increased significantly between July 2020 and May 2021 – ranking Nigerian doctors the third highest in the UK.

In 2020 the highest monthly earnings of a Nigerian doctor were about USD 1,365. In Sierra Leone, a doctor earns up to USD 2,000, while doctors in the UK, United States, and Saudi Arabia earn up to ten times what doctors earn in Nigeria. It automatically increases the appeal of emigrating to these countries. Further, the lack of equipment in hospitals in Nigeria and poor working conditions mean that the opportunity cost of emigration is significantly low.

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The Nigerian government and German energy company Siemens AG signed the Nigerian Electrification Roadmap (NER) partnership, also known as the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) in 2019. The Roadmap contains technical and commercial proposals for financing, implementing, and executing projects to revive the Nigerian power sector and manage Nigeria’s future electricity requirements.
The NER is structured in three phases, executed over six years, up to 2025.

• Phase 1 (by 2021): Conducting quick impact projects to enhance the capacity of the existing grid system to utilize stranded generated power capacity, leading to an overall increase in operational power capacity from its current 5GW to 7GW.
• Phase 2 (by 2023): Tackling distribution network constraints, and expanding the grid to further maximize the use of current generation capacities, in order to achieve a combined capacity of 11GW.
• Phase 3 (by 2025): Building out new generation systems, while further modernizing and growing the national transmission and distribution (T&D) systems, in order to reach an overall full operational capacity of 25GW.

FIGURE 1: The NER target by 2025

The NER has made good progress so far…

Determined a financial structure. The Nigerian Electrification Roadmap deal will cost an estimated total of about N1.15 trillion (€3.11 billion).¹ In 2020, all shareholders agreed that:

• 85% of this finance will come from a consortium of banks, guaranteed by the German government through credit insurance firm Euler Hermes.
• 15% will come from the Nigerian government in counterpart funding with a 2–3 year moratorium and 10–12 year repayment period at concessionary interest rates.
  • To enable counterpart funding, the government approved initial offshore and onshore payments of N6.940 billion (€15.21 million) and N1.708 billion (€3.74 million), respectively.²

Ensured political durability. The Nigerian government set up a special purpose vehicle and Project Management Office to ensure the Roadmap’s sustainability through political transitions. These structures intentionally limit the government’s role in policy guidelines and supervision to minimize possible government interference.

Negotiated design. In early 2021, the Nigerian government and Siemens signed a contract for the pre-engineering aspects of the Roadmap, which determined the design, project specifications, commissioning works for T&D systems, network development studies, power simulation and training support services.³

…but there are some looming challenges

Information and institutional bottlenecks. Bureaucratic bottlenecks within T&D companies making it difficult to provide data and access to networks may be a challenge in Phase 1.

Slow progress in metering schemes. The nationwide metering scheme’s slow progress to date could stall plans to deploy a central computing environment for smart meters for both operators and customers

Facilitating capital recovery. The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry’s efficiency in recovering invested capital ultimately depends on successful implementation of the cost- and service-reflective Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO).

Maintaining a fair and transparent procurement process. Committing to a fair and open procurement policy and processes is crucial to local content integration, reduce costs, and target the actual needs of the sector.

Conclusion

The NER’s ambitious plan to address the critical infrastructure deficits in the Nigerian power sector evokes hopes of vitalization across all socio-economic sectors and levels in the country. The NER aims to help eliminate technical and commercial inefficiencies along the electricity value chain, saving over $1bn in annual losses.⁴ The NER could also develop new technical skills and facilitate knowledge transfer that could help revitalize several other sectors, due to the local content inclusion policy mandating opportunities for Nigerian companies to contribute through conducting surveys, modeling, and supplying meters.

Siemens AG’s accomplishment of a similar Roadmap in Egypt, as well as its international reputation in power sector development provides some assurance that the NER is realizable. However, it is unclear whether Nigeria will achieve the Roadmap in the planned time frame, especially given the many possible complications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Endnotes

1. https://nairametrics.com/2020/02/22/nigeria-denies-plan-to-hand-over-electricity-distribution-to-siemens/
2. http://apanews.net/en/news/nigerian-press-focuses-on-approval-of-payments-for-power-deal-with-siemens-others
3. https://www.esi-africa.com/industry-sectors/transmission-and-distribution/pre-engineering-contract-signed-for-nigerias-presidential-power-initiative/
4. https://nairametrics.com/2021/02/23/fg-siemens-ag-sign-contract-for-pre-engineering-phase-of-presidential-power-initiative-ppi/

This Article was first published at Energy for growth hub