According
to the words of J. O. AJIBOYE (2007) in one of his journals, he said “Being
aware of the catalytic role typically played by mobile telecommunication in socioeconomic
development in African, GSM operators in Nigeria have developed in joint
Economic Development (JED).” JED is a framework to support the government in
the actualization of its objectives as set out in national Economic empowerment
and development strategy (NEEDS). JED outlines the positive multipliers effects of mobile
telecommunication on virtually
every sphere of endeavour in our society. It previews further prospect targets, highlight
challenges and proffer solutions to such challenges and assigns specific roles
to government and operator for father optimization of the benefits of GSM
services.
The summary
of the matter is that the telecommunication sector has not in respect of
tele-densty exceeded its targets under NEEDS. This is essentially due to the
advert of GSM services in 2001 which has resulted in a dramatic increase in the total
number of lines from just above 500,000 to about 12million today, accounting for about 91% of
the total phone (fixed and mobile) market.
In Nigeria,
there has been more expeditions roll out in rural areas covering over 50%
government areas and at least 5,000
communities and village most of the GSM operators are presently building transition
backbones to complete NITEL’S facilities. The result of this will be the
availability of spare capacity that can be utilized by other interests for
conveying data, video and voice. These developments inform Nigeria’s
present rating as the fastest growing telecommunications market in the entire
continent of Africa.
Nevertheless, considering the various
relationships existing between the developed countries and the undeveloped ones
in the world, the pertinent questions now are; Does this Global System for Mobile telecommunication (GSM) have any impact on
Nigerian economy? What is the role of GSM and its effectiveness on rural and
urban dwellers time management? Does it contribute to job creation and crime
reduction? This study is designed to address all the above questions.