India is set to shut out Huawei and ZTE in its 5G roll, signifying escalation of deadly conflict between her and China, which took place in the Himalayan border in May.

Bloomberg reported that India will apply investment rules amended on July 23 that cite national security concerns to restrict bidders from nations it shares land borders with to keep out the companies, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Ministry of Communications will instead return to discussions with private companies, including Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone on approvals for 5G trials. The discussions were halted by COVID-19 lockdowns earlier in the year.

India thus, joins other countries led by the United States, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom in rejecting the 5G technology of Huawei and ZTE owing to their tie with the Chinese government.

The ban is expected to be announced in the next few weeks after the approval of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, according to the sources.

The relationship between China and India soured after the border conflict in early May claimed the lives of about 20 Indian soldiers. India took its retaliation on companies of Chinese origin operating in its territory. TikTok was the first to be banned along with many other apps, and the South Asian giant is widening the scope of its retaliatory actions.

The growing apathy toward Chinese companies in India has offered Indian companies the opportunity to take over their own market. Reliance Jio is set to delve into 5G roll out following owner Mukesh Ambani’s announcement on July 15, that he plans using an in-house developed technology to roll out 5G technology for his Jio Infocomm.

Ambani is counting on his conglomerate to cut the cost of 5G roll out. He said its carrier would not need to spend much to switch to the new system. Amidst calls by the US on its allies to shun Huawei, India is building on the dispute between it and China to promote its own.

Modi has embarked on a ‘made in India’ campaign and the rest of the tech world is running to be part of it. A new wave of interest in India, which is evidenced by the surge in the number of big tech companies investing in the country, sheds light on the changing tide.

Last month, Google invested $4.5 billion for a 7.73% in Reliance Jio, following its $10 billion digital investment in India. Facebook already has a $5.7 billion stake in the telecom giant.

Samsung is on a mission to retake its lead in the Indian market with a new strategy that hangs mainly on offering affordable devices. And that means Xiaomi and Oppo, the leading Chinese brands in India will have to face fierce competition as consumers find Samsung more reliable.

Since June, Samsung has launched seven new smartphones, three of them cost $133,63 (less than 10,000 rupees), including its cheapest Android offering at $75.

But India’s anti-China sentiment comes with a huge price. Telecom companies are expected to invest $4 billion in 5G infrastructure set up, and at a time when India is struggling to contain the ravages of COVID-19, it’s a high price to pay.

Sydney-based analyst at International Data Corp. Nikhill Batra said telecom infrastructure is becoming more of a national security issue, and India has challenges that will compound the infrastructure deficiencies of the industry.

“Telecom Infrastructure has become part of national security assets and nations are looking at controlling and regulating them just like they do power and water. But the Indian market is already battling infrastructure and regulatory problems. The network equipment market is a small one. So India’s challenges will compound from such a decision,” Bartra said.

Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and state-owned companies have had difficulties providing reliable networks with their 4G technology, 5G network therefore seems like an adventure above their scope. Moreover, India has relied heavily on Chinese equipment for its networks, so funding it with equipment from other countries will likely double the cost.

Head of research at SBICAP Securities, Rajiv Sharma said shutting ZTE and Huawei out could increase the cost of 5G roll out by at least 35 percent.

After 20 months, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has published a report on Nigeria’s unemployment rate. According to the statistics, unemployment rose to 27.1 percent in the second quarter of the year, a four percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2018, when the data was last published.

NBS data on unemployment and underemployment showed that a significant number of Nigerians were out of work during the reference period.

“During the reference period, the computed national unemployment rate rose from 23.1% in Q3, 2018 to 27.1%, while the underemployment rate increased from 20.1% to hit 28.6%. A combination of both the unemployment and underemployment rate for the reference period gave a figure of 55.7%.

“This means that 27.1% of the labor force in Nigeria or 21,764,617 persons either did nothing or worked for less than 20 hours a week, making them unemployed by our definition in Nigeria. This is an additional 836,969 persons from the number in that category in Q3, 2018,” the report stated.

In the state category, Imo State recorded the highest unemployment rate while Anambra scored the lowest.

“In the case of unemployment by state, Imo State recorded the highest rate of unemployment with 48.7%. This was followed by Akwa Ibom with 45.2% and Rivers State with 43.7%. The states with the lowest rates were Anambra, Kwara and Sokoto with 13.1%, 13.9% respectively. In the case of underemployment, Bauchi State recorded the highest rate with 43%, followed by Yobe and Adamawa, both with 38.4%,” the report said.

Breaking it down

However, combining unemployment and underemployment, the state that recorded the higher rate was Imo with 75.1% followed by Kaduna with 72.8%. kwara and Oyo recorded the lowest of the combined rate, 34.2% and 34.5% respectively, the report added.

The youths have the largest share of the labor force and are the most affected by unemployment and underemployment. The number of people willing to work under the age bracket of 15-64 was estimated to be 80,291,893, which is 11.3% lower than it was in Q3 2018. Within this age range, those between 24 and 34 were highest with 23, 328,460 or 29.1%, indicating that only 68.7% of Nigeria’s economically active population is in the labor force as of Q2 2020.

Under educational status, the most impacted people are those whose status is below primary school level. They have an unemployment rate of 46.2%, followed by those with first degree and HND at 40.9%.

The report said those with vocational and commercial qualification have the lowest rate of unemployment at 17.9%.

Under age groupings, those between 15-24 years have the highest unemployment rate at 40.8% followed by those aged between 25-34, with 30.7%. Youth underemployment stood at 35.4% for the second quarter of 2020. Those aged between 55-64 recorded the highest rate of underemployment at 31.6%.

The gender groupings indicated that females are the most impacted with 31.6% rate while males recorded 22.95 during the reference period. Among rural dwellers, 31.5% rate of underemployment rate was recorded while urban dwellers recorded 23.2%.

While most Nigerians believe that the unemployment and underemployment rate is underreported, the increase has been attributed to COVID-19 pandemic that forced many companies to lay off workers, particularly in the second quarter of 2020.

But analysts said that Nigeria was already climbing high on the stairs of unemployment before the outbreak of the pandemic. Nigeria was emerging from a deep recession at the outbreak of coronavirus, which plummeted oil revenue and consequently, deflected the country’s GDP.

The oil market was plunged into crisis as industries were shut down following lockdown measures initiated by governments. The central bank of Nigeria was forced to devalue naira, coupled with existing multiple exchange rates in the country, many companies were forced to leave and many workers were laid off.

Against this backdrop, there is overwhelming concern that Nigeria’s economy will plunge into recession soon, which means, more job losses will be recorded in the last two quarters of the year.