The need to boost broadband penetration from its present coverage of
37.8 percent to over 70 percent in the next five years is the pedestal
for the new National Broadband Plan (NBP):2020-2025, according to
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami.
Besides this, the Minister said, pervasive broadband penetration will
certainly make Nigeria a truly digital economy. He spoke yesterday at
the inauguration of a 25- member committee in Abuja.
The new NBP 2020-2025 is sequel to the first NBP 2013-2018. The new NBP
Committee has Ms. Funke Opeke, Managing Director/CEO of Main One Cable
Company Limited, as Chairperson with Dr. Bashir Gwandu as Co-Chairman.
Engr. Ubale Maska, the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services,
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as the Secretary to the
Committee. Maska will be supported by four staff of the Ministry in the
secretariat.
The Committee is to develop a new National Broadband Plan that will be
the guiding template for the development of this very important area of
telecommunications. The Committee is to take a critical look at where
the country is after painstaking review of the 2013-2018 phase and the
status of penetration now. The members are enjoined to also examine the
challenges with a view to proffering solutions thereto. They should also
look at the position of growing and emerging technologies among others.
The new NBP has the collaboration and support of the United Kingdom (UK)
Government.
The inauguration of the new Committee was a follow-up to the launch of
the National Policy for Digital Economy and Strategy by President
Muhammadu Buhari, in November 2019. The Policy has eight pillars among
which are Developmental Regulation, Digital Literacy and Skills, Solid
Infrastructure, Service Infrastructure, Digital Services Development and
Production, Digital Society, Emerging Technologies and Indigenous
Content Development.
The Minister told the Committee members to lay emphasis on the third
pillar of the National Policy which accommodates broadband and data
centre, key components for economic growth and promotion of digital
economy. The Committee’s work, he explained, will address significantly
one of the eight pillars and the remaining seven will also run as one of
this all-important pillar.
“The work of this Committee will go a very long way in supporting the
national digital economic policy and strategy for the Federal Government
because digital economy is strategically dominating the world economy
today.” According to Pantami, members of the Committee were selected
based on their competence, integrity and professionalism. “In all these,
Nigeria comes first.”
Ms. Opeke, who responded on behalf of the committee thanked the Minister
for the opportunity to serve and said the target of the committee is to
achieve, at least, 65-70 percent broadband penetration across Nigeria in
the next five years, adding that the objective is technology neutrality
for the right purpose.
“The Minister has set the goal and I am sure the NCC is in agreement,”
Ms. Opeke added, saying “we will look at the work of the last Committee
and what was done, the prospects, the challenges that are still there in
order to come up with a plan to achieve the set objectives.”
“I believe the objective is achievable with sincerity of purpose and
with hard work for these are critical services and infrastructure that
we need to bring to all Nigerians and we’re optimistic that we can
accomplish that goal. There is work to be done on fixed infrastructure
but the reality is mobile technologies are also progressing quite fast
to deliver very capable services to people.”
“We see what is going on with 5G all over the world, so we will address
both at the Committee but I believe our objective is not to favour one
technology over another but to figure out how we can get those critical
services to many more Nigerians. So, we’ll be a mix of technologies but
the objective is not to favour one technology over another or to be
prescriptive but the right technology for the right purpose, the most
competitive technology that enables us to deliver services to all
Nigerians,” Opeke said.
Earlier in his goodwill message, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC,
Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said broadband infrastructure remains one of
the top priorities of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
to ensure people around the world have access to equitable and
affordable broadband, wherever they are and whatever the circumstances
they are in. With adequate broadband infrastructure in place, Danbatta
assured that everything else will fall into place.
“The ability to deliver healthcare, best quality education even to
generations unborn, ability to streamline transportation, meet up with
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ability to transform the
economy into a digital one,” he said, pledging the commitment of the
Board and Management of NCC, especially in the area of driving the
infrastructure that will ensure that critical mass of ICT adoption in
use will in time increase the level of broadband penetration in the
country.
Besides Ms. Opeke, Gwandu and Maska, the 25-member Committee also has
representatives from the academia, NCC, Galaxy Backbone, MTN, Google,
Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Defence Space
Administration, National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), National
Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian
Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited, Association of Telecom
Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), GSM
Association, among others.