The Nigerian Government says it is targeting 70 percent of broadband penetration and not more than N390 per gigabyte by 2025.
The Country’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, said this while delivering a keynote address at a conference and exhibition of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The Conference which had the theme, “Realising the New Set Target of 70 per cent of Broadband Penetration” was tagged “National Strategic Mobilisation for the Actualisation of National Broadband Target of 70 per cent Conference and Exhibition.”
Pantami, who was represented by the Director of IT Infrastructure Solution Department, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Usman Gambo Abdullahi, said broadband was the backbone of a digital economy.
He noted that the event was aimed at x-raying the current level of broadband penetration, and considers areas of improvement, not only to achieve the 70 percent broadband penetration but exceed it.
“We are all aware that broadband supports the development of the digital economy and a focus on growing the national digital economy will also improve and diversify the nation’s traditional economy. The plan is carefully designed to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria. A minimum of 25Mbps in urban areas, and 10Mbps in rural areas. With effective coverage available to at least 90 per cent of the population by 2025 at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data as well as penetration rate of 70 per cent by 2025,” he said.
The Minister explained that it had been identified by industry experts that 10 percent increase in broadband penetration would increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of an economy by between 1.6 per cent and 4.6 per cent.
He, however, said that the government was confident that the figure would continue to increase and surpass the set mid-term target of 50 per cent penetration by 2023.
“Our confidence in this is based on the strength of positive indices in 3G and 4G population coverage, which are presently at 83.65 per cent and 62.55 per cent respectively,” the Minister assured.
He affirmed that this steady increase was as a result of relentless efforts made to address those challenges.
Earlier the President of ATCON, Mr. Ikechukwu Nnamani, in his opening remarks, said that the event was an interactive session.
Nnamani said this was something that would drive the country forward in a positive way and lead to development across all sectors of the economy.
“We are exploring and taking inventory of where we are in terms of the broadband target that has been set. We all know this is critical to the digital economy we are trying to build, which is why the broadband plan must be implemented and achieved,” he said.
