The World bank says with what Nigeria has done so far in the area of broadband penetration and internet connectivity; the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy of the country (NDEPS), is on course.
The World Bank Country Director, Shubham Chaudhuri stated this while speaking on the sidelines of the maiden Digital Economy Regional Conference in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The two-day conference has as its theme: “Positioning West African Digital Economy for the Future.”
Chaudhuri said: “The minister also did talk about broadband penetration. It is really making sure that no one is left behind so if you are talking about poor families, some place in the northern states, in a remote rural area, I think the key is, how do we make sure that every person, no matter where they are in Nigeria has that same access to the digital economy.
“Nigeria’s young population has tremendous potential but you have to ensure that there is equal access. In places like Lagos, Abuja there is a lot of dynamism already but what the Minister has said is getting that access out to the rural areas so that every child, every young person has that access.
“That is going to be key. And I think the telecom sector, the digitally enabled sector has been quite key to Nigeria’s resilience in the last two to three years,” he said.
The World Bank Country Director, further said there was great potential in Nigeria’s digital economy but emphasised the need for more reforms going forward.
“One, is for states to make it easy for private firms to lay the fibers, to actually invest and the second is digital skills which is making sure that young children from ealier on and especially the girl child has access to digital skills so that they can be able to contribute to areas of growth going forward,” he added.
Nigeria’s Minister of Comminications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami,
while speaking, stated that by April this year, every state in Nigeria would have federal government optic fiber cable coverage.
Professor Pantami further said that the price of data in the country has in the last two years been reduced by 70 percent despite rising cost of production.
“As of today, we are providing federal government optic fiber cable to every state. We have them in nothing less than 34 states and by April this year, it will be available in each and every state.
“In Nigeria’s National Broadband plan we have a target to reduce the price of 1 gigabyte from 1200 to 390 Naira but as of today, two years before the deadline, the current price of 1 gigabyte is 350.
“The reduction of more than 70 per cent is a huge achievement because the price of every other commodity increases.
“If you complain about diesel the ICT sector consume more diesel than any other sector. We are affected by cost of diesel, we are being affected by forex, but yet the price is coming down, why? Because we always work harder to ensure that we reduce the cost of production.”
The Minister said the Digital Conference was necessitated by the need for the various West African countries to converge and brainstorm on how to boost the continent’s economy using Information Communication Technology (ICT).
“If you look at our economy growth, it is lower than our population growth. There are situations where the population growth is higher than the economic growth.
“This by implication if care is not taken, means the poverty will continue to increase within that population and in this context within the Africa continent.
“It is because of this we feel it is necessary to be proactive to organise the West African region so that we can come together and see how we can compliment each other.
“This is to make sure that our sub-region is specific and our continent in general is very successful.”
