The theme of the forum is: “Internet That Works For All” with sub-themes in the areas of “Accessibility, Infrastructure, Policy and Regulation and Capacity Building and Development”.
The Minister said that rather than using 5G for disunity of the country, it would go a long way in impacting positively in the area of education, health, security management, governance and many more.
“We must ensure 5G deployed is not used against the nation and its unity. Let us use it for the good of our country and benefit of all.
“We are working to ensure that broadband infrastructure is accessible and affordable in the rural communities. It is for this reason that most of our policies are arranged to address the challenges that make internet expensive.”
According to the Minister spectrum are available for 5G deployment. “The Council will release the spectrum to NCC that will administer them to Nigeria on behalf of Federal Government and make sure it reaches all the operators. So that we will be able to have 5G in our country. this will increase broadband penetration and also the speed because 5G is at least 20 times faster than 4G when it is available.”
He, however, noted that in rural communities, only 10 per cent globally, have access to fixed broadband infrastructure, adding that there was a lot to be done in terms of broadband penetration, especially in these areas
The Minister also informed that the use of internet was not a luxury anymore as it was a prerequisite to economic development of the country.
“Internet is no longer a luxury; it becomes a prerequisite to economic development. It becomes a prerequisite to securing a nation; it also becomes a prerequisite to governance activities. It is a forum that brings public sector on one hand and private sector on the other.
“It is because of this that internet is beyond being a luxury or for socialisation but rather an important ingredient for economic development.
“Today without internet most of our social activities will be shut down. In addition, our education institutions need internet to leverage on, also we need internet to leverage on to secure our nation, deliver healthcare services, same with our office, he maintained .”
Pantami noted that “This is very important to discuss about internet that works for all of us. Some of us in the urban areas can access internet and afford to buy it, but unfortunately, some of our citizens in the rural areas do not have access to internet, some have access but cannot afford to buy it,” he said.
He explained that the forum was a strategic place where both private and public sectors interwoven to ensure the goal was achieved for all, adding that, most activities on the social media would have shut down, without the use of Internet.
The Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, said that the internet remained one of the most important and critical resource world over, adding that it is an essential part of the people’s daily activities since COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Internet is governed using a collaborative model of multi-stakeholder approach, thus, everyone who has a stake in the use and future of the internet needs to participate in its governance. Internet governance includes more than just the administration and distribution of internet resources, it also involves fundamental questions of social, cultural and economic participation in a digital society.”
Danbatta said that the outcome of the NIGF 2021 was expected to build consensus among stakeholders on actionable recommendations for both state and non-state actors in the internet ecosystem.
“It will focus on engaging multi-stakeholder nature of the Forum to harness and aggregate productive ideas towards brainstorming the national Digital Economy policies by the Nigerian government,” he added .
The yearly forum gives stakeholders the opportunity to actively participate and make contributions to the development and governance of the Internet in Nigeria
