GBB, Jigawa Partner To Boost Digital Inclusion, Infrastructural Development
By Na’ankwat Dariem
Nigeria’s connectivity infrastructure service provider, Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited, Galaxy Backbone Limited and the Jigawa State government in North-West, Nigeria have enhanced collaboration to boost digital inclusion and digital infrastructural development in Nigeria.
This was said when the Governor of Jigawa state, Mr. Umar Namadi, paid a courtesy visit to Galaxy Backbone office on in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
In an interview with Journalists after a tour of the GBB facility, the governor said the state would continue to enhance collaboration with the agency to ensure e-governance, improved revenue generation and Information Technology development in the state.
“Well, there are so many areas we need to collaborate; like as I said, we have started this, so it’s not something new to us, but we have so many plans that we will want to do, that will help us to improve governance, that will help us to improve our revenue, also to use ICT to improve the livelihood of our people.
“So we have so many areas that we need to collaborate, and we have those areas in detail. Let me assure them they are ready to collaborate with us and ensure we achieve it”, the governor said.
On his part, the Managing Director of GBB, Prof. Muhammad Abubakar, said the cardinal role of the agency is to build formidable digital infrastructures and connectivity for the government.
He noted that GBB is committed to ensuring digital inclusion in Jigawa and 36 states across the Nigeria.
“We discussed the kind of service we can render to bring about good governance, enhance revenue generation and digital inclusion in Jigawa state and we intend to cover the 36 federation states.”
Prof Abubakar said that Galaxy Backbone is committed in keying into the Nigeria’s five-pillar blueprint unveiled by Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Dr. Bosun Tijani’s for the industry.
The blueprint highlights the ministry’s plans for the transformative power of digital technology and innovation to strengthen the nation’s economy.
The third pillar, which focuses on infrastructure, would address spectrum management, digital public infrastructure, among others, with a plan to achieve up to 50 percent utilisation of identified spaces for innovation and tech related initiatives.
In view of this, Prof Abubakar said as the main objectives of GBB’s current efforts are to; enhance the strengths of GBB in Service Delivery, and position GBB as a crucial partner to services providers in both the public and private sectors. With high-speed fibre optic cables being laid in across the states of the federation and more to be deployed in the other parts of the country, speed of connectivity will be significantly improved within a short time.
On the Nigeria’s agenda to train three Nigerians three million technical talents to boost digital inclusion in four years, He said the agency will provide the infrastructure to achieve this stride which is key to the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led administration which emphasises that development must be inclusive which will in turn drive the country’s digital economy growth.
He added that “We are an infrastructure company of the government; whoever digital training you will provide if the infrastructure is not there, it comes to nothing. So, our major value proposition is to provide connectivity. We are ready to key into the honorable ministers’ aspiration for the industry“.
We are here as stakeholders as shareholders to discuss about engagement with Galaxy and also to set and agenda of going forward on how we can actively impact on running and get the benefit of Galaxy.
We are here to seek Galaxy collaboration toward accelerating our digital transformation plan that is already in Jigawa, we develop about five policy instruments. Global standard and we look forward to see us connected to the service as well as having a data center in Jigawa to so we seek the GBB support to replicate what they have.
Oyenike Oyeniyi
