The Federal Government has sought the support of the Swedish government for the deployment of more robust broadband infrastructure in Nigeria.
While speaking through the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Danbatta, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami disclosed that Nigeria had embarked on a digital transformation journey
“We have a plan to move the massive capacity from the landing point to hinterland. To do that effect, we know we have to put in place the necessary infrastructure that will facilitate it. We would, therefore, like the Swedish Government to buy into this great idea of deploying this massive broadband infrastructure which is fiber-driven,” Pantami was quoted as saying.
The minister said efforts are ongoing to ensure evacuation of the massive data capacity at landing points to hinterland, adding that the project will see quantum access of 10 gigabytes per second in each of the 774 local governments of the country.
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Speaking during a dinner hosted by Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria, Carl-Michael Grans, Pantami said, “The statistics are there for all to see. The broadband penetration, for instance, is about 40 per cent. But this is 40 per cent of close to 200 million people, which translates to about 80 million Nigerians having access to high-speed Internet together with the volume associated with broadband networks.”
On Internet penetration in the country, Pantami observed that figures recently released by the NCC indicated that almost 125 million Nigerians had access, but lamented that close to 31 million Nigerians were still within unserved and underserved areas.
The minister, however, noted that Nigeria achieved its five-year National Broadband target of 30 percent in December 2018 and since then, the level of penetration had remained steady.
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