The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has called for the inclusion of local companies in the implementation of the federal government’s 90, 000-kilometre fibre project.
The President of the Association, Mr. Tony Emoekpere, made the call during an interview with Nairametrics.
According to him, involving local companies in the project would help to deepen local content in the telecom industry and also serve as support for indigenous players in the industry.
“We’ve heard the government talk about the national fiber-optic project, through which they plan to deploy 90,000 kilometers.
“We are looking forward to the actualization this year and we will want the government to ensure that they involve local companies in that project to support local content,” he said.
Lowering the cost of telecom services
The ATCON President added that allowing indigenous companies to participate in infrastructure projects would also help to lower the costs of services in the telecom industry.
“We need to start looking at ways to lower some of the costs of telecom services and the more we localize things like the manufacturing of some equipment, the better for industry,” Emoekpere stated.
- Emoekpere said the industry players are also looking forward to a review of the telecom tariff this year, adding that this would address a lot of issues in the country.
- According to him, the Nigerian telecom sector has a lot of potential for growth this year. He, however, noted that the growth could only be realised through the implementation of the right policies, including the tariff review.
- He added that the review of the tariff would make the industry more attractive and attract more investments.
What you should know
The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, in May last year announced the approval of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to deploy 90,000 kilometers of fibre optic cable across the country.
With support from the World Bank and the federal government’s 50% funding through loans, the project is expected to kick off this year.
According to the Minister, the government would be working with partners and stakeholders from the government and private sector to build the additional fibre optic coverage required to take Nigeria’s connectivity backbone to a minimum of 125,000km.
- He added that that project would also help in increasing internet penetration in Nigeria to over 70% and reduce the cost of access to the internet by over 60%.
- Through the project, Tijani said Nigeria would achieve the inclusion of at least 50% of the 33 million Nigerians currently excluded from access to the internet and is also expected to deliver up to 1.5% of GDP growth per capita raising GDP from $472.6 billion (2022) to $502 billion over the next 4 years.
