The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has expressed its total commitment to the implementation of the Ministerial Five Pillars of the Strategic Blueprint aimed at holistically transforming the nation’s economy with a view to achieving 70% digital literacy by 2027; and a capital increase raised by Nigerian tech startups by 50% year-on-year from $1 billion/year in 2022 to $5 billion/year in 2027, amongst other targets.
The NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Dr. Aminu Maida, gave this assurance at the 13th annual Nigeria ICT Impact CEO Forum/Africa Digital Award in Lagos with the theme “Broadband Availability and Potentials of Data Revolution,” highlighting the aspects of the five pillars of the Strategic Blueprint.
According to him, the commission’s Strategic Plan is designed to drive a major part of the overall implementation of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The EVC said the Commission’s focus in the next four years and beyond under the current administration aligned with the government’s digital economy, as encapsulated in the Strategic Plan of the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani.
The Strategic Blueprint, unveiled in October 2023, also highlighted five pillars to include deployment of broadband infrastructure and digital empowerment of 3 million Nigerian youths, among others.
Other pillars of the Ministerial strategic plan are Knowledge; Policy; Innovation/Entrepreneurship and Capital; and Trade.
The EVC assured the commission’s commitment to fully support the target of the Ministry to boost Nigeria’s broadband penetration rate to 70% by the end of 2025 in line with the NNBP 2020-2025, through the laying of 95,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables across the country.
Maida explained: “In the same vein, and in line with the vision of the Ministry, we are targeting the provision of coverage of, at least, 80 per cent of the country’s population, especially the underserved and unserved populations by the end of 2027; we also intend to secure between 300-500 per cent increase in broadband investment by the end of 2027; while we work to reduce the gap of unconnected Nigerians in rural areas from 61 per cent to less than 20 per cent by 2027.
“Other key targets in the Strategic Plan of the Ministry, which has adopted a clear-cut strategy to transform Nigeria’s digital economy sector and which the NCC is committed to, include the plan to deliver data download speed of 25Mbps in urban areas and 10Mbps in rural areas by the end of 2025; achieve a 50 per cent improvement in quality of service (QoS) by 2024; 22 per cent increase in net GDP contribution by digital economy by 2027 as well as increase in investment into Nigeria’s telecommunications sector by 15 per recent year-on-year”, the EVC added.
He pointed out that studies by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and sundry international organizations indicated a correlation between having access to broadband and the growth of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The EVC further clarified: “It has been abundantly established that countries with a high density of broadband networks have higher GDP per capita for the citizens. This is because broadband access becomes a key economic index for improving and measuring the efficiency and productivity of the national workforce.
“An ITU Global Connectivity Report 2022, which provides a detailed assessment of the current state of connectivity and presents solutions to meet this new imperative, notes that: “In the last 30 years, the number of Internet users surged from a few million to almost five billion. Yet, the potential remains untapped because one-third of humanity remains offline, and many users only enjoy basic connectivity”, the NCC boss added.
The ITU report further noted that universal connectivity remains a distant prospect, as Internet penetration has reached 95% of the population in only 13 countries as of 2022.
Specifically, the EVC the report reflected that in “Nigeria and other African countries, Fourth Generation (4G) coverage in urban areas is four times the coverage in rural areas. This is partly because commercial deployment of Internet access is not currently viable or seen as viable in these areas, due to high deployment cost and/or low user demand.”
The EVC recalled that globally and more importantly in Nigeria, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic marked the beginning of a major surge and acceleration in the uptake of broadband and the adoption of digital services by individuals and businesses, the digitalization of governmental services in Nigeria and across the world.
“Most hitherto face-to-face activities have automatically migrated online with an accompanying quest for digital literacy by many to be able to continue to carry out their daily personal and official activities through digital platforms.
“With skit-makers and other content creators delivering humorous and entertaining social content on the internet, data consumption has also significantly increased among social media users”, he added.
He explained that as the regulator of the nation’s highly dynamic telecommunication industry, the NCC had, over the years, introduced sundry regulatory frameworks towards ensuring incremental broadband deployment for available, accessible and affordable connectivity to telecoms consumer.
According to him, post-pandemic, the NCC, working with various stakeholders has continued to explore ways to sustain the growth of broadband networks to address identified digital gaps (demand and supply sides) highlighted by the pandemic and consider steps to overcome these challenges especially in terms of addressing the digital divide.
He also noted that through various policy directions, especially the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025, the Nigerian government had set out ambitious targets accompanied by timelines that aim towards making broadband an enabler of economic growth across all sectors in Nigeria.
Maida further pointed out that “although limited access to high-speed service, lack of advanced IT skills, funding, inadequate infrastructure among several other factors have been identified as the major constraints slowing Nigeria’s internet economy, Nigeria has demonstrated commitment and passion, through various policy and regulatory frameworks, to ensure wider broadband coverage for the country. This is because the data revolution presents great potential and opportunity for the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
“The current administration expects that with improved access to quality and affordable broadband, and upgraded critical services, we would be able to work collaboratively to catalyze a digital transformation that impacts our entire population and to achieve this potential, the NCC will continue to ensure diligent implementation of our broadband strategy to ensure that everybody is carried along.
“As a Commission, we will also ensure effective management of our spectrum resources as pathways for the growth of new and emerging technologies, improvement of businesses and seamless access to government services,” he assured.
He charged stakeholders in the digital economy space to partner the Commission in achieving its regulatory mandate of building robust and resilient broadband infrastructure for Nigeria’s sustainable development.
