The Federal Government has revealed that it targets N390 per gigabyte by 2025.
The federal government through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, say this will be achievable through its planned 70 percent of broadband penetration.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, said this while delivering a keynote address at a conference and exhibition of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), in Abuja.
“The plan is carefully designed to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria. A minimum of 25Mbps in urban areas, and 10Mbps in rural areas.
“With effective coverage available to at least 90 per cent of the population by 2025 at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data as well as penetration rate of 70 per cent by 2025,”
According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report, the Minister at the event theme, “Realising the New Set Target of 70 per cent of Broadband Penetration”, said, the event was aimed at x-raying the current level of broadband penetration, and consider areas of improvement, not only to achieve the 70 per cent broadband penetration but exceed it, adding that broadband remains the backbone of a digital economy.
“We are all aware that broadband supports the development of the digital economy and a focus on growing the national digital economy will also improve and diversify the nation’s traditional economy.”
Pantami, expressed confidence in achieving the target riding on the back of positive indices in 3G and 4G population coverage.
“Our confidence in this is based on the strength of positive indices in 3G and 4G population coverage, which are presently at 83.65 per cent and 62.55 per cent respectively,”
He further said, that in the first quarter of 2022, broadband penetration stood at 42.27 per cent, while he recalled that at July 2021, the broadband penetration was 39.79 per cent.
He added that, industry experts had identified that, 10 percent increase in broadband penetration would increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of an economy by between 1.6 percent and 4.6 percent.
On possible challenges the Minister said, multiple taxation and regulation, non-conformity with agreed Right-of-Way (RoW) charges, difficulty in obtaining approvals and permits are the present challenges of broadband.
He further added that, burdensome taxes and levies on the industry had stifled needed investment in telecommunication infrastructure.
Pantami, represented by the Director of IT Infrastructure Solution Department, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Usman Gambo Abdullahi, closed with an expression of confidence that the figure would continue to increase and surpass the set mid-term target of 50 per cent penetration by 2023.
President of ATCON, Mr Ikechukwu Nnamani, said the initiative was a positive way to lead development across all sectors of the economy.
“We are exploring and taking inventory of where we are in terms of the broadband target that has been set.
“We all know this is critical to the digital economy we are trying to build, which is why the broadband plan must be implemented and achieved,”
