Dipo Olowookere
A total of 119 million subscribers now access the internet in Nigeria as at April 2019, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has declared.
Addressing participants at the 7th Digital Africa Conference and Exhibition, which took place in Baze University, Abuja, Mr Danbatta also said broadband penetration, which stood at 8.50 percent as at 2015, had risen to 33.70 percent as at April 2019.
Represented by Abigail Sholanke, the NCC Director of Projects, Mr Danbatta said the Internet revolution has helped in the development of education, agriculture, healthcare, commerce, transportation, governance and other sectors of the economy.
The NCC chief said broadband services are transforming the way and manner people live, work and play, and in patterns and tempo humanity never witnessed before.
He informed the audience that NCC has instituted a regulatory and licensing framework to further accelerate broadband availability, accessibility and affordability in Nigeria.
The commission has done so through auction of frequency spectrum in some bands as well as spectrum re-farming in order to optimise the resources.
The NCC, according to the EVC, has also licensed Infrastructure Companies (Infraco) across the six geo-political zones in the country to facilitate the cascading of fibre to more remote areas of Nigeria.
However, he stressed the need for strategic collaborations between policy-making institutions and private sector players towards addressing the various challenges slowing down faster development of our digital ecosystem in Africa.
