Technology
Tijani Eyes Considerable Boost to Nigeria’s GDP With $2bn Broadband Project
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has said Nigeria’s new $2 billion broadband project would significantly boost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the current 15 per cent.
Mr Tijani stated this during the plenary session on Smart Growth, Digital Leap hosted by IHS at the 31st Nigerian Economic Summit (NES #31) in Abuja, noting that the project will enable digital inclusion and position Nigeria as Africa’s next global technology exporter.
The Minister described the plan as an audacious bet, stating that fibre-optic broadband and innovation hubs could unlock Nigeria’s long-anticipated digital wealth.
Mr Tijani said the project, with a hybrid financing model of 49 per cent government and 51 per cent private sector, targets universal broadband coverage across all 774 local governments within three years.
“Connectivity is not optional. It’s the foundation of productivity,” he said.
He noted that, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector already contributes about 15 per cent to Nigeria’s GDP.
However, the Minister lamented that broadband penetration remains around 50 per cent, leaving millions of Nigerians offline, adding that a 10 per cent rise in broadband access could raise GDP by two per cent annually, in line with World Bank data on digital economies.
Mr Tijani said the $2 billion plan, supported by partners such as the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), aims to close that gap. He explained that the initiative would also classify broadband as national critical infrastructure, which would fast-track private investment and reduce telecoms operational costs.
He said one notable example of public-private collaboration was the IHS Towers innovation hub project, described as West Africa’s largest.
He said the hub was expected to train thousands of young Nigerians, offering incubation spaces and access to global investors — mirroring tech development models in India and Brazil.
The Minister said the project’s economic impact would extend beyond the technology sector.
The tech expert cited economists’ estimates that improving rural broadband access could add up to $25 billion annually to Nigeria’s agricultural output, supporting export diversification.
Mr Tijani said through the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) Programme, the government plans to train digital workers in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
He also said the government would be looking at boosting other fields including cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data analytics, with four per cent focusing exclusively on AI, stressing that Nigeria could not build a trillion-dollar economy without national connectivity.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing firm, NVIDIA, has made an undisclosed investment in Cassava Technologies.
NVIDIA joins Cassava’s impressive roster of investors comprising Econet Group, British International Investment, DFC, Finnfund, Fund for Export Development in Africa (Afreximbank/FEDA), Gateway Capital, Google LLC, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Public Investment Corporation and Royal Bafokeng Holdings.
Cassava operates across Africa, the Middle East and Latin America through a strong portfolio of business units comprising Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres, Liquid C2, Cassava.ai, and Sasai Fintech, all of which are leaders in their respective sectors.
The organisation will continue collaborating with its partners and customers on the continent and beyond, establishing it as a leading technology company of African heritage.
“Cassava is Africa’s leading technology company, driving the continent’s digital transformation with digital infrastructure and digital services.
“Securing this investment is an important milestone that we expect to unlock additional value from and catalyze the further expansion of our digital infrastructure and services to bridge the digital divide on the continent,” the chief executive of Cassava, Mr Hardy Pemhiwa, stated.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
To deepen access to smartphones and digital services for underserved communities, Airtel Africa Foundation has joined forces with others to train some persons in Rwanda.
This aligns with Rwanda’s ambition to become a knowledge-based economy and complements national programmes such as Connect Rwanda.
The organisation is collaborating with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) and Cisco on capacity and digital skills development under the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Initiative.
The parties will bridge the digital divide and promote digital inclusion by providing free Internet connectivity and digital skills training to underserved communities in the country, in connection with the advancement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
ITU will provide digital skills training content to the DTCs under the Initiative along with other ITU regional capacity development activities. In addition, ITU will facilitate networking opportunities related to promoting digital literacy and inclusion, which will enable access to expertise and best practices.
It was disclosed that Airtel Africa Foundation, through Airtel Rwanda, would equip DTC locations with routers, Wi-Fi and data packages at no cost, ensuring the effective rollout of training and access to digital educational platforms.
According to the chief executive of Airtel Rwanda, Mr Sujay Chakrabarti, the collaboration marks a significant step forward in bridging the digital divide and empowering Rwandan youth with digital skills.
He described the partnership as “a powerful example of what happens when government, private sector, and international organizations come together to empower communities.”
“This partnership reflects our commitment to supporting national development goals and closing the digital divide through meaningful collaboration,” said the Head of Programs at Airtel Africa Foundation, Ms Esi Asare Prah, said on behalf of the chairman of the foundation, Mr Segun Ogunsaya.
“We are honoured to partner with ITU to bring this vision to life and contribute to Rwanda’s journey toward becoming a digitally empowered society,” he added.
Also, the Regional Director for International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Mr Emmanuel Mannaseh, said, “Our partnership with Airtel Africa Foundation begins in Rwanda, where we are joining forces to strengthen digital skills in underserved communities to advance connectivity. This initiative lays the groundwork for broader regional collaboration, as we aim to expand this work to other Digital Transformation Centres across Africa.”
On his part, the chief executive of Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA), Mr Antoine Sebera, said, “What we are seeing here today is partnership in action. Statistics show that 900 million people in Africa remain unconnected, extra effort needs to be made to make sure that no one is left behind.
“This positions Rwanda a step ahead by being intentional to involve the youth. These centres are going to play a transformative role in educating the youth to leverage AI. Digital Transformation is driving the world and Africa or Rwanda cannot be left behind.”
By Faridat Yusuf
OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, has launched a new web browser called ChatGPT Atlas, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and is said to be a big competition to Google Chrome and other browsers.
The new browser, which was announced on Tuesday, aims to change the way people search and browse online. Instead of typing keywords like on Google, users can just talk to ChatGPT inside the browser, and it will summarise information or even do tasks for them.
According to Reuters, OpenAI already has about 800 million weekly users on ChatGPT, and with Atlas, the company is now trying to bring AI into people’s daily internet use.
Atlas allows users to open a ChatGPT sidebar in any browser window to summarise web pages, compare products or even analyse data from websites.
Business Post gathered that there is also an “agent mode” for people who pay for the premium version of the service. This feature lets ChatGPT perform online tasks, to make “improvements that make it faster and more useful by working with your browsing context.”
During the demo, OpenAI developers showed how ChatGPT used Atlas to go on the Instacart website and add items to the cart all by itself.
For now, the browser is available globally on Apple computers (macOS), but OpenAI says it will soon release versions for Windows, iPhones, and Android phones.
Experts say Atlas could become a serious challenge to Google Chrome, which currently controls about 71.9 per cent of the global browser market. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, saw its shares drop by 1.8 per cent after the announcement.
Google, which has majority of the online search market share, has also been trying to improve its browser using its Gemini AI model, which is now part of Chrome for US users.
Analysts believe OpenAI’s new browser might later start showing ads, which could make it compete directly with Google’s advertising business.
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