The need to boost broadband penetration from its present coverage of 37.8% to over 70% in the next five years is the pedestal for the new National Broadband Plan NBP (2020 to 2025) in Nigeria, according to Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami.
Besides this, the Minister said, pervasive broadband penetration will certainly make Nigeria a truly digital economy.
The Committee is to develop a new National Broadband Plan that will be the guiding template for the development of this very important area of telecommunications. The Committee is to take a critical look at where we are after painstaking review of the 2013 to 2018 phase and the status of penetration now.
The new NBP has the collaboration and support of the United Kingdom (UK) Government. The inauguration of the new committee is a follow up to the launch of the National Policy for Digital Economy and Strategy by President Muhammadu Buhari last November.
The policy has eight pillars among which are developmental regulation, digital literacy and skills, solid infrastructure, service infrastructure, digital services development and production, digital society emerging technologies and indigenous content development.
“The work of this committee will go a very long way in supporting the national digital economic policy and strategy for the Federal Government because digital economy is strategically dominating the world economy today,” said Pantami, who added that members of the committee were selected based on their competence, integrity and professionalism.
“In all these, Nigeria comes first.”
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