The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive (EVC/CE) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta has stated that 119 million subscribers now have access to the Internet in Nigeria as at April 2019.
He made this statement with the intent of emphasizing that broadband services are transforming the way and manner people live, work and play, and in patterns and tempo humanity never witnessed before. This revolution according to the NCC Chief Executive, finds expression in education, agriculture, healthcare, commerce, transportation, governance and other sectors of the economy.
Danbatta affirmed this at the 7th Digital Africa Conference and Exhibition which took place in Baze University, Abuja where he was represented by Abigail Sholanke, NCC’s Director of Projects.
Danbatta also noted that broadband penetration which stood at 8.50 percent as of 2015 had risen to 33.70 percent as at April 2019.
The EVC 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 the auction of the frequency spectrum in some bands as well as spectrum re-farming in order to optimize 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 fiber to more remote areas of Nigeria.
In the end, Danbattta, therefore, 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.
