The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, has stated that her committee would work hard to facilitate the speedy rollout of broadband infrastructure in the country.
The minister, who gave the assurance recently, during the second meeting of the National Council on Communications Technology (NCCT), which held in Akure, Ondo State, said the committee was working to remove any bottlenecks to the speedy rollout of broadband infrastructure.
Johnson said: “We have collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Works to streamline and standardise the processes and pricing of Right-of-Way (ROW) on Federal Highways across the country. This has been adopted by the National Council of Works and is now applicable to state highways as well.”
She added, “The National Economic Council last month formally endorsed these guidelines and have also committed to streamlining and standardising the levies that are charged on telecoms infrastructure. Working with the Ministry of Environment we have finally been able to align regulatory agencies on base stations. These are extremely significant achievements and milestones as they have established the predictability of the cost of infrastructure development in the Information and Communications (ICT) sector.”
The minister said the committee’s efforts had helped to reduce the cost of network deployment by ensuring that for every naira that is spent on infrastructure, more is spent on actual infrastructure and less on administration and taxes, as well as shortened the period for application processing.
Speaking on the Connect Nigeria Programme, an initiative of government to increase computer ownership in the country, the minister said, “Under its Connecting Nigerians programme, the Federal Government is promoting the student computer ownership scheme for students in tertiary institutions, continuing with various initiatives to connect schools to the internet, the Nigeria research and education Network connecting universities to the internet and each other via fibre optic.”
According to her, the deployment of additional public access venues, the financial and digital inclusion programme that leverages the extensive assets of NIPOST and collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture to provide connectivity in the rural areas, would facilitate the rollout of the extremely successful e-wallet programme and extend that programme beyond fertiliser subsidy to market and other information farmers need to improve productivity and for rural dwellers.
Also speaking at the event, Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, called for strategic partnership between government and the private sector in order to ensure that Nigeria transits from being a consumer nation to a highly productive one as far as ICT software and tools are concerned. “Nigeria has vast potentials which can be explored and harnessed for the sustainable development of ICT infrastructure for e-governance, health care systems, and food security, among others. But without effective linkages by all players in the broadband infrastructure spectrum, this lofty goal will remain a mirage”, he said. He commended Johnson for what he described as her impressive leadership role in driving technology development in the country.