The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has said the desire to achieve 30 percent broadband target is not solely dependent on it, arguing that there are other agencies of government who are also mandated to work towards Nigeria’s broadband quest.
Specifically, NCC fingers the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) and Galaxy Backbone.
“The quest to make broadband available, affordable and accessible is not in the hand of NCC alone, but there are other stakeholders like NITDA, NUC and Galaxy Backbone that will work together to achieve the 30 percent target,” Executive Vice Chairman of NCC was quoted as saying.
Danbatta explained that the National Information Technology Development Agency is vested with the responsibility of capacity-building, Nigerian Universities Commission is responsible for stimulating the interest of students towards Information and Communications Technology, while Galaxy Backbone has the role of bringing ICT into governance.
Nigeria had set a 30 percent broadband target to be met before the end of 2018 through the National Broadband Plan (2013-2018), but the country has only achieved 22 percent as of today, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission, the country’s telecom regulator.
This, many industry watchers and analyst described as worrisome, saying the 30 percent target may not be achieved.
But the NCC has on several occasions given the assurance that, given the policies it has implemented, which has led to infrastructure being deployed across Nigeria, the target is achievable.