The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed Nigeria has over 119 million Internet subscribers as at April 2019.
The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta made the disclosure today at the 7th Digital Africa Conference and Exhibition which took place in Baze University, Abuja.
Danbatta, who was represented by Abigail Sholanke, NCC’s Director of Projects, noted that going by the huge figure, broadband services ultimately transforming the way and manner people live, work and play, and in patterns and tempo humanity never witnessed before.
This transformation, he said, is being witnessed in education, agriculture, healthcare, commerce, transportation, governance and other sectors of the economy.
“As of today, 119 million Nigerians have access to the Internet, while broadband penetration has risen from 8.50 percent in 2015 to 33.70 percent in April 2019,” he declared.
He also assured that gathering that the Commission has instituted a regulatory and licensing framework to further accelerate broadband availability, accessibility and affordability in Nigeria. “We have done so through auction of frequency spectrum in some bands as well as spectrum re-farming in order to optimise 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 fibre to more remote areas of Nigeria,” he added.