The Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), today called on the private sector players in the country’s Information and Communications Technology industry to complement the government’s efforts in order to achieve the 70 percent broadband penetration target.
The President of ATCON, Engr Ikechukwu Nnamani, who made the call at a virtual structured engagement with key stakeholders in the Nigerian Telecom & ICT sector on the new national broadband plan 2020 – 2025, said the call becomes necessary owing to the visible benefits of broadband, especially in a digital economy, which is vigorously being pursued by the federal government.
“With Nigeria’s broadband penetration increasing by 10% over the previous year from 33.3% to 43.3%, we are encouraging every segment of the sector to double their efforts in terms of encouraging further penetration so that we can surpass that of 2020. This we must do as private sector players to support all the government’s efforts,” Engr. Nnamani said in his welcome address.
Commending Dr. Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy for his tireless efforts towards resolving key challenges facing the industry and also advocating for the speedy implementation of the national broadband plan, the ATCON President noted that the high-powered virtual event is put together to have a conversation around the New National Broadband Plan 2020-2025 with a view to ascertaining the status of the implementation.
He added that the event would also help the industry identify any bottlenecks to the successful implementation of the New National Broadband Plan that may still exist, and proffering lasting solutions to issues that are likely to constitute an obstacle to the eventual realization of the 70% Broadband penetration target.
Dr. Isa Pantami, had last year announced that Nigeria’s broadband penetration increased by 10% over the previous year, from 33.3% to 43.3%. he promised that with the government’s policies and programmes, it is hoped that 2021 penetration would surpass that of 2020.
The virtual structured engagement with key stakeholders in the Nigerian Telecom & ICT sector on the new national broadband plan 2020 – 2025, which was organized by ATCON was well attended by all stakeholders in the industry.
Notable among the stakeholders are the Minister of Communications and Digi9tal Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof. Umar Danbatta, Director-General/CEO, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Mr. Kashifu Inuwa and Director-General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Aziz Abubakar.
Others are CEOs of companies such as Huawei, Liquid Telecom, Galaxy Backbone, Broadbase Communication, MainOne, Airtel Networks, Medallion Communications, NIGCOMSAT, PPC, ATC, VDT Communications, Rack Center and IpNX.