The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida has reiterated that the NCC under his leadership will support the Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy under Dr. Bosun Tijani, which was unveiled last month.
Dr. Maida, in a keynote address delivered at the 13th Annual Nigeria ICT Impact CEO Forum in Lagos, believes that supporting the strategic plan will boost Nigeria’s broadband penetration rate to 70 percent by the end of 2025 in line with the NNBP 2020-2025, through the laying of 95,000 kilometers of fibre optic cables across the country.
The Strategic Blueprint, unveiled in October 2023 has five pillars and prioritizes deployment of broadband infrastructure and digital empowerment of three million Nigerian youths. Other pillars of the Ministerial strategic plan are Knowledge; Policy; Innovation/Entrepreneurship and Capital; and Trade.
According to Maida, one of the five pillars of the Strategic Blueprint is the “Infrastructure” component, which focuses on broadband accessibility, availability and affordability and is designed to drive a major part of the overall implementation of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
“The NCC, under my leadership will support the target of the Ministry to boost Nigeria’s broadband penetration rate to 70 percent by the end of 2025 in line with the NNBP 2020-2025, through the laying of 95,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables across the country,” he assured.
He noted that in the same vein, and in line with the vision of the Ministry, the NCC is targeting the provision of coverage of, at least, 80 percent of the country’s population, especially the underserved and unserved populations by the end of 2027.
“We also intend to secure between 300-500 percent increase in broadband investment by the end of 2027; while we work to reduce the gap of unconnected Nigerians in rural areas from 61 percent to less than 20 percent by 2027,” he added.
Other commitments of the NCC in tandem with the Strategic Plan of the Ministry, include the plan to deliver data download speed of 25Mbps in urban areas and 10Mbps in rural areas by the end of 2025; achieve a 50 percent improvement in quality of service (QoS) by 2024; 22 percent increase in net GDP contribution by digital economy by 2027 as well as increase in investment into Nigeria’s telecommunications sector by 15 per recent year-on-year.
The NCC also key into the ministerial blueprint, which targets 70 percent digital literacy by 2027; a capital increase raised by Nigerian tech startups by 50 percent year-on-year from $1 billion/year in 2022 to $5 billion/year in 2027; and achieving 25 percent domiciliation of local technology startups by 2027.
Other expectations are to accomplish Nigeria, 60 percent government data digitization by the end of 2026; and the creation of 50,000 Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry jobs by 2026 while also ensuring the accomplishment of a 22 percent net GDP contribution by 2027, among others.