By Kester Omu
The Nigerian Senate has stressed the needs for government at all levels to formulate policies that would engender investment into the Nigeria’s Information and Communication Technology, saying such investment would lead to increased broadband penetration.
The Senate stated this when its Committee on Information and Communications Technology and Cybercrime led by its chairman, Senator Buhari Abdulfatai paid a courtesy visit to MainOne’s Data Center, MDXi in Lagos.
According to the Senate, apart from increase broadband penetration, which will ultimately boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), availability of broadband will create jobs, improve the quality of online services and guarantee Nigerian’s participation in the emerging global digital transformation.
“There is an urgent need to formulate policies that encourage investment in the ICT sector to increase broadband penetration,” said Senator Buhari Abdulfatai.
He assured that the Senate is currently exercising its power to facilitate ICT/broadband development and give legal substance to ICT policies including the National Broadband.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Ms. Funke Opeke has called on the Senate to expedite action on legislative processes that will positively impact on infrastructure development, including possible interventions to address some of the challenges bewildering the sector.
Some of the challenges, according to her include multiple taxation, right of way and lack of power. She believes these challenges are crippling telecoms services as a result of the fact that telecom companies are slowing down new infrastructure projects in the country.