The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it has already commenced the consolidation of the set targets of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025 with the directive issued to Infraco licensees to commence the immediate roll-out of optic fibre cables (OFC) as contained in their license agreements to all the LGA headquarters in Nigeria.
The NCC said that though it has done this by giving Infracos freehand to start from viable areas and gradually move to unviable areas while the expected counter-part funding from Government is being finalized, it is obvious that both government, the industry and other stakeholders need to aggregate their potentials and expertise to achieve these targets.
Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta stated these on Thursday at the ‘Virtual Structured Engagement With Key Stakeholders In The Nigerian Telecom & It Sector On The New Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025’ organized by the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).
Danbatta who titled his presentation “Aggregating the Potential of the Sub-Sector to Meet the New Broadband Set Target Of 70%,” disclosed that an equally important consolidation in the area of spectrum availability is the Commission’s finalization of the Spectrum Trading Guidelines as well as its collaboration with NigComSat that will make available 400MHz of prime spectrum for Next Generation Network deployment in the near future.
Represented by Dr. Austine Nwaulune, Director, Digital Economy at the NCC, Danbatta said that collaboration with State Governments has also seen the adoption of the N145/m or outright waiver Right-of-Way (RoW) by six (6) State Governments.
He said that although, more needs to be done by the States and Local Governments to ensure full adoption and cascading of the decision for implementation adding that this notwithstanding, the Commission will not relent in its effort towards addressing the issue of Right of Way (RoW).
“The Commission’s regulatory thrust towards enabling National Roaming, approval of e-SIM and 5G trials have also aggregated the efforts of the industry players towards achieving the set target,” Danbatta stated.
The EVC said that although, there was a 3% decline in the broadband penetration from a peak of 45.93% in October 2020 to 42.93% in January 2021, which was largely as a result of the suspension of registration of new SIM cards in December to facilitate smooth linkage and synchronization of the SIM-NIN databases that will not only address some of the security challenges being faced today by the country but will help determine the truly unique numbers in the Country thus further guiding her towards achieving the 70% penetration target.
“The NNBP 2020-2025 has raised the performance bar for the whole telecom industry, however, being a document crafted by experts and executives, there is no reason why it cannot be achieved to put Nigeria on a firm pedestal of nations with broadband access.
“I wish to assure you that the Commission shall continue to proactively provide the necessary regulatory interventions which will facilitate the achievement of not only the 70% broadband penetration target but other associated targets as well which will truly transform our economy into a Digital Economy,” Danbatta said.
DigitalTimesNG understands that Some of the targets of the NNBP 2020-2025 include, achieving 15Mbps & 25Mbps internet speed in rural and urban areas respectively by 2025; interconnection of 90% of all LGAs by fibre; 70% population penetration; and 100% of Tertiary Institutions to be within 5Km of a fibre PoA.
Others include 60% of all telecom towers to be connected by fibre; connection of one major hospital or General hospital per LGA via fibre; reduction of average cost of data to N390/Gb or less and establishment of at least one (1) local assembly or manufacture of smart devices; and reduction of Right of Way (RoW) to N145/m among other targets.