Nigeria’s Communications Commission has announced that the framework for the implementation of the National Broadband policy has been concluded. The actual implementation of the policy is set to start at the end of October.
The country’s National Broadband Plan was submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan in May this year, and aims to increase the nation’s broadband penetration by fivefold by 2018.
Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Eugene Juwah said that the National Broadband policy has attracted the interest of many investors, but warned that no progress will be made until the framework has been revised by consultants.
“We have number of international consultants working on it and I can tell you that we have had a great deal of interests from the United Kingdom (UK), Europe, United States of America (USA) and China about the work we are doing but nothing comes out until the framework are well prepared by the consultants and the rules of the game for investments announced,” he said.
Stressing that the policy will kick off in October, Juwah said that the public will be kept up to date with progress. “This I can assure you is going to start towards the end of October this year. You are again going to be summoned to another public forum in which all this will be discussed in details.”
The drive home the implementation of broadband penetration, Juwah added that Nigeria’s Federal Government is actively involved in the process.
“As you may know there is a government broadband plan, which was produced by a committee that was inaugurated by the Minister of Communications Technology, Omobola Johnson, recently, which was presented and approved by President Goodluck Jonathan. NCC plays a big role in this plan and our earlier initiative has been keyed into this plan. The ministry and the agency of government are involved in the spade work.”
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
