The Executive Vice- Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, says the ability of the government to provide electronic services to citizens is hinged on the availability of pervasive broadband penetration.
Danbatta made this known in a keynote address delivered at the maiden edition of the Nigeria e-Government Conference organised by DigiServe Networks in Lagos.
While addressing the topic, ‘E-Government: Powering Governance with Information and Communication Technology’ he said that the commission was working on various initiatives to deepen access to the Internet and broadband services in the country.
Danbatta, who was represented by the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Dr Henry Nkemadu, cited reports from the United Nations, International Telecommunications Union and World Bank to provide information on developments around the prospects of e-government.
He assured that the commission had been working tirelessly to achieve ubiquitous access to the Internet.
Danbatta, who traced the deliberate decision of Nigerian government to embrace e-Government to the National Telecommunications Policy 2000, said that the decision led to the growth of e-services and proliferation of government portals providing all kinds of e-services to citizens.
According to him, the Treasury Single Account and the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System are examples of platforms that enable businesses and stakeholders to enjoy government services electronically.
The EVC further stated that at the centre of e-government adoption was the Internet, which he said was an important infrastructure that must be available to both the government and the end-user citizens, businesses or other stakeholders to ensure effective interaction with the government.
“The commission exceeded its 30 per cent target for broadband penetration in 2018 and will continue its drive towards universal access as detailed in the framework of its eight-point agenda. As at August 2019, 2G subscriptions stood at 122.9 million, corresponding to 64.42 per cent of the population,” he added.
Danbatta said, “Also, there were 49.7 million 3G subscriptions equivalent to 26.03 per cent of the population with 17.3 million 4G subscriptions, representing 9.07 per cent of the population. Broadband penetration on 3G and 4G, which are categorised as broadband networks, therefore stood at 35.10 per cent in August 2019.
“The commission is actively exploring the utilisation of television white space technology to expand affordable broadband services to rural areas, while we have issued Infrastructure Company licences to some organisations to deploy fibre across the geopolitical zones with access points in all the 774 local government areas of the federation,” he said.
The EVC said the commission was expected to increase the number of fibre deployment in Nigeria to 127,000 kilometre from its current 42,000 kilometer of fibre connectivity in the country.
Through the InfraCo initiative, he added, that the commission would add an additional 30,000 kilometer of fibre.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ife Ogunfuwa
Quelle/Source: The Punch, 27.10.2019
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