The President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Lanre Ajayi has expressed doubt about Nigeria's ability to achieve her set target of 30 per cent broadband penetration from the current 10 per cent, given the slow pace at which the country is addressing broadband penetration.
He said unless President Muhammadu Buhari's led government accelerates the implementation process of the country's broadband plan, attaining the 30 per cent broadband penetration target by 2018 will remain a mirage.
Ajayi who spoke in Lagos recently, after he received the National Leadership Award from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), said although Nigeria has moved up from six per cent broadband penetration to 10 per cent since the introduction of the country's Broadband Plan, the implementation rate by the federal government was rather too slow.
He called on President Buhari to do all he could to ensure speedy implementation, to enable Nigeria catchup with her broadband target.
Ajayi who also blamed the low broadband penetration on weak demand for broadband services in the country, also advised the government to urgently consider putting all its activities online, so that Nigerians who want to interface with government for any reason, will have no choice than to get broadband bundle data, in order to have access to the internet, that will enable him or her interface with the government.
Ajayi who decried the situation where Nigerians still flock around government offices just to have access to some paper documents, said this could be done online, if governments at all levels decided to upload all their activities online.
Apart from increasing traffic of broadband internet users, Ajayi said it would also help achieve transparency in governance and also decongest government offices of people who troop in and out in their large numbers on a daily basis.
He acknowledged that Nigeria has a good five-year broadband plan, which is called the Nigeria's National Broadband Plan (NNBP) from 2013 to 2018, but said the process of its implementation is slow and called of the present government to accelerate its implementation in order to help Nigeria catchup fast with developed countries of the world in the area of technology advancement.
According to him, voice telephony has grown so much in the telecoms sector to the extent that telecoms now contributes eight per cent to Gross Domestic Growth (GDP) of the country, insisting that increased broadband penetration will boost data communications and thus further increase the contribution of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), to the country's GDP.
"Nigeria is not doing well in the area of broadband penetration, which could drive data communication, when compare with voice telephony, and government has to raise its bar and accelerate its implementation in the country," Ajayi said.
Speaking on the benefits of broadband to the country, Ajayi said ubiquitous broadband availability would enhance e-Governance, e-Education like distant learning, e-Health like telemedicine, eCommerce like online shopping, among several others.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Emma Okonji
Quelle/Source: THISDAY Live, 22.06.2015
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