Dr Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, on Wednesday said the fibre-to-home internet connectivity project by West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) would boost the nation’s digital economy.
Tijani said this at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and WIOCC group in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the sum of 10 million dollars will be invested in the fibre-to-home internet connectivity project.
Tijani said that WIOCC’s investment in fibre-to-home, offices and institutions would boost the nation’s digital economy, adding that Nigerians would have option of better, faster and affordable internet for digital connectivity.
“This collaboration with WIOCC Group represents a significant step forward in our commitment to ensuring that Nigerians have access to reliable and high-quality telecommunications services.
“We are committed to building a resilient digital infrastructure that fosters innovation, inclusion, and economic growth.
“Telecommunications service providers will continue to invest, but at the same time, at a rate; they have to ensure that their businesses are sustainable, not at a rate that will become challenging for our people.
“We are encouraging investment in different parts of the value chain that gets connectivity to people and one of those areas that Nigerians have not truly benefited from is things like fiber-to-home.
“We mostly rely on connectivity on our mobileon the go. But there is immense opportunity to also stay connected while you are home.”
Tijani, while speaking on the MoU, said the ministry had already been working on the similar project in places like Lagos and other few states.
According to him, the Federal Government will like to work with companies like this to help them seamlessly deliver their goals across the entire country, and not just in those few states.
” It is going to put Nigeria into a position where the people have got access to world class and high speed broadband internet, not just in the major cities, but in the rural and the unconnected locations.
” We also want to see how they can support more small businesses to be able to deal with other services across the country.
“Working with the private sector to deliver last-mile connectivity to homes and businesses, amongst other key benefits, is essential to achieving this vision.
“We are excited about the opportunities this collaboration creates for empowering communities across Nigeria”.
Speaking on the recent approval for tariffs hike for telecom services providers, the minister said it was a very difficult decision for the government because there was clarity on the role of connectivity in the society and development within the government.
“We appreciate that our goal of building a one-trillion dollar economy will need to ensure that connectivity is at the heart of that, because productivity is key for you to truly be able to build an economy that is strong,” Tijani said.
Earlier, Darren Bedford, the Group Chief Business Development Officer of WIOCC, said the company had a target of three million homes in the first phase of the project with the initial investment capital of 10 million dollars.
Benford said that the MoU would underscore commitment to supporting Nigeria’s digital transformation by working together.
According to him, it also aims to create a robust digital ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders and drives sustainable economic growth.
He said the project would have a big impact due to the fact that most of Nigeria is unconnected at the moment and majority of businesses and people in their homes have to rely on mobile internet.
“They do not have access to true high speed broadband. I think this is the first step to create this environment and to bring this to the Nigerian people.
“We have set our ambitions at a reasonable target during the course of the rollout for those three million homes, we will re-evaluate. We have done a realistic initial plan that we think is achievable.
“As we improve how we roll out and develop internet across Nigeria, that will increase over time and we will be able to connect more people.
“At the moment, we are doing an initial investment of 10 million dollars and this will grow over time, as we raise and invest more capital into Nigeria,” he said.