The
Federal Government is targeting the transformation of key sectors of
the economy under the new broadband regime, which is expected to fully
take off this year.
Sectors like education, agriculture,
commerce, health, government services, entertainment, security, among
others, are expected to be revolutionised using high-speed Internet,
according to the provisions of the plan.
The plan is aimed at strengthening fixed
Internet access in the country, which is currently very limited, to
complement available mobile Internet services.
This vision, according to the
government, will be driven within the scope of the 2.3GHz licensing
process, which is expected to offer higher speed services for users.
In a recent programme schedule on
broadband access released by the Federal Government through its agency,
the Nigerian Communications Commission, it admitted that there were a
wide range of economic sectors, which needed higher speed Internet
access to be competitive vis-à-vis global happenings and standards.
On the reason behind the move, the
Federal Government said, “The availability of broadband Internet access
has the potential to contribute positively to the growth of the economy
and enable investors to take advantage of the inherent growth in
Internet usage in the country.”
For government services, the schedule
indicated that a lot of projects were currently being stalled owing to
poor Internet access in the country.
It explained, “There is a wide range of
e-government services, which need to be introduced as soon as possible.
These include issuing the National Identity Cards, driving licences and
registration of companies, among many others.
“In order to introduce these services,
individual departments require high-speed Internet access; so, from
government quarters, there is a large latent demand for broadband access
service from providers.”
The Federal Government maintained that
agricultural businesses have a potential need for Internet access in
order to check market prices and find information about the latest
farming practices.
This, it described as critical owing to
the fact that Nigeria is a large country of over 900,000 km square with a
huge and diverse agricultural sector, and having 70 per cent of its
labour force engaged in agriculture.
On its consideration for commerce, it
explained, “There is a considerable market gap for reliable and
affordable high-speed Internet access for both large and small companies
in Nigeria. Companies are very keen to make greater use of the Internet
because of the opportunities to improve efficiency and enable cost
saving.”
The Federal Government also said most
educational institutions in Nigeria lacked reliable and widespread
Internet access, which depicts a large demand for high-speed services.
The high-speed Internet, it explained,
would be used for teaching, learning and researching as well as
improving the efficiency of the organisations.
For entertainment, it stated that there
were several industries in the sector, which would be able to develop
their businesses if high speed Internet access was more widely
available.
“Video streaming services are
constrained in Nigeria because of a lack of broadband services. Nigerian
YouTube usage represents 0.1 per cent of the global total. Being able
to expand this area would greatly benefit the film and television
industry,” it said.
On public safety (security), it said
Close Circuit Television services could expand greatly with access to
high-speed Internet services, as these make the remote monitoring of
video footages much easier.
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