Nigeria Can Provide Free Internet Services In Nearest Future – NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said it is working towards a future era, where broadband internet connectivity would be provided free for all Nigerians. This is coming on the heels of the recent declaration by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that African governments should provide broadband access as basic rights to their citizens.

This was made know by the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, during a recent interactive session in Kano, where he addressed stakeholders from the North West, North Central and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

However, he said there must be ubiquitous broadband infrastructure across the nooks and crannies of the country, to enable Nigeria attain the future status of providing free broadband internet connectivity for all Nigerians.

“We look forward to when internet connectivity will be free and I know we will get there,” Danbatta said, adding that data transmission through broadband, is the next revolution in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector and “we have repackaged policies to fuel this growth and our 8-point agenda takes good care of this, in ensuring that internet will not only be available, but will also be accessible and affordable.”

Danbatta’s 8-point agenda, which was released recently, covered 2015 to 2020 plan, designed to bring about social benefits and inclusiveness for national development through broadband penetration.
Although the agenda and vision look quite interesting, industry experts said Danbatta has a lot of work to do in driving the people and the processes that will lead to the successful implementation of the agenda and vision for the telecoms industry.

The extra efforts, according to them became necessary, in view of the slow growth of broadband penetration in the country since 2011.

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