Economy, Featured
ISA Ali Ibrahim Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, has expressed the need for the new National Broadband Plan 2020-2025. He noted that aid broadband penetration is central to reviving the Nigerian economy.
Speaking at the launching of the new National Broadband Plan 2020-2025, Pantami said it had been proven that 10 percent broadband penetration in any country would improve its gross domestic product, GDP, by at least 4.6 percent. The minister explained that with Coronavirus contagion spreading across the globe and more people living in isolation, the digital and information communication sector is providing alternatives for people to stay in touch and institutions to provide the needed basic life-saving services to the populace.
On his part, Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice-chairman, NCC, said as at the time President Buhari’s administration came into power in 2015, broadband penetration was hovering between four and six percent. However, broadband penetration has now reached 38.5 percent.
Going down memory lane on the construction of the complex, Danbatta explained that as part of its desire to further, develop the communications sector, the NCC set up the Digital Bridge Institute, DBI, in 2005 and the NCC-DBI hostel and recreational facilities as part of its initiative to provide a conducive atmosphere for proposed students.
“The facility was confirmed and ratified by the Federal Executive Council at its 45th meeting held on November 22, 2006. The NCC-DBI hostel and recreational facilities were abandoned before completion and were redesigned and modified by the NCC Management in 2018 from a hostel to an office complex; and was later renamed the Communications and Digital Economy Complex in line with current realities and policy direction of the government on digital Nigeria. The facility provides office accommodation to the Honourable Minister, Communications & Digital Economy and four full departments of the NCC,” he said.
On the Emergency Communication Centre, ECC, Danbatta said NCC facilitated the establishment of 18 ECCs in 17 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, in line with the commission’s mandate under section 107 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
“This is to promote and enhance public safety through the use of a particular number designed as the universal safety and emergency assistance number for telephone services generally; and to encourage and facilitate the prompt deployment throughout Nigeria of seamless, ubiquitous and reliable end-to-end infrastructure for emergency communication needs.”
The recognition of the significant role of NCC’s ECC in enhancing security resulted in the awards received by the Commission and its CEO in 2019. Consequently, the NCC has also been inducted into the Forum of Spokesperson of Security and Response Agencies, FOSSRA, as an eloquent testimony to its commitment to leveraging new technologies to address the nation’s numerous security concerns.
– Mar. 24, 2020 @ 17:05 GMT |
Tags: Broadband penetration will revive Nigeria’s economy – Pantami
