Worried about the low broadband penetration in the country, which has struggled to grow from 6 per cent to 10 per cent between 2013 and 2015, the Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, the West Africa broadband communications provider, Ms Funke Opeke has said the solution to the challenge, was for Nigeria to invest in massive broadband infrastructure rollout across the nooks and carnies of the country.
Opeke who spoke at a recent broadband summit that was jointly organised by MainOne and BusinessDay Newspapers, called on government and stakeholders to invest massively in broadband infrastructure, in order to meet and surpass the 30 per cent broadband penetration target by 2018.
The federal government, through its National Broadband Plan (2013-2018), had set a target of 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018, but the target appears far from being achievable, following the slow growth of broadband in the country, a situation, which Opeke blamed on weak infrastructure rollout across the country.
She therefore called on all stakeholders in the industry and the government to take necessary steps towards achieving the massive infrastructure rollout required to bring broadband services to more Nigerians, stressing the role of broadband in driving Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the economies of developing countries.
Opeke, who canvassed further collaboration in the industry in order to provide broadband connectivity services to more of the Nigerian populace, noted the need for stakeholders to jointly address the challenges of low broadband penetration as a community of concerned parties.
She explained that the benefits from ubiquitous broadband access in the country would be numerous, and would accrue to all Nigerians, if the right investments are put in place.
BusinessDay Publisher, Frank Aigbogun said the choice of MainOne as the host for this year’s broadband summit was easy, given the company’s reputation as a foremost organisation in the broadband landscape in Nigeria and what the company had achieved over the past five years of operation as a broadband service provider.
Corroborating MainOne, industry stakeholders at the summit were of the view that sufficient broadband access would boost telecoms contribution to GDP, from the current 8.5 per cent contribution to over 20 per cent contribution, and as well, further drive mobile internet penetration, which stood at over 88 million as at May 2015, out of the 144 million recorded subscribers across telecoms networks, during the same period, according to the statistics recently released by the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Some of the stakeholders who spoke with THISDAY, said although Nigeria has recorded tremendous growth in mobile internet penetration, the growth would have been more, if there was ubiquitous broadband access in the country.
A breakdown of the over 88 million mobile internet subscribers, as released by NCC, shows that over 40 million subscribers on the MTN network, are connected to the internet, via their mobile smartphones, while Globacom has over 19 million mobile internet users. Airtel and Etisalat have over 17 million and 10 million respectively.
The summit, which featured major industry players including mobile network operators and the country’s telecoms regulator, reviewed the country’s current broadband status and brainstormed strategies to achieve more effective and pervasive broadband coverage across the country.
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