Pantami Inaugurates 2020/2025 National Broadband Plan Committee

By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Federal government on Monday inaugurated a new National Broadband Plan Committee to drive the nation’s Broadband Plan.
The Committee is also expected to support the national digital economy policy and strategy for the Federal Government and ensure that nation attains the 70 percent broadband target by 2025.
The 36-member committee members drawn from both public sector and the ministry is Chaired by the Managing Director and CEO of MainOne Cable Company Nigeria limited, Mr.
Funke Okpeke and Co-Chaired by former Executive
Commissioner, NCC, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, while Engr. Ubale Maska is to serve as Secretary with four ministry staff to serve
as Secretariat and two others as Coordinators.
Other members include representatives of NCC, ABU Zaria, CTO, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, Google, NiRA,
Defence Space Administration, NFIU, NITDA, Galazy
Backbone, NIGCOMSAT, ATCON, NCS and GSMA among others.
The inauguration of the new Committee was sequel to the
expiration of 2013/2018 National Broadband Plan Committee
late last year.
Recall that on the 28th November, President Mohammadu
Buhari unveiled the National Policy for Digital Economy Policy
and Strategy for a digital Nigeria. In the document are eight
pillars of: developmental regulation, digital literacy and skills,
solid infrastructure, service infrastructure, digital services
development and promotion, soft infrastructure, digital society
and emerging technologies and indigenous content,
development and promotio
Inaugurating the Committee, the Minister of Communications
and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami said the new
NBP Committee is expected to look at pillar three on the
National Policy for Digital Economy Policy and Strategy as it
accommodates broadband and data center, which he said is
key to economic growth and promotion of digital economyAccording to him, the work of the committee is going to
address significantly one of the eight pillars and the remaining
seven pillars also are attached to it and their success also
depends on this very important pillar. That is why this
committee is very important and strategic.
‘‘The work of this committee will go a long way in supporting
national digital economy policy and strategy for the Federal
Government. In addition, digital economy is strategically
dominating the world economy.
According to oxford economics, the value of digital economy
as of today is 11.5 trillion USD, which is approximately 16 per
cent of the world economy. According to one economic
forum, by 2022 60 per cent of the world economy will be
digitalised, just in the next three years.
‘‘And by 2030, almost 85 per cent of the world economy is
going to be a digital economy because digital economy is
dominating the world.
You cannot develop and promote digital economy without
broadband at your disposal or in your country, that is why we
feel it is necessary after getting our national broadband in
place, we need to immediately see how we can come up with
another very important strategic committee to work on our
national broadband plan so that all hands must be joined
together to see how we can penetrate under served and
unserved areas in the country.
‘‘During deliberations we should address one another with
respect and maturity putting at the back of our minds that we
are here to serve our country; there is nothing personal about
this assignment. We still have challenges of broadband
penetration, as it is today, approximately the penetration is
37.8 per cent less than 40 per cent,’’ the minister said.
Pantami said, members of the committee were selected based
on their competence, integrity, professionalism.
He therefore urged members of the Committee to make sure
that the priority of Nigeria is number one. ‘‘We should be very
objective in our discussions, we should try to identify our
priorities and preferences in whatever we do, and see how
things can be done and we should try to interact with one
another as friends and colleagues.
‘‘The work of the committee is not only on broadband but the
economy of our country because even the economy relies so
much on broadband penetration and broadband penetration is
directly proportional to our GDP in the country.
‘‘Huawei recently released another report, which indicated the
unserved and underserved communities, the committee may
wish to look into the report and see what will be useful,’’
Pantami said.
Responding on behalf of other members of the Committee, the
Chairperson of the NBP Committee, Ms. Funke Opeke said the
target of the Committee is to achieve at least 65-70% broad
band penetration across Nigeria, assuring that objectives is
not to favour one technology over another or to be
prescriptive but the right technology for the right purpose.
‘‘The minister has set the goal and I believe the NCC is in
agreement. It is for us to look at what was done during the
period of the last committee, look at what the issues and
challenges are that still exist, and come up with a plan that
allows us achieve the set objectives.
‘‘I believe the objective is achievable with sincerity of purpose
and with hard work for these are critical services and
infrastructure that we need to bring to all Nigerians and we’re
optimistic that we can accomplish that goal. There is work to
be done on fixed infrastructure but the reality is mobile
technologies are also progressing quite fast to deliver very
capable services to people.
‘‘We see what is going on with 5G all over the world, so we
will address both at the committee, but I believe our objective
is not to favour one technology over the another  but to figure
out how we can get those critical services to many more
Nigerians.
So, we’ll be a mix of technologies but the objectives is not to
favour one technology over another or to be prescriptive but
the right technology for the right purpose. The most
competitive technology that enables us deliver services to all Nigerians,’’ Okpeke said.
Earlier in his goodwill message, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta said Broadband Infrastructure
remain one of the top priority of the ITU to ensure people around the world have access to equitable and affordable broadband, wherever they are and whatever the circumstances
they are in. With adequate broadband infrastructure in place, he assured that everything else will fall into place.
‘‘The ability to deliver healthcare, best quality education even to generations unborn, ability to streamline transportation, meet up with SDGs and the ability to transform the economy into a digital one.’’
He pledged the commitment of the board and Management of NCC, especially in the area of driving the infrastructure that
will enhance that critical mass of ICT adoption in use that will in time increase the level of broadband penetration in the country.