NNPC to commercialise own communication network

• Plans partnership with Ministry of Communication on ICT
• ATCON describes move as transformational

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said it will commercialise some of its critical Information Communications & Technology (ICT) infrastructure in line with its bid to refocus the Corporation as a commercially viable entity.

The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, made this known while receiving the Minister of Communications, Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, who paid a courtesy call on him at the NNPC Towers, yesterday.

The infrastructure include the over 960km of Fibre Optic Cable laid between Lagos-Benin and Warri to Kaduna, on the NNPC Pipeline Right of Way; 52 remote VSAT stations nationwide and two Network Centres connecting all NNPC Depots and Pump Stations across the country.

The GMD said: “Our look-ahead plan is to commercialise our Fibre-Optics Cable Network utilising NNPC pipeline Right of Way that cuts across the entire country. Some of the benefits of this initiative include the opportunity to provide backbone carriage to meet the National 2020 Plan for broadband penetration in the country.”

He also expressed the Corporation’s readiness to collaborate with the Ministry of Communications in its quest to develop new ICT initiatives towards making life easier for Nigerians.

“We are committed to supporting the Ministry of Communications to realise its ICT dreams which will not only ensure effective governance and service delivery in the country, but will also make life easier for Nigerians,” Baru stated.

The NNPC boss in a statement signed by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, also lauded the Minister for ensuring the pursuit of the National Strategy and Roadmap Agenda, which intends to increase broadband penetration from six per cent to 30 per cent by 2020.

He told the Minister that to key into the Ministry’s laudable agenda; the NNPC had already re-strategised its ICT initiatives towards making it a hub for seamless, efficient and value-adding operations nationwide.

According to him, the NNPC also boasts of a Data Centre Facility that houses all its Data, Information and business solutions such as the Systems Applications & Products (SAP), E-mail services, collaboration solutions and specialised applications for the oil and gas industry.

Earlier in his remarks, Shittu, lauded Baru for “bringing a new lease of life to the NNPC” through reforms that were in consonance with President Muhammadu Buhari’s change agenda for the country.