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How market restructuring can boost 30% broadband penetration target

By Adeyemi Adepetun
14 July 2015   |   11:54 pm
NIGERIA’s 30 per cent broadband penetration target by 2018 will be achieved if the current market status can be reviewed and restructured, industry stakeholders have said. The country’s broadband penetration is currently at 10 per cent with additional 20 per cent penetration target plan to be realized in about 30 month’s time. Speaking at the…

BroadbandNIGERIA’s 30 per cent broadband penetration target by 2018 will be achieved if the current market status can be reviewed and restructured, industry stakeholders have said.

The country’s broadband penetration is currently at 10 per cent with additional 20 per cent penetration target plan to be realized in about 30 month’s time.

Speaking at the fifth anniversary of MainOne Cables, the Chief Executive Officer of the company,
Ms Funke, lamented the slow pace of broadband penetration in Nigeria.

Opeke said there are number of things that must be urgently addressed, which are currently perceived to be restricting speedy acceleration, so as to be able to achieve the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018.

She stated that while the country’s ability to achieve ubiquitous broadband penetration presents huge economic benefits for the country, efforts must be made to reduce the challenges operators are facing in the area of infrastructure rollout.

“Today, we say we run an Open Model Access for broadband penetration but this is still not yet being fully appreciated by some players and this is what I think we should look into as a country so that there can be interconnectivity of networks to achieve our national broadband objective,” she said.

She harped on the need to ensure that the right of way (RoW) issue, which has been plaguing the industry’s growth, is resolved.

“We have come to a time when we should stop looking at telecoms as ‘cash-cow’ by government agencies at all levels. We should work as partners so as to sustain our growth as a leading telecoms market in the African continent,” she added.

Speaking on the same vein, the President of the Association of Telecommunications Company of Nigeria (ATCON), Lanre Ajayi, expressed doubt as to Nigeria’s ability to achieve the remaining 20 per cent broadband penetration target by 2018.

“Currently, we are not doing well in the area of broadband as we have done in the voice segment. In the voice segment, we keep meeting and surpassing forecasts. So, at the rate at which we are going in the area of broadband growth, I am afraid we may not be able to meet the 30 per cent penetration by 2018,” he said.

Ajayi, an engineer, however, said that he was confident that the President Muhammed Buhari’s administration will bring in the necessary change promised during the electioneering campaign, tasking him to pay attention to some key areas for accelerating the industry growth.

“Buhari’s administration should focus on enforcement of Cybercrime Act, particularly the section dealing with the protection of National Infrastructure under which telecoms infrastructure also belong; promotion of e-government and e-commerce as a strategy to stimulate demand for broadband access provided by ATCON members, as well as provision of enabling environment.

“Recognising the power of ICT in modern governance and socio-economic development, we advise the incoming administration to address issue bothering on Right of Ways (RoW), multiple taxations, promotions of Nigerian local content, vandalism of telecoms infrastructures, promotion of e-services as well as acceleration of the implementation of the broadband plan,” he said.

While noting that aside challenges around land-mile broadband deployment, he said telecoms operators’ access to adequate spectrum bands is key to ensuring faster broadband network deployment, saying on this NCC should be transparent in its spectrum licensing activities.

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