The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has collaborated with the Association for Progressive Communications and other institutional stakeholders towards addressing challenges confronting rural network connectivity in Nigeria.

According to them, challenges confronting the sector must be tackled head-on to ensure that underserved and unserved communities are connected.

Both rose from a two-day workshop hosted in Abuja, with the determination to tackle all the challenges.

The move is to explore policy frameworks for enabling community networks towards bridging the digital divide and accelerating socio-economic development in Nigeria’s underserved and unserved communities.

The forum brought together regulators, community leaders, technical experts and potential foreign investors, among others, to examine policy and regulatory barriers, explore innovative funding mechanisms, ensure sustainable renewable solutions and strengthen collaboration with stakeholders.

Addressing participants at the workshop, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said the workshop is important to bridging the digital divide in Nigeria and fostering inclusive social and economic development.

“This workshop is an opportunity for all of us to harness the expertise, insights, and experiences of diverse stakeholders present here which includes the regulators, community leaders, technical experts and potential foreign providers to address the critical challenges such as affordable devices, access, licensing, spectrum allocation, infrastructure development, sustainability and institutional monitoring,” Maida stated.

Maida, who was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Abraham Oshadami, said the workshop demonstrated the Commission’s commitment to advancing digital inclusion, particularly in underserved and unserved areas.

“At NCC, we recognise the transformative potential of community centre networks in achieving this important goal,” he said.