Nigeria’s fibre fund may increase GDP to $502b in four years
Targets 200,000 schools, healthcare facilities, public institutions
The success of the Federal Government’s fibre fund is projected to deliver up to 1.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth per capital, raising the GDP from $472.6 billion (2022) to $502 billion over the next four years.
Besides, the Fibre Fund helps the country connect 200,000 schools, healthcare facilities, and public institutions, ensuring that more Nigerians benefit from reliable Internet access.
This was revealed by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, in a document, titled: ‘Six must-know facts about the Fibre Fund: Building Nigeria’s Infrastructure Network’, which he shared on his X handle.
Tijani said the Fibre Fund would increase Nigeria’s fibre-optic network from 35,000km to 125,000km, positioning it among Africa’s top three largest fibre infrastructure networks.
He said President Bola Tinubu approved a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that would deliver on the fibre-optic network project. He said the initiative involves a $2 billion budget to install 90,000km of new fibre-optic cables, significantly boosting Internet connectivity across Nigeria.
He said the SPV, which will be delivered independently of government, would be modelled in governance and operations similar to some of the best public-private partnership (PPP) setups in Nigeria, such as Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG).
Tijani said the Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) such as the World Bank Group, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Africa Development Bank Group (AfDB), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and others are progressing on finalising the SPV structure to ensure aggregation of funding required for the deployment of the network.
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