NIG Prioritises Improved Broadband Penetration- Banjo

The Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), said that improving broadband penetration in the country remains its priority.

Enginner Adebayo Banjo, president of NIG made the remark during the Association’s annual conference and exhibition 2015, which held in Lagos recently.

Banjo assured internet users in Nigeria of NIG’s readiness to collaborate with relevant bodies to ensure that the country enjoys more effective and efficient broadband penetration.

According to the NIG President, broadband has become even ubiquitous and an integral aspect of human activity, noting that any activity that is not rooted on it will certainly go into extinction.

He said, “This year’s conference is particularly important because of the significant moves towards the development of the broadband technology to increase its penetration, usage and affordability in the country, which is why it has the theme: “Internet Penetration, the way forward”.

He identified critical success factors like provision of infrastructures, implementation of appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks, Political-will of the government to implement right policies among others as measures that will go a long way at improving broadband penetration in the country.

“We are working round the clock to ensure that by 2018, broadband penetration in the country would have risen above 20 percent.  However, Banjo noted that one of the ways to effectively achieve this is when Government gives Nigerian Communication commission, NCC, the free hand to sanction and monitor all defaulting Telcos, adding that this action will ensure efficient and effective broadband penetration in the country.

Similarly, Engineer Lanre Ajayi, president of Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), said that ATCON would keep supporting the government in making sure that broadband becomes a basic necessity in every home.

Ajayi recalled that the internet was known to be used only in the educational sector for research, but today every facet of Nigeria’s economy cannot do without the existence of ICT.

Ajayi however noted that some of the challenges facing broadband penetration today in the country has been the non-availability of spectrum.