Broadband: Nigeria out for investors at ITU's summit

By Prince Osuagwu

The Nigerian government is stopping at nothing to ensure that massive investment is made in the newly created broadband sector of the economy.

The government is using the economic transformation brought about by the telecom revolution in the country, to benchmark the contributions of broadband investment even as it has been seen as major economic booster of many developed countries of the world.

Armed with those facts, perhaps, the Communications Technology Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson has been drafted to lead a high powered delegation of industry players including government officials, policy makers, the regulator and several other stakeholders including telecommunications companies to this year?s International Telecommunications Union, ITU Telecoms World conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirate.

Leveraging on the development, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC,, Dr. Eugene Juwah also addressed a media parley last week, in which he outlined activities and strategies the country has lined up to ensure that every strong ICT investor that attends the Dubai event would at last emerge Nigeria?s broadband sector potential investor.

According to Juwah, main reasons for the country?s focus on broadband development is that no matter the tag that Nigeria was doing well in internet penetration, the high cost of bandwidth due to its unavailability on demand calls for worry.

He said that this poor state of broadband penetration and the attendant high cost of bandwidth have drawn government?s attention and cause it to continue emphasizing investment drive in that direction.

President Goodluck Jonathan

Juwah said that ?much progress has been made in voice telephony but data aspect of the sector is still poor and far between. Indeed, operators in Nigeria spend an average of between $400m and $500m yearly on bandwidth imported from foreign service providers and this has accumulative negative effect on the end users who have no choice but bear the high cost of this all important tool for fast internet speed and data transmission.

?That is why the Communications Technology Minister will be leading this delegation to correct this imbalance by courting investors to our sector?he added.

Although he admitted that some progress has been made in terms of providing bandwidth locally through Main One Cable Company, Glo 1 and the recently? the re-launched NigComSat-1R satellite, the cost of acquisition is still high.

?We want to tell potential investors that Nigeria remains the preferred investment destination in Africa. We will also explain to the potential investors the areas that still needed their attention since we have made a sizeable progress in voice telephony.

?For instance broadband as a technology is the direction the world is going now. It is about bringing developing countries like Nigeria to the knowledge economy where so much can be done on telemedicine, tele-education, via the internet?.

Juwah added that since missing out on the potentials of broadband development can also cause the country a huge economic developmental loss, it would also be suicidal to leave the campaign and provision in the hands of private investors who are largely profiteers.

The ITU Telecoms world conference in Dubai is taking place from October 14-18 and is expected to enable Nigeria to showcase its investment potentials.

The event brings together industry players, policy makers, regulators, operators, government officials, technology experts and investors.

Through the event, ITU applies technology solution to real world issues using ICT as a catalyst for social, economic and sustainable development.

According to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr Ban Ki Moon, the event has become the global platform for telecommunications regulation and standardization and a meeting point for those who desire the growth of ICTs in their countries. ?It brings together all the major players to ignite change in the way people communicate globally? he added.

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Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/08/broadband-nigeria-out-for-investors-at-itus-summit/

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