Nigeria turns focus to broadband

broadband access and penetration at the just-concluded third West African Information and Communications Technology (Wafict) congress, All Africa News reports.

The theme of the congress was 'An Emerging New Frontier: Opportunities and potentials for deployment of broadband services for sustainable growth in West Africa.'

Afrique Jet reveals that, for MTN, the sector will be driven by broadband services in the next 10 years, while for Airtel, for that growth to happen, the country would need a new policy framework as the existing one pre-dated broadband.

Communications and Technology Minister Omobola Johnson said to task all stakeholders to join hands in advancing ICT in the country, "the onus is now on the stakeholders to advance ICT development in the country. This is the time for us to work together willingly, with the zeal of overcoming the challenges ahead."

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has commenced preliminary appraisal of the smooth take-off of broadband to achieve sub-regional integration, The Nation Online states.

Dr Eugene Juwah, executive vice-chairman of the NCC, said that with the success recorded so far in the past 10 years, the country is on the right track to broadband provisioning. He urged investors and venture capitalists to come into Nigeria and invest in broadband.