FG assures Nigerians of better quality telecoms services

The Federal Government has assured Nigerians of significant improvement in the telecommunications service, saying that efforts are ongoing by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to have two extra satellites to support the present Nigeria Communication Satellite (NIGCOMSAT).

The Minister for Communication, Dr. Adebayo Shittu, said this during the opening ceremony of the 6th regular meeting of the National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT) held in Abeokuta on Thursday.

Dr. Shittu also revealed that the country’s Foreign Direct Investment has increased from $32 billion in 2015 to $40 billion in 2018, reiterating Federal Government’s resolve to use ICT as a way of economic diversification.

He added that it would help in the nation’s economic recovery and help in massive employment generation for the teeming youths.

On the theme of the conference: “Leveraging on ICT as veritable vehicle for economic recovery and growth”, the Minister noted that the it could not have been more apt while commending the Ogun State Governor for using ICT as a veritable tool for development in the state.

The minister also revealed that 48.44% of Nigerians are now internet compliant putting Nigeria at the second position to South Africa in the African continent.

Shittu also added that the Federal Government has set up a taskforce to identify all the issues mitigating against the provision of excellent telecommunication/internet service to Nigerians.

His words: “The performance of telecommunications industry has also improved. There is a positive increase in the number of active telecoms subscribers with an increase from 148, 70 million in August 2015 to 162.05 million as at September 2018, which is an increase of 7%.

“In the same vein, teledensity rose from 107.67% in August 2015 to 115.76% in September 2018 recording an increase of 2.47%. Similarly, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the sector has increased from $32B in 2015 to $40B in 2018.

“Broadband penetration has reached 20.95%, while the percentage of internet penetration has reached a milestone of 48.44%, making Nigeria second on to South Africa in the whole African continent.

“Government has licensed 6 slots of the 2.6MHz spectrum for the deployment of the 4G- lite service. In the same vein, processes have commenced for the licensing of broadband services on the 5.4 GHz spectrum band and allocation of 70/80 GHz band.

“Also, approval has been granted for the deployment of 4G long term evolution technology by NATCOM development and investment limited to launch the first VOLTE call.

“In order to improve the quality of services to the public, a taskforce was set up to identify all the issues mitigating against the provision of excellent service and the report of the taskforce is being implemented.

I can assure Nigerians that they will shortly begin to experience quantum improvement in the quality of telecoms service across the country, “he added.

While declaring the programme open, the State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, charged the ICT stakeholders to look vividly into how best they can curb the misuse of the social media, adding that if not, the means of mass development (Social media) would be turned into the weapon of mass destruction.

He said:” This is what I think you should begin to do especially those in the software, the handler of social media is the decider of what it could be used for and as much as it can be used as a weapon of mass development, sadly, it can be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

“When wrong information is carried through the social media, sometimes people will even be killed. So we should brainstorm and come up with checks and control that can be put in place so as to at least reduce if not totally eliminate this destabilisation that comes through the social media.”