FG seeks N100bn from China to fund ICT Infrastructure

The Federal Government has said that it will enter into negotiation with the China Exim Bank for the full funding of the national Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructural backbone project popularly called NIPTI 2, domiciled within the Galaxy Backbone.

Galaxy backbone is a Federal government owned agency which engages in service wide connectivity of all government offices agencies, ministries and departments across the country.

Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu revealed this on Wednesday in Abuja while addressing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

Shittu said that the project, which would be fully funded by the China Nexim bank, would cost N100billion. He also said that there has been NIPTI 1 project which was 80% completed and covers most of the southern states with a data centre project.

The minister explained that the NIPTI 2 was the concluding component of the project to ensure the entire country was fully covered by fibre optics connectivity.

He said; “Connecting the whole of the country’s by way of the federal government ministries, agencies and departments.

“The China NEXIM bank has graciously supported Nigeria, they funded phase one and they are funding this phase 2. By this approval, the ministry of finance will enter into negotiations for the full implementation of the funding proposal with us. Essentially the funding will cost $328million; approximately N100 billion.

“When concluded, it will not only cover federal ministries, department ,agencies and all government’s parastatals but there will be enough for commercialization to the private sector particularly GSM companies and other ICT industries . So, we hope that Nigeria will be making a lot of money from this particular facility when completed.”

Mathew Dadiya Abuja