By Angela Nkwocha
The Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria, Carl Grans has lauded the efforts of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), for its drive in achieving a digital economy by enhancing ICT capacity development and broadband penetration in the country.
Grans made this known when he visited the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta at the Commission’s head office in Abuja.
Grans who gave the assurance that Sweden would do all that is necessary to support the Nigerian government in terms of broadband infrastructures to aid transform the nation’s economy, as well as promote trade and investments between the two countries, acknowledged that Nigeria is ready for the digital revolution considering the approval given to conduct 5G tests recently.
“5G technology and Internet of Things (IoT) are crucial to transforming the industry and production in a way that can’t really be seen yet, but a digital revolution is really imminent worldwide”.
Danbatta, while playing host to his guest noted that the meeting was based on the Commission’s assessment of the offer for capacity development and focus of the Swedish Programme for ICT Development in Emerging Regions (SPIDER), a dedicated programme instituted to provide capacity building in emerging markets, adding that the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) had earlier trained some Nigerians.
The EVC stated that further collaboration to build capabilities of Nigerians on ICT will increase human resources and capacity in the ICT sector towards deepening broadband penetration adding that further capacity building of Nigerians on ICT tools and skills will start with agencies in the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy in the context of train-the-trainer arrangement, and the beneficiaries in the agencies will proceed to train other Nigerians.
He further revealed that about N265 billion naira would be raised within the next four years by the NCC and a consortium of Infrastructural Companies (Infracos) for the development of broadband infrastructures across the country. According to Danbatta the NCC would raise 65 billion naira as counterpart funding subject to the approval of the Federal Executive Council, while the Infrastructural Companies would raise the balance of 200 billion
Danbatta explained that the Public Private Partnership project falls under the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative which was designed to address infrastructural deficits in the telecommunications sector. He described the project as ambitious as it would cut across the states, the FCT and the 774 local government councils, Prof Danbatta noted that payment would be made to the infrastructure companies handling the projects upon attainment of milestones.
