NigComSat assures on accelerated broadband penetration in Nigeria

GOING by the level of work done and amount of investment, the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited has assured on accelerated broadband penetration in the country.Setting a 40 per cent penetration by 2015 in Nigeria, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer NigComSat Ltd, Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, rued that despite various investments in broadband facilities, deployment has been a major challenge in Nigeria.Ahmed-Rufai said that broadband access in the country still stood at a paltry five per cent while only 28 per cent of the populations were connected to the Internet.Speaking at the Convergence forum in Lagos at the weekend, Rufai, who was represented by the Manager, Technical Services, NigComSat, Mr. Inuwa Alhaji, recalled that the International Telecommunications Union had set a target of 50 billion broadband connections by 2020 while proposing that 40 per cent of households should be connected to broadband globally by 2015.With this statistics in mind, the NigComSat boss said the company shared the vision and would be in the forefront of ensuring that Nigeria met the target.He said, 'NigComSat is committed to driving the broadband vision for Nigeria in 2015 through partnership with the private sector.'Ahmed-Rufai had said that NigComSat-1R, which is expected to have gone into commercial operations on March 19, would have huge impacts on the country's ICT sector in terms of cheaper Internet access as well as improved e-Commerce, telemedicine and e-Learning, among others.He stressed that NigComSat-1R would play significant roles in actualising the Central Bank of Nigeria's cash-less economy, Nigerian Communications Commission's rural telephony project, and the Independent National Electoral Commission's e-voting project.Ahmed-Rufai added that it would also tremendously raise the revenue profile of the country, especially as every home would access the Internet easily and affordably.He said, 'Our strategic plan is centred on using our assets, the staff, the satellite and complementary ground infrastructure as an extraordinary vehicle to drive the National ICT revolution in pursuit of self-reliance and required skills for engineering and technology domestication of secured satellite bandwidth and telecommunication services for defence, security outfits and other strategic telecommunications and broadcast needs of the nation.'He had earlier said that NigComSat would partner with all stakeholders to complement existing terrestrial telecommunications infrastructure to promote universal access through innovative, affordable, high-speed broadband telecoms services to enhance ICT usage, ICT skills and increase ICT Development Index of Nigerian citizens.In view of this, the NigComSat boss said the government-owned satellite communication provider had partnered with Main One Cable Company to expand the coverage of the Main One Internet Protocol services via satellite.
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