Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has disclosed that the federal government will, in a matter of weeks, roll out a 90,000-kilometre fibre optic network nationwide.
He described it as one of the country’s most ambitious digital infrastructure projects targeted at transforming broadband connectivity across the country.
Tijani, who spoke with newsmen yesterday after briefing President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, on the progress of three flagship digital projects being implemented by his ministry, said government had completed the resource mobilisation and contractual processes required for the fibre project and was ready to begin deployment across the country.
He said: “We’re now at the point where, in a few weeks’ time, we should start to lay those fibre, so people will start seeing us around the country deploying the fibre. This is going to transform Nigeria for good.”
According to him, the project would extend fibre optic infrastructure to every state, geopolitical zone, local government area and ward, significantly improving the quality and reach of internet connectivity.
“This is a project where every state, every geopolitical zone, every local government and every ward in this country will be covered with fibre optic cables, which will transform the quality of connectivity,” he added.
Tijani also appreciated Tinubu for policy reforms that have strengthened the communications sector, including the designation of digital infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure, tariff adjustments and tax harmonisation.
“I think our sector has been extremely fortunate. With Mr. President, as you can imagine, he’s given us quite a number of things that the sector has been demanding for a long time. Whether it’s the critical national infrastructure designation for all digital infrastructure, or the slight adjustment in tariff, which you’ve seen, the tax harmonisation, which the sector has been asking for.
“I think it’s probably the sector that is most appreciative of this government because when we came in, the sector was contributing between 16 to 18 per cent to our GDP, but today that sector is tracking close to 21 per cent, so it’s a significant growth”, he said.
On rural connectivity, the minister stressed that the government would begin deploying about 3,700 telecommunications towers from October to provide network coverage for more than 20 million Nigerians currently living in communities without access to telecommunications services.
He stressed: “Mr. President also sanctioned that project. Today we’re in a place where, before the end of the year, we’ll also start to deploy close to 3,700 towers. It’s taken a lot of time putting this project together, raising the capital for it, but we are at a point where we should now start deploying around October.”
Tijani also stated that Nigeria would launch an alphanumeric postcode system on October 1, placing the country among a small number of nations using the advanced addressing technology.
“Nigeria will be amongst maybe 10 or 15 countries in the world with an alphanumeric postcode. It’s the latest design in the postcode system where we can now identify every property in this country. We’re hoping to launch that one on the 1st of October”, he said.
The system, the minister said, will assign a unique address to every building, making deliveries faster, boosting e-commerce, strengthening security and improving public service delivery.
“Inability to locate places comes at a cost. You can start to imagine what this will do to e-commerce. This would transform e-commerce completely because it means that things can now be delivered in record time”, Tijani said.
According to him, integrating the postcode system with existing government identity databases would enhance security and improve the efficiency of government services.
“Our alphanumeric postcode is unique because it allows us to have unique addresses for every property. In a lot of countries, like the UK, postcodes are not unique to one building; they’re typically for a cluster of buildings. But what we have here is one where you can identify every building. That will change the game significantly for Nigeria in terms of the delivery of public services,” he added.