The Federal Government says it is targeting 70 per cent of broadband penetration and not more than N390 per gigabyte by 2025.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, said this while delivering a keynote address at a conference and exhibition of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), in Abuja yesterday.
The programme was tagged: “National Strategic Mobilisation for the Actualisation of National Broadband Target of 70 per cent Conference and Exhibition”.
It had the theme, “Realising the New Set Target of 70 per cent of Broadband Penetration”.
Pantami, who was represented by the Director of IT Infrastructure Solution Department, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Usman Gambo Abdullahi, said broadband was the backbone of a digital economy.
He said that the event aims at x-raying the current level of broadband penetration, and consider areas of improvement, not only to achieve the 70 per cent broadband penetration but exceed it.
“We are all aware that broadband supports the development of the digital economy and a focus on growing the national digital economy will also improve and diversify the nation’s traditional economy.
“The plan is carefully designed to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria. A minimum of 25Mbps in urban areas, and 10Mbps in rural areas. “With effective coverage available to at least 90 per cent of the population by 2025 at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data as well as penetration rate of 70 per cent by 2025,” he said.
The minister said it had been identified by industry experts that 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration would increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of an economy by between 1.6 per cent and 4.6 per cent.
He recalled that as at July 2021, the broadband penetration was 39.79 per cent, adding that the current evaluation of the broadband plan achievements so far revealed that as of the first quarter of 2022, broadband penetration stood at 42.27 per cent.