The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, has expressed serious concern over Nigeria’s widening digital divide, which currently indicated that only 23% of rural communities in the country had internet access compared to 57% in urban areas.
Maida, who expressed his worries over the lop-sided internet connectivity in the country in his speech at the Rural Connectivity Summit in Lagos, described the ugly trend as a major obstacle to inclusive growth and national security concern.
The EVC cautioned that unless there was urgent intervention to bridge the digital gap, millions in rural areas would remain cut off from essential services like modern education, healthcare, and economic opportunities that depend on digital connectivity.
He stressed: “A community without digital connectivity is functionally invisible,” Maida stated in his keynote address. This ‘digital invisibility’ is an unacceptable situation we must act decisively to end.”
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Maida, who linked internet connectivity directly to economic growth, disclosed that Nigeria’s current broadband penetration stood at 48.81% and that available research showed that a 10% increase in broadband penetration could boost a country’s GDP by up to 1.38%.
To bridge this gap, the EVC maintained that the NCC had been using its Universal Service Provision Fund, USPF, to deploy infrastructure in commercially unattractive areas, listing some of the major initiatives of the commission to achieve this goal as including the Rural Broadband Initiative, RUBI, and the Accelerated Mobile Phone Expansion, AMPE.
In addition, he hinted that the USPF had also executed over 2,500 education projects and delivered more than 100,000 computers to schools nationwide.
While commending some of the sub-national governments that have been implementing zero or reduced Right-of-Way, RoW, charges for telecom infrastructure, the telecoms industry regulator advised other states to also adopt the fiscal measure in order to fast-track digital access in the rural communities.
Maida also rued the surging incidents of telecoms infrastructure vandalism in the country, which showed that between January and August this year, telecoms operators recorded over 19,000 fibre cuts and 3,000 cases of equipment theft.
According to him, these attacks are damaging investments and undermining service quality for millions.
The NCC boss restated the commission’s commitment to achieving universal connectivity and charged all stakeholders, including government, operators, and communities, to protect telecoms infrastructure in order to fully unlock rural communities’ economic potential for sustainable growth of the nation’s economy.
BRT News
