President Muhammadu Buhari has directed security agencies to leverage on Fifth Generation (5G) technology, when deployed, to enhance security in the country.
The President gave the directive at the launch of the National Policy on 5G for Nigeria’s Digital Economy in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Buhari said the Federal Government will take full advantage of the opportunities that 5G provides for the economy, security and well-being of the nation.
He also allayed fears over health safety of 5G, saying such issues have been ”effectively addressed” in developing a Policy that suits the country.
On the benefits of 5G technologies, the President noted it can support virtually every sector of the economy, including enhanced connectivity, improved healthcare, support for education while fostering smart cities, and boosting agriculture, among other advantages.
”It will also support security institutions with real time communication. 5G technology is significantly faster than earlier digital technologies and it provides near real-time communication. This can play a key role in boosting our efforts towards enhancing security across the nation.”
”It will enable our security institutions to effectively deploy robotics, autonomous vehicles, augmented and virtual reality to address any security challenges that we face,” he said.
The President said the National 5G Policy includes a deployment plan to ensure that major cities across the country benefit from the technologies.
He added that the policy, which is in line with the commitment of this administration to supporting the digital economy as an enabler for the diversification of our national economy, also seeks to make 5G a major driver of the economy, a catalyst for smart cities in the country and a platform for the creation of jobs that support digital economy.
He, therefore, assured investors that the Federal Government would continue to provide an enabling environment for their businesses to be very successful as Nigeria begins the roll-out of the technology.
Buhari directed the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, to supervise the implementation of the Policy, being done by the Nigerian Communications Commission with the support of other government institutions.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy said the sector had recorded unprecedented achievements with increased remittances to the Federation Account, resolution of lingering issues in the industry and successful auctioning of the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum for the deployment of 5G technology.
He thanked the President for the consistent support to the sector, announcing that within two years the Federal Government completed 1,667 ICT related projects.
”As at August 2021, the sector remitted over N1 trillion to the Federation Account and this is unprecedented because the usual remittances is around 200 billion annually and this has been increased substantially,” he said.
