FG will continue to promote infrastructure dev’t – Pantami

The federal government has promised to continue to drive policy initiatives that promote investment in infrastructure in the Nigerian telecom industry in order to deepen connectivity to enhance the nation’s growth and development.

The minister of communications and digital economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami and the executive vice chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Danbatta, made the promise on the sideline of the reception marking the landing of the Equiano undersea cable system in Nigeria at the Open Access Data Centre at Lekki in Lagos at the weekend.

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Pantami and Danbatta commended Google LLC, the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) and other investors for bringing additional bandwidth capacity into the country to drive connectivity and growth.

While Pantami was represented at the event by NCC’s executive commissioner, stakeholder management, Adeleke Adewolu, Danbatta was represented by the executive commissioner, technical services at NCC, Ubale Maska.

Pantami also promised an enabling environment that encourages foreign and local investment in infrastructure projects such as the way Google and its co-investors have done.

Also commenting, Danbatta expressed delight that Equiano had joined the list of other submarine cables on the shores of Nigeria, including SAT3 cable, MainOne cable, Glo1 cable, as well as the African Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable by Dolphin and West African Cable System (WACS) by MTN.

He said Google’s investment in the subsea cable, Equiano, would be significant in driving NCC’s ongoing implementation of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025 which aimed at increasing broadband penetration to 70 per cent by 2025.

He said, “We are hopeful that Equiano, together with earlier undersea cables in the country, will have additional landing points in the hinterlands through collaborative efforts with NCC-licensed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos).”