Media practitioners in Nigeria and Ghana have called for huge investment in building and upgrading the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in both countries.
They made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at a public forum themed, ‘The Status of Digital Public Infrastructure in Nigeria: Progress, Challenges and Prospects’, organised by the Accra, Ghana-based media and civic rights organisation, Media Foundation for West (MFWA) in partnership with the Nigeria-based International Press Centre (IPC).
The DPI refers to society-wide digital capabilities and included all digital organisational structures and facilities needed to operate electronic governance (e-governance) and electronic payment (e-payment) systems.
This also includes expanding broadband access, enhancing network connectivity, and deploying reliable power sources to support digital services in remote areas.
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The National Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Achike Chude, who highlighted the importance of the media to nation-building, called for adequate investment in the development of the DPI in the country.
Chude, however, called for the protection of Nigerians’ privacy in the deployment of DPI and urged them to use it for the advancement of the country and not otherwise.
Also, a Fellow of MFWA, Mr Usman Aliyu, said that Nigeria had improved in the deployment of DPI, but that 10 years after its takeoff, access to the rural areas remains a challenge.
Aliyu who is of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), urged policymakers to enact policies that would create an enabling environment for digital innovation and its access in the rural areas.
On his part, another Fellow of MFWA, Mr Ameh Ejekwonyilo, lamented that there was no adequate deployment of broadband and fibre cable in some communities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) let alone other parts of the country, especially the grassroots.
Ejekwonyilo, of the Premium Times, called for huge investment in DPI to ease its access in the rural areas and urged the federal government to put in place the needed infrastructure that would allow Nigerians enjoy the 5G service.
Earlier, the MFWA’s Programme Director Media and Good Governance, Abigail Larbi, said that the programme was about digital security and its deployment for the benefit of the citizens, especially as it relates to service delivery in Nigeria.
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