FG To Activate 200 New Telecom Sites Before December

The federal government has announced plans to activate at least 200 new telecommunications sites across the country before December as part of efforts to connect more than 20 million Nigerians currently without adequate telecom services.

Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on Monday at the commissioning of the new headquarters of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) in Abuja.

Tijani said the new sites were part of the government’s plan to deploy 3,700 telecommunications towers nationwide, particularly in underserved and unserved communities.

“Before December, at least 200 of those sites will be active,” the minister said.

According to him, each telecommunications tower would serve communities with between 5,000 and 10,000 residents, potentially providing connectivity to more than 20 million people when the project is completed.

“Each of those towers will serve communities of about 5,000 to 10,000 people. These are people that are currently unconnected. So, at the end of this project, we will be reaching over 20 million Nigerians,” Tijani said.

He said the project followed President Bola Tinubu’s directive to extend telecommunications services to communities that remain disconnected from the country’s digital infrastructure.

The minister disclosed that the first tower under the programme had been deployed in Kura Village, outside Abuja, while work had also commenced in the Niger Delta.

Tijani further said the Federal Government was investing in a 90,000-kilometre fibre optic network to expand broadband infrastructure and improve internet access across the country.

He added that President Tinubu had approved the upgrade of Nigeria’s communications satellite to extend connectivity to areas that could not be reached by fibre optic cables and telecommunications towers.

“For places where fibre cannot reach, where towers cannot reach, NIGCOMSAT will now be able to reach those locations,” Tijani said.

The minister also disclosed that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had increased to about 21 per cent, from between 16 and 18 per cent when the administration assumed office.

He said the government should target increasing the sector’s contribution to 25 per cent, stressing that expanding connectivity must go hand in hand with digital literacy, cybersecurity and data protection.

“As we bring more people online, we also have to ensure that we can protect them as well. And that is why digital literacy, cybersecurity and data protection are all critical pillars of the growth of our digital economy in Nigeria,” he said.

Speaking at the event, the National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the NDPC, Vincent Olatunji, said the commission had licensed 356 Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs) and contributed to the creation of more than 27,000 jobs within three years.

“Through the activities of these DPCOs and our own work, we were able to create 27,000-plus jobs within three years,” Olatunji said.

He added that the commission had generated more than N12 billion in revenue within three years, while Nigeria’s data privacy and protection ecosystem was now worth more than N18 billion.

Olatunji further disclosed that the commission’s virtual privacy academy had onboarded more than 66,000 Nigerians, while over 220 training programmes had benefited 99,370 people across various sectors.

Earlier, the NDPC’s Head of People Management and Administration, Mrs Watira Fitto, described the new headquarters as a significant milestone in the commission’s development.

“The new headquarters is a statement of the commission’s growing capacity and commitment to institutional stability,” she said.

Fitto said the commission had moved four times in four years, progressing from fewer than three office spaces at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to about eight offices in Maitama, 26 in Asokoro and now its new headquarters with about 56 office spaces in Mbora District, Abuja.