President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Ministry of Communications, Innovations and Digital Economy to commence the installation of 3,700 base towers across the country to close 20 million digital access gaps.
Communications, Innovations and Digital Economy Minister Bosun Tijani, who made this known yesterday, said President Tinubu wants everyone in Nigeria to have access to telecommunications irrespective of their location.
Also yesterday, the Federal Government inaugurated the National Innovation Hubs Standards Framework with critical groups such as the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the European Union, Denmark Government and the Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI) calling on stakeholders to contribute meaningfully towards successful implementation of the framework.
Delivering a keynote address at the opening of the National Innovation Hub Standards Framework’s Formal launch and Validation, Tijani said the Tinubu administration is building Nigeria’s digital future on three critical layers that focus on how technology can be used to impact the lives of the citizens.
He added at the event organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) that Nigeria is currently attracting billions of dollars into the banking sector with the dominance of unicorn companies based on the solid financial frameworks.
The minister said the framework, which is built on digital infrastructures make banking transactions seamless and better in Nigeria than in the United States.
Highlighting the significance of digital infrastructures, Tijani said: ‘The banking community and CBN also did something that inspired me; for those who follow, they built Nigeria’s interbank settlement system, which is one of the best on the African continent.
”That’s why you see banking services sometimes in Nigeria are better than what you would find in countries like the US.
‘We got Nigeria to build an interbank settlement system, and we have connectivity. Most people don’t know that that’s why we have financial technology companies that are some of the best on the African continent.’
The minister also said government has secured funding for the laying of 90,000- kilometre fibre-optic cables to boost connectivity in the country. He said that the project would commence in October.
‘By the time we’re done with the project, it’s going to be either the third or second longest fibre-optic network on the African continent, somewhere between what we have in South Africa and Egypt. And this is a project that will start in October,’ Tijani added.
Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi, said the inauguration of the framework would open a vista of opportunities for start-up hubs across the country.
He said:’ Today for me marks a remarkable milestone in our journey of making innovation evenly distributed in Nigeria. We know innovation doesn’t happen in isolation; it happens in an ecosystem, and that ecosystem also doesn’t happen by accident; it happens by design.
‘But to design it, we need to be intentional about it. In some locations it happens organically, but in some other locations we need to make some effort to make it happen, and to do that today we are here to socialise the national innovation hub standard framework.’