By Nnamdi Ojiego

To achieve the right penetration and make broadband accessible to all, there seems to be a unanimous view of stakeholders in the ICT sector that Nigeria should have a digitalized economy.

They however said that to have a digital economy, the country also needs the right bandwidth at the nooks and crannies of Nigeria and across Africa.

The stakeholders including the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telephone Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo; President, Nigerian Internet Group, NIG, Engr Bayo Banjo; CEO, Internet Solutions, Steve Herridge, Group Chief Executive Officer, Globacom, Mohammed Jameel; CEO, MainOne Cable Company, Mrs Funke Opeke, Telecom Lawyer, Mr Wale Jones; Group Head, Information Technology, Access Bank Plc, Mr Peter Iwegbu, Representatives from Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, among others, gathered at the Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi, Lagos last week, to deliberate on the way forward with internet in Nigeria.

Part of their panacea for moving forward with internet included collaboration, synergy and partnership amongst the telecoms infrastructure players. For them, the players with strength in last-mile connectivity should collaborate and partner with those who have International internet gateway cables.

In his contributions, the Group Head, Information Technology, Access Bank Plc, Mr Peter Iwegbu, financial institutions expect more collaboration, Synergy and partnership amongst the Telecoms Infrastructure players to boost their services. “We want in-country last mile Fibre availability to branch offices upcountry; last mile internet access to extend the capacity from the landing points to the nooks and crannies of the country; multiple paths to the same location to ensure uptime during outage on one path”.

Iwegbu’s topic was “Tailor-made Solutions and Investment for Financial Industry”, and he stated that his sector wanted the telecom operators to make available internet reliability, cost effective/ capacity, connectivity, among others, which would lead to effective electronic payment system in the country.

School students on the internet ......Positive use is important

He said: “Availability of Internet access to homes at affordable cost will further deepen E-payment adoption in Nigeria. Bundled access such as Voice+ Video + Internet to homes will drive E-payment transaction at retail level”, he explained stating that Nigerian banks have opened subsidiaries within Africa and beyond, which has made it necessary for intra-country last-mile connectivity in these countries.

He however, accused service providers of being too “techy” in approach and not service oriented. According to him, network providers have only succeeded in providing huge bandwidth at the various submarine cable landing points in Victoria Island, But there was no last mile to deliver traffic to upcountry end-users, necessitating the bandwidth being scarcely used.