By Emmanuel Elebeke

Dissatisfied with the snail speed at which broadband penetration is going in the system, stakeholders in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), have urged the Federal Government to expedite action creating the enabling environment that would spur faster deployment of the needed backbone infrastructure for increased access to broadband.

The stakeholders  made their position known at the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum 2015 held in Abuja recently.

They regretted that Nigeria has been lagging behind in terms of exploring her full potentials due to inadequate access to broadband internet, which they say could leapfrog Nigeria into super power in innovation and invention of technologies.

According to them, what Nigeria need is broadband access to transform the economy into prosperity by ensuring that every Nigerian have access to broadband internet.

With broadband, they say, every citizen can actualize his dream and get almost everything done.

President of Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, Engr. Lanre Ajayi, while speaking on the issue lamented the poor penetration rate of broadband in Nigeria, saying that the current 70 per cent internet and 10 per cent broadband penetration is unacceptable to ATCON and called on government to eliminate all the bottlenecks that militate operators from attaining the 30 per cent set target by 2018.

On NCC new regulatory guidelines

The ATCON President said, NCC has a job to do in ensuring strict compliance to the rules by operators, emphasis should not be more on punishment but on creating the right environment for operators to invest and deploy services.

“I would rather think that it is beneficial to Nigerians to create the right regulatory environment for operators to deploy services than to emphasis punishing these operators. There could be infringement, and it may not be wrong to punish operators violating the rules. The important thing here is that punishment should not be the major tool to be used.”

30% broadband target by 2018, doubtful

On the plan to achieve 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018, Ajayi expressed doubt given the present snail pace at which the country is going but said the dream can still be realized if government would heed to their call.

“I have my fears about the plan to achieve 30 per cent by 2018. The plan was between 2014 to 2018. At the time the plans were being made, broadband penetration was at 6 per cent, now it is merely 10 per cent.     I doubt the realization of 30 per cent in 2018 looking at the pace we are going. It will be very difficult except something changes drastically.”