The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani
File: The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani.
Each tower would provide connectivity to communities with between 5,000 and 10,000 residents.
The Federal Government has said at least 200 new telecommunications sites will become operational before December as part of a nationwide infrastructure project expected to connect more than 20 million Nigerians currently without adequate telecom services.
The 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 in Abuja.
Tijani said the sites were part of the government’s plan to deploy 3,700 telecommunications towers across the country, particularly in underserved and unserved communities.
“Before December, at least 200 of those sites will be active,” the minister said.
He explained that each tower would provide connectivity to communities with between 5,000 and 10,000 residents, putting the potential reach of the entire project at more than 20 million people.
“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.
According to him, the project followed a directive from Bola Tinubu to extend telecommunications services to communities that remain disconnected from the country’s digital infrastructure.
Tijani said the first tower under the programme had been deployed in Kura Village, outside Abuja, while work had also commenced in the Niger Delta.
The minister added that the government was investing in a 90,000-kilometre fibre optic network to expand broadband infrastructure and improve internet access nationwide.
He also disclosed that Tinubu had approved an upgrade of Nigeria’s communications satellite to extend coverage to areas where fibre optic cables and telecommunications towers could not reach.
“For places where fibre cannot reach, where towers cannot reach, NIGCOMSAT will now be able to reach those locations,” Tijani said.
He said the contribution of the Information and Communications Technology sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product had risen to about 21 per cent from between 16 and 18 per cent when the administration assumed office.
Tijani said the government should aim to increase the sector’s contribution to 25 per cent, stressing that greater connectivity must be supported by digital literacy, cybersecurity and stronger 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 and helped create 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 NDPC had generated over N12bn in revenue within three years, while Nigeria’s data privacy and protection ecosystem was worth more than N18bn.
According to him, the commission’s virtual privacy academy had onboarded over 66,000 Nigerians, while more than 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, from fewer than three office spaces at NITDA to about eight in Maitama, 26 in Asokoro and its new headquarters with about 56 office spaces in Mbora District, Abuja.
