Govt lauds appointment of Taylor as COT scribe

THE Federal Government has commended the appointment of a Nigerian, Shola Taylor as the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) and urged Taylor to use the position to mobilize international support for effective and accelerated implementation of its National Broadband Plan.

Speaking at the Commonwealth Broadband Forum, which held in Abuja, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communication Technology, Tunde Olaokpa said the development is exciting for Nigeria considering that the appointment came at a critical time in the implementation of the National Broadband plan.

He said, “We are expecting that he will use his position to mobilize international support to ensure that the implementation is accelerated. Sola Tailor has been an ambassador in the international ICT space and was in contention for a whole lot of positions and is now rising to his Zenith. We have a sector that has developed and made significant contribution to the economy”.

In an interview with journalists, the newly appointed CTO Scribe, Sola Taylor urged President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to address the issue of broadband and cyber security with strategy in place.

He also called on the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to accelerate the process of digital migration, stressing that the process has been too slow.

He said: “We need to do that so that the children are adequately protected. We want to ensure networks are secured, ensure emergency communications, expand infrastructure. We need to build on the regulatory framework in place and make them attractive to investors.

Taylor noted that every country has its challenges to meet their broadband target, stressed that while in the course of rolling out broadband, it is imperative to reach out to people in the rural areas and ensure high speed connectivity across the Commonwealth.

He called on NCC work to ensure quality of service and that those providing services do so according to agreements with which they were licensed.

Also speaking at the event, the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah said that Nigeria would roll out the broadband ecosystem as soon as possible.