Government licenced six slots to broaden broadband penetration, says Shittu

The Federal Government has licensed six slots of the 2.6 MHz Spectrum for the deployment of 4G-LTE services in its efforts to broaden broadband penetration in Nigeria.

Also, processes have commenced for the licensing of broadband services on the 5.4 GHz spectrum bank and allocation of 70/80 GHz band (E-Band).

Minister of Communications, Mr. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, who disclosed these at the opening of the 4th National Council on Communications Technology in Kaduna, said though broadband penetration in Nigeria has reached 20.95 per cent, while the percentage of Internet penetration has reached a milestone 47.44 per cent, making Nigeria second in ranking in the African continent, there is the need to increase Nigeria’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of $38 billion.

The minister noted that the ICT sector could be re-engineered to expand the frontiers of its contribution towards facilitating Nigeria’s early exit from recessionary economies.

According to him, ICT innovation and entrepreneurship and the broadening of investment opportunities is one of the key avenues for increasing generated revenue in any economy, Nigeria not an exception.