Menu
The Honourable Minister, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani has announced the approval of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to facilitate the delivery of 90,000km of fibre-optic cable, complementing Nigeria’s existing connectivity infrastructure and deliver a stronger national backbone for universal access to the internet.
Dr. Tijani made this public yesterday following the extended Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. According to the Honourable Minister, the increased connectivity will help plug the current non-consumption gap by connecting over 200,000 educational, healthcare and social institutions across Nigeria.
“Over the last few months, we have put in extensive groundwork to set up this SPV which will be modelled in governance and operations similarly to some of the best Public-Private Partnership setups in Nigeria, such as NIBSS and NLNG,” said Dr. Tijani while making the announcement.
“Working with partners and stakeholders from the government and private sector, this SPV will build the additional fibre-optic coverage required to take Nigeria’s connectivity backbone to a minimum of 125,000km, from the current coverage of about 35,000km. Upon delivery, this will become Africa’s 3rd longest terrestrial fibre optic backbone, after Egypt and South Africa,” he added.
“Working with partners and stakeholders from the government and private sector, this SPV will build the additional fibre-optic coverage required to take Nigeria’s connectivity backbone to a minimum of 125,000km, from the current coverage of about 35,000km. Upon delivery, this will become Africa’s 3rd longest terrestrial fibre optic backbone, after Egypt and South Africa.”
The Honourable Minister went on to highlight the immediate benefits of improved internet connectivity to include increasing internet penetration in Nigeria to over 70%, potential reduction of the cost of access to internet by over 60%, inclusion of at-least 50% of the 33 million Nigerians currently excluded from access to the internet, and delivering up to 1.5% of GDP growth per capita – raising Nigeria’s GDP from $472.6 billion (2022) to $502 billion over the next 4 years.
This approval, which aligns with the Infrastructure pillar objective of Dr. Tijani’s Strategic Blueprint, represents one of the groundbreaking initiatives approved for the Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Federal Secretariat Complex Phase I,
Annex III, Shehu Shagari Way,
FCT Nigeria.
P.M.B. 12578
© FMCIDE 2024, All rights reserved
Kindly fill out the below and we shall keep in touch with you.
Error: Contact form not found.
