Victor Ezeja…As Buhari Launches National Policy
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President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that the Federal Government will not hesitate to take advantage of opportunities offered by the Fifth Generation technology when fully deployey in the country in addressing various issues affecting development and the economy and wellbeing, including security, education, healthcare and much more.
Buhari who stated this on Tuesday while launching the National Policy on 5G for Nigeria’s Digital Economy, directed all the security institutions to immediately leverage the 5G when deployed to enhance security in the country.
Speaking on the benefits of the 5G technology, the President noted that it can support virtually every sector of the economy, including enhanced connectivity, improved healthcare, support for education while fostering smart cities, and boosting agriculture, among other advantages.
“It will also support security institutions with real-time communication.
“5G technology is significantly faster than earlier digital technologies and it provides near real-time communication. This can play a key role in boosting our efforts towards enhancing security across the nation.
”It will enable our security institutions to effectively deploy robotics, autonomous vehicles, augmented and virtual reality to address any security challenges that we face,” Buhari stated during the launch of the policy.
The President explained that the National 5G Policy includes a deployment plan to ensure that major cities across the country benefit from the technologies.
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According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari said the policy, which is in line with the commitment of his administration to supporting the digital economy as an enabler for the diversification of the national economy, also seeks to make 5G a major driver of the economy, a catalyst for smart cities in the country and a platform for the creation of jobs that support digital economy.
He, therefore, assured investors that the Federal Government would continue to provide an enabling environment for their businesses to be very successful as Nigeria begins the roll-out of the technology.
The Nigerian leader directed the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, to supervise the implementation of the Policy, being done by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) with the support of other government institutions.
He recounted that the journey to the launch of the 5G National policy started with the launch of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy in November 2019 as well as the launch of a number of policies to strengthen the digital economy, including the Nigerian National Broadband Plan and the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector.
According to the President, the Information and Communications Technology sector played a vital role in enabling Nigeria’s economy to swiftly exit the recession that was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
”The GDP Report of the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the ICT sector was the fastest growing sector in the fourth quarter of 2020 and entire year 2020, recording double-digit growth rates of 14.70 per cent and 12.90 per cent respectively.
”The sector also recorded a 17.92 per cent contribution to our GDP in the second quarter of last year- this was its highest ever contribution. All these impressive and significant achievements have justified our efforts to support the growth of our digital economy.”
It would be recalled that the 5G policy was approved at the Federal Executive Council meeting on September 8, 2021.
Describing the process of developing the National 5G Policy as ”painstaking, inclusive and focused,” Buhari recalled that 5G trials commenced in some selected locations in November 2019.
”Multi-sectoral stakeholders then deliberated on the report of the trials to ensure that health, security and other concerns were effectively addressed in developing a policy that suits our country.
”The National 5G Policy will position Nigeria to harness the potentials of 5G technologies to further develop the economy and improve the indices of well-being in the nation,” he said.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy affirmed the sector has recorded unprecedented achievements with increased remittances to the Federation Account, resolution of lingering issues in the industry and successful auctioning of the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum for the deployment of 5G technology.
He thanked the President for the consistent support to the sector, announcing that within two years the Federal Government completed 1,667 ICT-related projects.
”As at August 2021, the sector remitted over N1 trillion to the Federation Account and this is unprecedented because the usual remittances is around 200 billion annually and this has been increased substantially,” Pantami stated.
On the spectrum auction for the 5G, Prof Pantami explained that from the reserve price of N75 billion per spectrum, each spectrum was assigned to the winners at the price of over N250 billion per spectrum.
The Minister expressed confidence that given the experiences from other countries and available research, Nigeria would derive maximum benefits from the deployment of 5G technology.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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